Where these soles have led me

This is me

Hiking Wallace Falls 

Ten months out of the year I work at an infant to kindergarten inclusion school. The other two months of the year I spend my time exploring new places, skills, and information. 

A few years ago (3 years ago?) this led to a cross country bike trip. My husband and I traveled 3,045 miles in a 50 day period. We camped all but a handful of days, carried all of our own gear, got ridiculous tan lines (or burn lines in my case), and raised money for livestrong. 

The route we took

Now we're not cyclists. As a matter of fact, until a few months before that trip neither of us even had bikes to use. Just the ambition, some time, and the ability to ride a bike. We wore tennis shoes and t-shirts. It was a pretty good time until Montana. Northern Montana anyone? No thank you. 

Route 2 in Montana is 666 miles long. Enough said.

The following year our son was born.

Over the next year after that I taught myself how to knit. Then I taught myself how to dye yarn.

I now sell knit goods online on the side as a way to support my hobby. I mostly sell wool pants that are made as cloth diaper covers. 

If you're interested, I have a facebook page set up here. 

This year I've done two polar bear plunges, and gone sky diving.  

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Recently, I've taken an interest in running. I played sports when I was younger, but I have never been much for running. I've said plenty of times that I hate running. I always obsessed too much when trying to get into running. Time, breathing, speed - blah. I was intrigued when I saw Vibram Five Fingers at REI one day and really liked them, despite my life long aversion to things between my toes.

So I got a pair and started jogging. Not only that but I was actually enjoying it.

Naturally, once I find something new I want to know everything about it. Dr. Google to the rescue!

On my information quest I came upon the book Born to Run. I got a copy, read it and had that Aha duh running epiphany... why did it matter how fast or how far I ran. 

After reading more online about the benefits of barefoot running I was sold on completely changing my lifestyle to incorporate either being barefoot or in a minimal shoe. As a child I had flat feet, had orthotics, and my feet constantly hurt. I was always bound to my shoes to use the orthotics in order to keep from having shooting pains in my arches, over correction of my knees to make up for my ankles falling in and a cascade of other aches and pains from my ankles to my back.

Sometime in my teenage and adult life I stopped wearing shoes all the time. When barefoot I learned to walk mostly on my forefoot, which led to less need for an arch, and less pain from not having one. Without me realizing it, in a few years I had accomplished what a lifetime of orthotics couldn't I had an arch (even if it is just a small one). Of course, I didn't realize this correlation until my recent exploration into the world of barefooting.

I got a little over exuberant in my new found life and found myself with a little case of sore peroneal tendons that I've been resting up since.

    

I'm likely going to get a pair of not-quite-minimalist shoes with my transition to make it a little smoother. I'm going to continue jogging barefoot (I've decide to ditch the Vibrams, at least for now) and have a pair of Luna Sandals waiting at the warehouse to be picked up.

(( Lunas were a win win for me. They were running a sale, and they are local. When I was first looking to get a pair of Unshoes and I still might in the future - but Lunas ended up cheaper with the discount code and no shipping fees. I also ordered a pair for my son. ))

So join me (and my feet) on my adventures this summer around beautiful Seattle and it's surrounding areas as we adapt to our new found unshod freedom and lifestyle.