Success!

I bit the bullet and did it. I bought a pair of Vibrim five finger shoes. 

Yes, I know they look ridiculous. Yes, I know that any pants/capris/shorts that I will ever want to wear with them will look ridiculous. Yes, I secretly make fun of myself when I wear them - so please feel free to do the same. 

Buuuut, then, when I am wearing them, they are great! I have never been a big fan of shoes, so these are exactly what I need. It seriously feels like I am barefoot but I don't have to worry about stepping on something my barefoot wouldn't like. See, it's the best of both worlds. All it took was getting over a little bit of pride and sense of fashion (wait...do I even have one of those?). They are totally worth it. 

Today I went for my first run in them. I successfully completed just over 2.5 miles in about 25 minutes...which is great time for my first real run* in probably over two years. Everything about today's run felt great. My calves feel like jello at the moment though so we'll see how it really went come tomorrow. Apparently it takes very different muscles to run barefoot. I do think I am in a lot better shape than I expected though. 

*Real Run: running consistently without stopping to walk or running out of motivation part way through. Or just plain justifying walking because if I don't have to expend the energy, then why do it? Right?

So, you may be asking now why did I buy new running shoes if I haven't completed a real run in a real long time. Well here it is: I have been wanting to start running again for a while now. My old shoes (the ones I got just post half marathon - Fall 2009) were done for. I couldn't even complete a shift at work without them hurting me. A couple weeks ago, I decided I was going to do it and bought the shoes. Today, I bought new running clothes. Now I have no excuses - these purchases need to be justified. I even have a goal to work towards: The Dirty Dash on June 2nd. After today I feel like it is sooo doable! And who knows - maybe we'll even works towards a Tough Mudder.