In July of 2009 I turned 30. I was 6 feet tall, weighing in a 206lbs and was in what I thought was pretty good shape. I had a wife, little baby boy, and a busy job at a major corporation. I had a lot of things on my plate but was missing something.
I had been trying to run for the past several months and couldn’t do to massive knee pains in my left knee that would start at the outside of my ankle and travel into the outside inerds of my knee…My whole life I had been pretty athletic but never ran over the mile they made you do in P.E. class every year. I would get winded from walking groceries from the car to the house or when I had to climb a couple flights of stairs quickly at work. I tried to play that stuff off, but inside it bothered me. I thought there had to be something that would make feel as good with my physical health as I felt with my emotional health.
So in August of 2009 we were in Newport, RI meeting up with my mentor and friend, who had moved away a couple years back. He looked great. He was running a bunch of miles and seemed happier than ever. I told him about my inability to run but that I really wanted to…I told him about my visit to the Sport Med Dr and the MRI and the “Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome” diagnosis and the things I thought were crap…His response blew my mind away,
“Run barefoot then…”
Those words changed everything. This blog is my journey of trying to find the joy in running that I know exsists. If you are new here, please read from the archives to now to follow my journey.
