Two years before this photo was taken, if you had told me that I would be crossing the finish line of my first half marathon ever, I would have thought you were a damn lunatic, let alone that I would be doing it barefoot.
Long story short, always loved running, always struggled with injuries. Did a lot of research about good running form, minimalism, and barefoot running, and decided to give it a shot. Ran in minimalist shoes for a while before finally deciding to give the barefoot thing a shot for one year. That summer, I ended up finishing a 5k race, several 10k races, a 7.77 mile race, and finally a half marathon, all done barefoot.
This half marathon was in September of 2012, and I have only been running on and off since then because of injuries (some old and some new) re-appearing due to over-training (got WAY too ambitious after my half marathon finish). Still love running more than anything and am taking the necessary steps to address my injuries so that hopefully I can get back into it again, with the ultimate goal being to finish a full marathon barefoot.
I will never, ever forget the amazing experiences I had running barefoot that year that ultimately lead to me crossing the finish line of that half marathon, and to this day it is definitely one of my proudest accomplishments.
-Evan
