When I was in high-school I used to run on the cross-country team. It was a way for me to train in the off seasons between baseball and wrestling. Eventually I actually became decent recording my fastest 5k time at around 19 minutes, which translates to about a 6 minute mile pace.

It was never easy and I never enjoyed it.

I remember starting every race without imagining what it would be like to finish it. I simply put one foot in front of the other and kept pace with a buddy until I could see the finish line - then I would sprint across it like a mad man and puke my guts out.

I kept it up a little bit in college but over the years simply gave up on it. I think around 5 years ago I was still able to run at an 8 minute mile pace. Eventually though my knee began to hurt when I ran. Without a doubt my pains are a result of years of playing tennis aggressively. There was a point when I was playing almost daily that I couldn’t imagine there being a ball that I wouldn’t try to track down and return. One day though something clicked and since then there wasn’t a hitting session or run that wouldn’t end with my knee swelling up and me being barely able to walk for a day.

I asked a doctor what could be done. He looked at my knee and determined that there wasn’t anything toren but there was a build up of cartilage that would require surgery to remove. His advice: give up tennis - it simply wasn’t worth going through surgery when my knee was only aggravated when I played tennis.

As you could imagine this didn’t sit well with me - after all tennis is something that I love. It did force me to evaluate what exactly it was about tennis that caused my knee to hurt. My conclusion was that it was caused by the constant pounding, starting and stopping that occurs during tennis - all of which is felt by my knee. Tennis shoes have an immense amount of padding on the heel which only encourages you to drive your foot harder into the ground.

The more my knee hurt that more I hated myself for not running over the years. I missed the days when I used to be able to fly across a field faster than the wind. Now the very thought of it would cause my knee to ache.

My running stride in the past has always been very long. Where each stride I would drive my heel into the ground and bound off of it like a deer. I used to want to replicate the covers of running magazines that I saw when I was a kid. Running shoes by their very nature encourage this type of stride despite how un-natural it is. Try it for yourself - take off your shoes and go run across a field. You will find that you will naturally land on the balls of your feet.

The human foot is the result of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and yet a couple of decades of marketing by shoe manufacturers have convinced people that it is flawed and that they should be corrected. It was this line of reasoning and the book Born to Run that lead me to buying the craziest looking shoes that I had ever seen - Vibram Five Fingers.

I had put off buying a pair for well over a year. First because they aren’t exactly good looking, and second because I had a perfectly good pair of running shoes. The selection of these expensive running shoes were the result of going to a running store and having my stride recorded and analyzed so that I would have the perfect running shoe for my feet. Compared to any other shoe that I had ever had - running in these felt great. The only problem though is that whenever I ran fast, I would go into my comfortable stride that involved driving my heels into the ground which would lead to my knee hurting and me regretting my decision to run.

The basic point of Vibram Five Finger shoes is to replicate what it is like to be barefooted while still having the excellent traction and durability of a Vibram sole. I went with the KSO (keep stuff out) trek model. Vibram makes a model that is geared specifically towards road running, but I wanted something that I could take on trails while still looking some what inconspicuous. The average VFF has wild colors that I think most VFF enthusiasts appreciate because they love the attention that they bring. I just wanted to be able to run pain free.

It has been about 10 days since I got my pair of VFF. During that time I have logged 21 miles and ran more consistently than I have ever before - or been able to in the past. It feels awesome to wake up and actually want to be able to run again instead of dreading the pain that would follow.

My stride has changed drastically. I have been trying for the past year to run on the balls of my feet, but VFF make it so much easier. Instead of long strides I now take short, quick steps that land below my center of gravity rather than in front of it.

The result of this new way of running is that my stride is way more economical than it used to be and my dropping 5k time is proof of it. I now feel like I can run longer and faster than before. Best of all my knee doesn’t hurt at all after a run or even a weeks worth of runs. I have gone from running on average 15 miles a month at the beginning of the year - all which ended in pain - to over 50 this month alone.

I have years to make up before I will be able to run at the speed that I ran in high-school but thanks to Vibram Five Fingers I feel like it is possible that I will be able to. As an added bonus in the last month I have lost 10 pounds as a result of running again. I still have about 20 pounds more to go until I reach one of my goals of the year of getting down to 160 but thanks to my new found love of running I am feeling lighter and healthier than I have all year.