Today is the day that I made public, thus now officially have to follow through with, my resolution to run soley barefoot/minimalist for the entire year of 2011. Why? Because I can. I have always taken pride in being unique and doing things outside of the socially accepted norm.

For me the craze began the first time that I saw an advertisement for Vibram Five Fingers. To me, everything about them totally made sense from first sight. It took months to convince my husband that I was serious about wanting a pair of those "ugly gorilla-feet-looking" shoes. Seeing them in person, it took even more convincing that we should buy a pair of the grey and lime-green ones and wear them in public. He reluctantly shelled out the $80+ (Ron Horn discount at Flying Feet Shoes - thanks Ron!!!) and to thank him I wore them at McDonald's immediately thereafter. A girl around 10 years old told me that she liked my shoes. The adults mostly avoided my gaze.

One pair was not enough. The Bikila's were fine for fair-weather running, but I "needed" the KSO Trek's for cold weather. So guess what I asked for as a birthday present. He has since come to terms with my obsession, so I found myself the proud owner of a pair of size 36 Black KSO Trek's. LOVE them.

If two is good, then three is great! No, I don't have three VFF's...yet...but I do own a third pair of "minimalist" shoes thanks to a certain popular running magazine and the local athletic club that I belong to, the Pagoda Pacers (http://www.pagodapacers.com/). I was lucky enough to wear-test the Merrell Pace Glove before they are even released yet! I like them well enough. The blister on my heel will keep me from running more than 4 miles in them again any time soon though. But at least they are more socially acceptable in public!










And that leads me to my new project. Barefooting. Purist style. NO shoes . Why I get such an idea in 30 and below degree weather I do not know. But the weather is not my only challenge in this adventure. Having received an ipod nano for Christmas from my son, Jayme, I figured I would take advantage of the pedometer feature and track my miles. This led me to the Nike+ website (http://www.nikeplus.com/) which led me to the Nike+ challenges which after discovering there weren't any barefoot challenges invoked the rebel in me to create a barefoot challenge (named it Barefoot Blue +) on the Nike+ website which really left me with just one problem - where to put the Nike+ sensor....

I created the challenge days before deciding to try true barefoot running, so I already had a solution for my minimalist shoes...a shoe pocket. It worked okay with the VFF's. It was a little more accurate with the Merrell Glove's presumably because it was strapped down a little better with laces than it was with the velcro strap on the VFF's. But if I am going to log all of my miles toward the Nike+ challenge then I don't want to waste any miles. Therefore, I am working on how to attach the sensor to my bare foot. Why? Because I can. Here is a pic of my latest attempt.

Well, now that I have revealed my insanity, I would like to invite you to follow me this year as I venture outdoors barefoot (in general this term will be used interchangeably for no shoes as well as with the use of minimalist shoes as is reluctantly mostly agreed upon as acceptable use of the term in the barefooting world). What activites will I barefoot in you ask? I am looking forward to a 5k in February, a 10k in March, a half-marathon in May, training runs with the Pagoda Pacers, hiking at Hawk Mountain, Mountain Biking at Blue Marsh, and who knows what else.

Life is an adventure.