In December 2009, I ran a Cross Country race with Chris McDougall, author of “Born to Run,” after listening to a speech he gave about barefoot running.  He told the crowd that they would be injured less if they ran barefoot.  He mentioned how children run barefoot, and they don’t ever sustain running injuries, and that it is our shoes that cause us to become injured.

McDougall showed up that snowy morning to race, sans shoes, and braved the elements.  I was wearing Nike LunarRacer’s at the time, and was less than sold on the idea of running barefoot through the coyote-infested trails of Penn State in the snow.  I left my shoes on, but slowly transitioned from my bulkier shoes to minimalist shoes.

I recently bought my lightest, fluffiest pair of minimalist shoes to date — Saucony Kinvara.  They are adorable, and even more so after I replaced the white laces with hot pink ones.   At every race, people would comment on my sneaks.  I’d boast how light they were, how comfy they were…All good things.

I ran the ING Rock ‘N Roll Philadelphia Half Marathon in them and had the most incredible race experience.  After completing that race in minimalist shoes, I even toyed with the notion that barefoot running could be for me…Until I woke up the day after my half marathon with absolutely crippling pain in my left foot.

I may be born to run, but I am not born to run barefoot.

I visited a Sports Medicine doctor who took xrays and discovered my injury was bad but was not life threatening… and by life threatening, I mean that running is my life so any injury that kept me off my feet would would not be good… at all.  He told me to stay off of it for a while, ice it, blah blah blah.  Then, he made me get up and walk and informed me that I was an “excessive supinator.”  I thought at first that meant I was some sort of superhero, but what it means is that I roll off the side of my feet when I run…or walk.  It’s just the way I take my strides.  Unfortunately, with no support, this causes injury to the peroneal tendon.    He ended the appointment by telling me that wearing minimalist shoes when you are a supinator is a recipe for disaster.

When people talk about barefoot running, they never mention you have to have flawless running form.  Had I known, I probably would have avoided injury.  Sure, everyone nowadays is reading “Born to Run,” and wanting to run barefoot.  So, naturally there are going to be more injured barefoot runners when there are more barefoot runners in general.  But, my thought is that if you are prone to get injured in shoes, switching to barefoot running, though tempting, will probably only make matters worse.  If you are not injured a lot wearing shoes, there’s no need to switch to barefoot running, and if you do, you should first make sure that you are born to run perfectly.