I was given a reminder today of the fact that moving body parts don't like stationary pavements. About a quarter of a mile into my longest run in FiveFingers to date, I fell over. It was a slow motion moment, where the big toe of my right foot didn't pick up enough, stubbed into the ground with the rubber sticking firmly to the tarmac, and the momentum of my body flung me forward in a sort of awkward 'fall to press up' move. Sadly, it was my knee that continued it's forward motion, leaving me with a nice scrape (which will look lovely with my 'on the knee' evening dress that I'll be wearing tonight!).
As I recovered and ran on, bravely, as if I'd meant to do a quick press up en route, I pondered some barefoot running theory that I've learned over the past months. Firstly, that included watching a video explaining about how your foot should meet the ground and perfectly equal your forward motion, so that the impact and the contact is as gentle as possible. Secondly, I recall reading (Ken Bob, I'm sure) about how it helps to flex the toes upwards as your foot falls to the ground, thus spreading the toes and balls of the feet before your body weight forces them to spread. This can help avoid friction. This would have certainly helped avoid stubbing my toe, too.
No real damage done, thankfully (just my pride!). It's the first time I've ever fallen over, shod or otherwise. It would surely have hurt an awful lot more had I not had my FiveFingers on, but the question is this - would I have fallen at all if I hadn't been wearing them as there would have been no rubber toe to stub.
A good run though, and by far my farthest in Classics to date - 3.85 miles.
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