Looking at my feet

This is where a photo of my feet would go, if I hadn't realised that my old card reader doesn't read the cards from my current camera... So next time, you will get your Simon's Feet photo.  And it will be glorified through Picasa, to make the feet look almost hallucinatory.

Gorilla foot...this is how I envision my feet evolving

But for now, I will begin with what I just read on the QI feature on feet that is on the Telegraph website:

A South African study in the podiatry journal The Foot, in 2007, studied 180 modern humans from three different population groups (Sotho, Zulu, and European) and compared them to 2,000-year-old skeletons. The researchers concluded that people had healthier feet and posture before the invention of shoes. The Zulu, who often go barefoot, had the healthiest feet of the modern humans. 

(from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/qi/8404696/QI-Quite-interesting-facts-about-feet.html)

This quote ties in pretty well with what I was going to talk about in this entry:

Everyone's been asking me about why I would decide to go barefoot.  

Isn't it dodgy on my ankles, as I don't get the ankle support that I would normally get in shoes?  

BE CAREFUL OF BROKEN GLASS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  

Won't I get frostbite?  

Sure, it's kind of understandable to run cross-country without shoes on, but tarmac isn't made for me to go barefoot on!  

I'll get HARD FEET!!  

Won't I be called crazy if I venture outdoors with no shoes on?

My experience with this barefoot project has been very different as of late compared to how I represented it in my first couple of entries.  

1. Firstly, I've cut back on the running.  I've neither found the time to go running (getting up at 5am has been a huge challenge, and I have failed to do so on almost every day since we began trying to get up at 5am...), and nor have I felt that I feel comfortable to be running yet.  I had my hip x-ray'd at the RUH today, and I should know the results of this in about a week.  And my feet are still only hardening up - I think it would be a bit foolish of me to be running around on soft feet.  This has led to me walking lots, barefoot.
2. So I've been walking loads barefoot.  I go to peoples houses barefoot; I go into shops barefoot; I get the bus barefoot; I go to uni barefoot (although I've been putting shoes on before going to lectures/seminars).  My feet are my new play-thing.  And I've been exploring using them on different grounds.  For instance, last night I went to the skip of a charity shop that I know throws out lots of fascinating stuff.  But the skip is round the back of the shop, and I have to go down a fairly bumpy bit of road where there was plenty of shiny stuff (shiny stuff is always quite scary as a barefooter, because of the whole glass idea..).  I was treading more flat-footed at this point, to spread my weight more so that if I did hit some glass it would be less likely to pierce my skin.  Anyway, I must've crunched at least 10 bits of glass under my feet in this very short walk down this 10 metre stretch of road, and none of the glass pierced my feet.  Moreover, my feet felt very refreshed after these fairly sharp steps along this road.  There were plenty of those small stones that seem to just pick themselves into your toes or the arch of the foot, which can be quite painful.  But really, it's like receiving a painful massage: it helps the muscles unless it tears them apart.
   
   
   
   Coloured gems on the famous 'glass beach' of California
   
   Also last night, I started to walk with my head up towards the sky.  The sky was beautiful.  My feet hit no glass, just a few of those dodgy little stones.  But it felt really liberating to take my eyes off of my feet.  Have you ever tried walking with your eyes closed for more than a few seconds?  I did this on the beach back home when I was last there - I planned to walk all the way to the sea without opening my eyes.  This was on Old Hunstanton beach, which is massive, it takes about 10 minutes to walk out to the sea on a good day anyway.  I ended up opening my eyes because I was confused... But anyway, the feeling was the same when I walked on the beach with my eyes closed as when I walked last night with my eyes away from my feet.  It is definitely one of my goals for the next few weeks to be able to walk/run barefoot without feeling that I need to be constantly scouting out the ground in front of me.
   
   
   
   Old Hunstanton beach
3. I'm now more interested in the spiritual benefits of walking barefoot than of the physical benefits.  Sure, taking off my shoes allows me to feel the impact of hitting the ground in the wrong way (heel-first is definitely the way of destroying your hips and knees...).  But it is much more important than that.
   I have found myself on a number of occasions to be walking in the centre of town, and losing myself amongst the hustle and bustle.  Since taking up barefoot, I've begun to strip down my feet when this happens, and put my shoes and socks in a bag.  A few minutes of walking barefoot seems to radically clear my head.  It grounds me.  I feel connected to the earth, and I feel light and freer.
   
   So I don't want to rush my barefoot running training, as I still have absolutely plenty of time until the half marathon, and would rather find the spiritually best time for me to get into running more properly.  Perhaps when my feet have hardened some more.

On a strange kind of end note for this entry, there is apparently Biblical citation of Jesus encouraging his apostles to go about their business barefoot.  It says in Matthew 10:10: 

'Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purse, Nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves.'

Jesus Christ, the barefoot shepherd