Sometimes the Feet Do Fail Us Now
A few years back, during the height of the barefoot running trend, you could see joggers with no shoes on their feet coming down the sidewalks of New York dodging dog shit, broken glass, gobs of spit, and other nasty street substances.
The jury’s still out, but some studies have shown shoeless running can reduce injuries. And of course, there have been great barefoot long-distance runners, including Olympic gold medalist Abebe Bikila and South African Zola Budd.
We prefer to keep our kicks on when pounding the pavement, but can’t help but salute anyone committed enough to get their exercise while stepping on all the scary crap — literal and otherwise — you find on the pavements of our fair cities.
But you shoeless runners? Marathoner Irene Sewell of Chattanooga, Tennessee, drinks your milkshake! She looks at your bare dogs slapping the sidewalk and thinks, That all you got? Talk to me when you’re running 26.2 miles in three-inch heels.
Sewell’s not the first woman to complete the distance wearing spike heels, but she’s now the fastest, by two minutes, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
Along with her stilettos and badass attitude, she added only Band-Aids for blisters, thin insoles, and wraps for her calves, while covering the course in 7.5 hours.
Following advice from a podiatrist, she didn’t do long training runs in the heels but rather donned them occasionally. She credits years of ballroom-dancing for giving her a leg up (sorry) when it comes to click-click-clicking for multiple hours without wiping out. Or dying of pain.
We hope a world-class foot masseuse waited at the finish line. And hey, if you ever see a woman in athletic wear jogging down your block in Louboutins, don’t call the men in white coats until you have more information. She might just be hoping to dethrone Irene.
