I have run before, but its always been uncomfortable, which didn’t make it fun, but I was determined to do it for exercise. Last year, I joined a local running training group for both social and prepare for a half marathon. It was fun being able to meet people through running at my speed. I was told many times to shut up because I liked to talk when I run.

After my first half marathon, my feet hurt for about a week, something I attributed as a badge of honor. Needless to say, the rest of me hurt too, which lead to a week or two of recovery. I started training for my next half marathon (SJ Rock n Roll).

It was on long run (11 miles) that I was having major problems with my shoes and therefore my feet. I was wearing the right socks, hydrated, and even baby powdered to keep sweating under control. At mile 10, my feet felt like they were in a perpetual sauna. I took off my shoes and with the pain of the blisters just started to walk. This is what I will say was my eureka moment, which people will speak of years from now.

I started a light jog to finish the last mile, all while barefoot. Please forgive me if this sounds exaggerated, but this was the single greatest feeling my feet had ever had from running. There was no soreness from shoes, no rubbing to create blisters, and most importantly my feet could breathe. I received many worried looks from my fellow runners as they feared my safety for the possibility of stepping on something sharp.

There was no outside influence for minimal running for me. I had no idea where to begin about doing research or starting my journey with minimal running. I proceeded to do the half marathon, as trained, in my normal running shoes. I had a faster time, but the same reoccurring problem, my feet hurt like hell afterwards.

The great event that came from the half was when I saw two men wearing VFFs. As soon as I saw them, I walked over and did the Q&A that many of us have been accustomed too. One question that I did ask though was why they had switched to them and there answer was my driving force to purchase my first pair of VFFs shortly after.

After recovering from my second half, I did my research for the VFFs. Normally I can be an impulsive guy, but having to actually consider changing some habit that you have been doing for years is a big decision. It took me about two weeks to decide to buy a pair, and then another two weeks to actually find a place that was selling them that wasn’t sold out.

My first pair of VFFs were brown KSOs, or gorilla feet as many of my friends warmly referred to them. The first night, I made the tragic mistake of going for a nice 5 miler. It felt great, until the next day where my foot felt like it was dying. The muscles in my foot were not just aching, but trembling with what I can only describe as a tight pain. I could feel every bit of my foot through the soreness.

This when I discovered birthdayshoes.com and brought the question in the forum of what was wrong. The current theory is the your feet have muscles that don’t get used much because a normal running shoe does quite a bit of stabilization for you. Your foot now has to stabilize your whole body and absorb the impact of running.

The transition took a lot longer than I had hoped. The first month my left foot hurt the most, the second month my right foot hurt. I believe that it had something to do with favoring/compensating on a single foot.

For the next training program, I showed up my first day in my Vibrams and received the greeting of odd looks, questions, and doubt of the purpose of this shoes. My running coach was not a firm supporter, arguing that I would do more harm than good. I gave my reasoning and said that I would just try this one training program in them.

I’ll skip the description of the training runs, though if you run in SF you’ll know that there are some great scenic routes even in the city. What I would like to discuss is my progression with the shoes.

My neutral standing and walking feet position are very duck like. My feet form a nice comfortable v-shape. I’ve tried for years to mentally correct this problem. This has always made my run look odd, and from what I told, inefficient.

Running in the VFFs never hurt my feet like original running shoes. I did get soreness from my calfs though. I’ve attributed this to heel striking, which my body took a while to get use to. My solution to the soreness was getting a sports massage for the trouble areas, which always resolved the discomfort.

I had to effectively teach my body to run and land on the fore front of my foot. Many people who talk about running barefoot often discuss running on their balls of their feet or toes. I’ve tried training myself for this and it just doesn’t fit correctly with what feels natural. I’ve found that my foot strike is in the balls of my foot with some mid foot. I’ve had no complaints and don’t think that I will be switching my foot striking.

While training, the down hills took quite awhile to become accustomed to. My feet felt they were taking a beating, not in terms of pain. The comparable feeling is after a good gym workout you feel sore and pumped, now imagine that feeling in your feet, only your feet have no muscle, yet.

For this half marathon, I was not aiming for a PR, I just wanted to finish. The run went through SF Golden Gate Park and down the great highway. The first 9 miles the pace was speedy, road comfortable, and down hills felt great, and then I reached the Great Highway.

This is a stretch of road that follows the Pacific Ocean in San Francisco. A great view, with beaches, water, and sun, but the road is old and weathered. It was uneven, in disrepair with holes in the pavement, and just uncomfortable to run on. This caused me discomfort, where I had to walk a good portion of the road. The last mile I manage to run, but it was only because it took me off the Great Highway. I still manage to get a decent run time, but I look back on this experienced and realized that I was still relearning to run again in the Vibrams.