a setback for the barefoot running movement

On the way home from a run through the arroyo the other day my left shoe was tap tap tapping along with each stride. This is a pretty common occurrence as little sticks and rocks and such often get wedged in between the lugs of the sole. (I wonder, do souls have lugs?) I didn’t feel like pulling out the offending stowaway so I just continued home. It wasn’t until the next day that I examined the sole of my shoe before a run to pick out any debris. (I actually had a great collection of these sticks and rocks and seeds that I’d brought home in my shoes until Hil finally made me throw them out. Now they’re part of the garden.) And right in the middle of the heel there was a stick wedged in. Not wedged so much as speared. Not even between the lugs but just right through the flat part of the sole. My fingers and hands happen to be pretty adept at holding on tight and tool-lessly turning, pulling, or otherwise wrangling tidbits away from their captors. If you ever can’t get a knot untied, come to me. But I couldn’t for the life of me move this stuck stick even a bit. I had to resort to pliers to get this spike out of my shoe – this one-inch wooden spike. Do you know what that would feel like going into your bare heel?!