Today was my second barefoot run. I had finished my first interval and was 35 seconds away from my second when a cyclist slowed down next to me and asked if I had read Born to Run. We spent about 5 minutes squeeing over the book and comparing efforts to run barefoot. She was biking because she overdid her second barefoot run and had several blisters and a blood blister. Yow! It was fun to compare notes and have that visual recognition and kinship with someone. Other than librarians (we are an odd lot) the only other group I've had that sort of instant affinity for are ex-pats in Japan. I taught English in Japan from 1994 - 1997 and since foreigners were fairly recognizable, it was easy to seek out fellow 'gaijin' and find an instant rapport with someone.
While no one said anything to me on my first run, I had three commenters on my lack of footwear today. Bike chick, a dog walker (don't stub your toe!), and another dog walker (doesn't that hurt your feet?). Yes, I'm running barefoot because I'm stupid/into pain/ignorant of the availability of footwear. Take your pick. Duh. Of course, I now have a small blister on my left forefoot (about 2/3 the size of a dime). It's not big, and it's several layers deep so I'm not worried about it popping, but this means that I will definitely be wearing my vffs on my run on Saturday. I'll be visiting my dad and stepmother in Colorado, so it's just as well that I will be shod - I have no idea what the roads are like and if there will be sidewalks or not.
All in all, today's run was great. My breathing was awesome and my speed was pretty much as usual - slow! But I got it done and feel physically great and that little psych perk-me-up that says I did what no one expects me to do, and all before 8 am!
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