I was ready to dismiss barefoot running as a fad.
When my runner friend D. recommended I read ``Born to Run'' by Christopher McDougall, I was skeptical. A Washington Post review of the book said McDougall suggested that running long distances without shoes is a key to health, happiness and longevity. It's like suggesting that living without clothes and electricity would fortify our immune systems. It would more probably get us arrested and a pneumonia.
It turned out the book isn't just about running barefoot. Almost halfway through it, there was no reference to ditching the shoes. It's about fascinating people who all run extremely long distances, wearing sneakers, sandals made of strips of tire rubber, or, indeed, barefoot.
I couldn't put the book down until I finished, and when I did, I went running on a Cape Cod beach: barefoot....  To read more and to see other blogs, click on the link to your left.