Step 1: Step away from the couch

I took Roxy out this afternoon for our first "real" run of 2 miles (well, really only about 1-1/2 miles running and the rest walking)! My goal is to run with her in the 5k Dog Run in March, a race for dogs & owners at Fort DeSoto.  That gives me 3 months which seems like a reasonable time frame to acclimate fully to running barefoot. Hey, maybe I'll even be ready to run the 10k by then! At least that time of year should hopefully still be somewhat cool.

As for the run today, it went amazingly well. Of course, Roxy never breaks into much more than a trot running alongside me but it does keep her focused (e.g., not chasing cats) and she does seem to be calmer than usual now.  It wasn't as difficult as I'd expected for me either. The hardest part is getting over feeling self-conscious that (1) I have no shoes on and (2) I am running in a way that feels so different.  Now I feel pleasantly sore when I get up from sitting and the bottoms of my feet feel slightly tender after a couple of pine cone patches but that's it.  Of course, I might be singing another tune tomorrow morning but I think I was ready for something slightly longer. And who knows how far I've been running in the mornings with the dogs at the park already? Maybe that 10k isn't so far-fetched after all.

Whoooooo hoooooo. Me? A runner?