Okay, so maybe it's not so fabulous when you actually live here, but it sounded good 
.
I'm Rob and I'm a barefoot runner. This sounds like an AA meeting all of a sudden, doesn't it?
Anyway, here's a bit of my story. I used to run a lot in high school (I was on the soccer team), including a nightly 5-miler between my junior and senior year. At the beginning of each soccer season I'd get mild shin splints, but they'd always go away. Fast forward about 7 years, including 7 years of a desk job (I'm a web developer by trade), and I wanted to take up running again. I started running 2 to 3 miles and absolutely hated it the entire time, and ended up getting shin splints so bad I was forced to give up running completely. During this time, I paid about $300 for custom orthotics, had a shot of something (I forget the name, but it starts with a 'D') from my podiatrist to help with the pain, and went to a specialized running store, where I was videotaped running on a treadmill and sold some fancy "motion control" shoes for my overpronation problems. After buying the new shoes and orthotics, I actually got shin splints even worse than I'd ever had them!
Two years later (about 3 months ago), I decided it was time to start running again, so I started running a hill that we have by our house and for the moment didn't have issues with shin splints, but I knew they'd pop up again and I was dreading them, since I had decided it would be my last shot at this whole running thing. Well, one morning I was at the top of the hill resting (it's about a 900 ft. ascent) when I got to talking to a guy wearing a pair of old Nike Free 5.0s. I was familiar with the Frees, and wanted to buy some, as I had read the article years ago by Chris McDougall which was basically a preview of Born to Run. By this point however, I had forgotten about the book and about the whole barefoot concept in general, until this guy reminded me of them, talking about how much it changed his life. So, since I was going on a week vacation to the beach a couple weeks later, I bought the book, planning to read it while I was there. Needless to say, I dug into it before we left for the vacation, completely changed my running form (became a forefoot striker, rather than heel striking) and, most importantly, learned to run for fun and enjoying it instead of dreading it as some form of torturous exercise. At this point, the only running shoes I had were my old "motion control" Sauconys that I hated, so I started running in them. Needless to say, when running with a forefront strike, these just ended up making my knees uncomfortable, so while we were on vacation I picked up a pair of Nike Free 3.0s and was blissfully on my way to enjoying running. I still had small bouts of shin pain as I learned the proper form (I hadn't gone barefoot yet), but I was on the right path.
So here I am 2 months later, and I'm running either barefoot, or in my Free 3.0s, MT-100s (for trail running), or Vibram Bikilas (about once a week, easing my way into them). I've ran one 5K in my Bikilas and loved it, and I'm planning on a 10K this month (November) in them. I've ran long distances in them (at a 10-minute pace) so far and been fine, but I haven't ran long distances consistently (more than once per week), so I'm pacing myself. I'm well aware of TMTS...luckily, I've always loved being barefoot so I rarely wore shoes, except when I was running....I'd even go barefoot at work by kicking off my flip flops.
So here I am now, thoroughly enjoying running, becoming borderline addicted to it (maybe this should be a support group after all?), and running my first half marathon in December (the Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Marathon, December 5th), where I'm planning on hitting a sub-2:00 time.
.I'm Rob and I'm a barefoot runner. This sounds like an AA meeting all of a sudden, doesn't it?
Anyway, here's a bit of my story. I used to run a lot in high school (I was on the soccer team), including a nightly 5-miler between my junior and senior year. At the beginning of each soccer season I'd get mild shin splints, but they'd always go away. Fast forward about 7 years, including 7 years of a desk job (I'm a web developer by trade), and I wanted to take up running again. I started running 2 to 3 miles and absolutely hated it the entire time, and ended up getting shin splints so bad I was forced to give up running completely. During this time, I paid about $300 for custom orthotics, had a shot of something (I forget the name, but it starts with a 'D') from my podiatrist to help with the pain, and went to a specialized running store, where I was videotaped running on a treadmill and sold some fancy "motion control" shoes for my overpronation problems. After buying the new shoes and orthotics, I actually got shin splints even worse than I'd ever had them!
Two years later (about 3 months ago), I decided it was time to start running again, so I started running a hill that we have by our house and for the moment didn't have issues with shin splints, but I knew they'd pop up again and I was dreading them, since I had decided it would be my last shot at this whole running thing. Well, one morning I was at the top of the hill resting (it's about a 900 ft. ascent) when I got to talking to a guy wearing a pair of old Nike Free 5.0s. I was familiar with the Frees, and wanted to buy some, as I had read the article years ago by Chris McDougall which was basically a preview of Born to Run. By this point however, I had forgotten about the book and about the whole barefoot concept in general, until this guy reminded me of them, talking about how much it changed his life. So, since I was going on a week vacation to the beach a couple weeks later, I bought the book, planning to read it while I was there. Needless to say, I dug into it before we left for the vacation, completely changed my running form (became a forefoot striker, rather than heel striking) and, most importantly, learned to run for fun and enjoying it instead of dreading it as some form of torturous exercise. At this point, the only running shoes I had were my old "motion control" Sauconys that I hated, so I started running in them. Needless to say, when running with a forefront strike, these just ended up making my knees uncomfortable, so while we were on vacation I picked up a pair of Nike Free 3.0s and was blissfully on my way to enjoying running. I still had small bouts of shin pain as I learned the proper form (I hadn't gone barefoot yet), but I was on the right path.
So here I am 2 months later, and I'm running either barefoot, or in my Free 3.0s, MT-100s (for trail running), or Vibram Bikilas (about once a week, easing my way into them). I've ran one 5K in my Bikilas and loved it, and I'm planning on a 10K this month (November) in them. I've ran long distances in them (at a 10-minute pace) so far and been fine, but I haven't ran long distances consistently (more than once per week), so I'm pacing myself. I'm well aware of TMTS...luckily, I've always loved being barefoot so I rarely wore shoes, except when I was running....I'd even go barefoot at work by kicking off my flip flops.
So here I am now, thoroughly enjoying running, becoming borderline addicted to it (maybe this should be a support group after all?), and running my first half marathon in December (the Rock 'n Roll Las Vegas Marathon, December 5th), where I'm planning on hitting a sub-2:00 time.
