Ken Bob’s Foot Injury!!!

Running Barefoot website maintenance

Good News!

Besides the fact that my foot is recovering fairly quickly after a hopefully minor injury on 2014 May 31 Saturday – no more sharp pains, except when I bump my foot on things in my home – There is good news. I am off work for the months of June and July. I had no travel or race plans for the summer (other than the free Boeing 5K on the second Monday of each month, which I will miss today, and probably in July). I had already planned on relaxing and working on stuff around my home, shooting some instructional videos of barefoot running, and doing some website maintenance, reorganizing, and redesigning – anyway

Well, I won’t be able to do as much with my plans to work on stuff in my home (rebuilding my computer nook), or videos of me running, so I now have a few (or several) weeks to relax, sit at my computer (with my foot elevated), or lay in bed with my notebook computer, and work on this website!

Website Maintenance

Over the next several weeks, you might notice some subtle and not-so-subtle changes on this website:

Stuff to do on Ken Bob’s Orginal Running Barefoot website (established 1997)

1. Removed “Mingle Forum” which was mostly SPAM from shoe advertisers
2. Disable user registration (normal users were only necessary for the Mingle Forum)
3. Remove regular users (contributors, authors, editors, and administrator are added manually by the administrator)
4. Merge excessive number of “categories” for posts
5. Add more “tags” and organize
6. Change website “theme” (mostly cosmetic, but should help with navigation)
7. Add posts from older versions of the Running Barefoot websites (left out during previous upgrades, redesign throughout the millenia)
8. Add more pictures.
9. Add more videos. (editing is time consuming – at least to satisfy me)
10. etc.

The Injury

Ken Bob’s Injured Foot!!

Okay, so first of all; Yes. My foot is injured. And Yes. I did injure it while running barefoot.

“OMG! That means that barefoot running must be bad, right?”

After running barefoot at least occasionally, for my entire life (I’ll be 59 next month) This is the first injury that happened while running barefoot that I considered serious enough to have it examined by a doctor.

If we all believed that any activity that resulted in an occasional (every 50 years or so…) injury was “bad” and should never be done, then we would never do anything! We wouldn’t be able to drive cars, walk down the sidewalk, get out of bed, go to bed, take a bath or shower, eat, drink, sleep, run down stairs, run WITH SHOES, etc…

Re-Injury of Damage while Running in Shoes

Now that said, yes I injured the foot while running barefoot, but technically it is a re-injury of an injury incurred while running in shoes 24 years ago. In 1990, 2 weeks before my wedding, I was racing a friend down the stairs at work. When I got to the bottom, I made a quick turn, and twisted my ankle. I did not go to the hospital, but it was obvious (from the fact that I could barely walk) that I had a serious sprain or something. By the way, did I mention I was wearing shoes at the time? I was wearing shoes at the time. In fact, those shoes having a reasonably thick sole, as most running shoes do have, increased the distance between the contact with the floor and my ankle. This created a longer lever, which put more torque on my ankle. I can’t say that I wouldn’t have turned my ankle had I been barefoot… but, I can say that the force would have been a bit lower, and perhaps the injury less severe.

So anyway, by the time of my wedding, 2 weeks later, I was able to walk, with a barely perceptible limp. But, there have since, been times when my right ankle hurts in the same exact location as the original injury. So anyway, this weakness, which makes it difficult for me to run in shoes, has only been a minor hindrance while running gently barefoot (and while barefoot, it is obviously advisable to run gently, to avoid immediate pain on the soles from running with too much force).

Twisted Ankle, Bruised Foot

Well, anyway, on 2014 May 31 Saturday on one of my regular runs, I was running quickly down hill on a slopped trail, and my weak right ankle twisted. The ankle was, surprisingly, not hurt. But my foot hurt pretty badly. I was not able to run, though I was able to walk, very gently, and carefully the 1.5 miles back home. When I got home, and showered, and ate, and started to rest, the foot swelled up and I could see it was badly bruised.

On Monday, I called my doctor’s office, but he was on vacation. My foot was already nearly 50% better. So I made an appointment to see the doctor on Thursday. The doctors (my doctor and a resident doctor) examined my foot, and sent me to get X-Rays. I walked across the medical center campus to the imaging lab.

Still waiting to hear from the doctor about the X-Ray… I suspect, if it shows any bone damage at all, it will mostly be scarring from the original injury.

Links

• Ken’s Broken Foot: 4 week update
• Surf City Run 5K