In Vibrams

I believe in barefoot running. After reading "Born to Run" (and if you are among the 5% of runners who have yet to read it, I strongly recommend it), I became intrigued with the idea of barefoot running. Meaning, unless I am running on a beach or AstroTurf, I will never go completely naked below the ankle, but I'm willing to get as close as possible. I had seen the famous "FiveFingers" shoes before when I was still in high school and wanted to try them. After I mentioned something to my cross country coach, I was surprised he share the same interest. He didn't own a pair but really enjoyed the few pairs of the Nike Free's he owned.
So fast forward 7 years and a semi-impulse buy, I am now a proud owner of Vibrams. I do own light weight running shoes already but I will be the first to tell you, nothing is like Vibrams. The first time I left on a run I felt like I forgot something back home. As I headed down the street, I had many perplexed looks at my "Smurf Blue" feet from passing cars and I couldn't help but smile.
The first mile and half felt awesome and my foot landing was completely altered but it felt normal. Muscles in my calves regular shoes don't seem to call on were triggered awake. I felt great and just as I was thinking I will be fine to do the last 800m of the 2 mile loop, the cramping set in. I knew I would be sore, but that didn't even begin to describe the feeling. For the next 3 days my calves were in knots and walking down the stairs became a striving effort.
I will continue to do short runs till I can build up to longer mileage and would recommend nothing longer than a mile for a first timer. It's hard to describe what it feels like to run in Vibrams only that I can say you have to try them to know.
For more information on barefoot running, first read "Born to Run" and then a simple 'barefoot running' search in Amazon will return sufficient suggestions. Happy running :-)