I ran a Warrior Dash today. It's a 5k+ with obstacles and copious amounts of mud. I ran it with my wife and another couple we are great friends with.
This was my fourth time run, and for the third time I used water shoes to limit the extra weight regular shoes pick up from mud and water. With a little added sole, it's been quite comfortable.
Today, my shoes failed me. About halfway through, the soles began to come loose, get slippery, and make agility impossible. After about ten minutes of struggling, I pulled off the shoes and ran barefoot.
Carefully.
But it worked. I ran up and down hills, completed a balance beam over water and various other challenges. For the balance beam, I almost tried the shoes again, but found I was actually more secure barefoot!
As educators, we often fall back on old reliables- lessens that we've done for years, strategies and activities that we trust because they've always worked.
Until they don't.
Then we are faced with a choice- keep trying to run our race with "shoes" that don't work anymore, or take "barefoot" risks on innovative new endeavors.
I hope you give it a shot. Take off those shoes. Give barefoot running a try because it just might work better than your old way. At least for this time. And even if you don't always do the new way, at least you know you can, or are open to new ideas.
Will I run my next Warrior Dash barefoot in its entirety? Not sure.
But at least now I know it's an option.
