Sometime in my first year of barefoot running I had a relatively serious injury. I stepped on the sharp edge of a broken stick. I immediately felt excruciating pain and nearly fell over trying to keep pressure off the site of the injury. I lifted my foot and saw the stick still embedded in the arch of my foot. I pulled it out and saw a rather large wound. I was about a mile from my car. Getting back was a walk that seemed to take forever.
Fortunately, the wound was not serious enough to require more than a good cleaning and bandaging, but walking was difficult for several days. I had come to a point where I decided, I either needed to learn to deal with this possibility of injury or give up barefoot running. Not willing to go back to running with shoes, I contemplated how I could run and hope to avoid serious injury.
My solution was to trust some part of my sub-conscious to know where and how to place my feet. I resolved to be more mindful of scanning the ground, but also, to not try to consciously avoid obstacles. Did it work? Maybe. I have not had such an injury in the 16 years since that moment. Maybe, I've just been lucky, or maybe there really is a part of the brain that knows how to guide my feet to step safely.
Fortunately, the wound was not serious enough to require more than a good cleaning and bandaging, but walking was difficult for several days. I had come to a point where I decided, I either needed to learn to deal with this possibility of injury or give up barefoot running. Not willing to go back to running with shoes, I contemplated how I could run and hope to avoid serious injury.
My solution was to trust some part of my sub-conscious to know where and how to place my feet. I resolved to be more mindful of scanning the ground, but also, to not try to consciously avoid obstacles. Did it work? Maybe. I have not had such an injury in the 16 years since that moment. Maybe, I've just been lucky, or maybe there really is a part of the brain that knows how to guide my feet to step safely.
