Huaraches

Over the holidays, I read Christopher McDougal's book, "Born to Run." where he exposed me to the Tarahumara Indians of the Copper Canyons of Mexico. These dudes run incomprehensible distances in brightly colored knit skits and sandals if anything on there feet. I have been interested in minimallist footwear and this was another avenue worth exploring. I did some research and they are constructing these sandals, called "huaraches," out of old tires with leather straps. A couple hours later I had my own pair.

I cut the paper thin soles off some Sperry Topsider house shoes and glued on some vegetable tanned leather cut to the exact shape of my foot. Then, It was laced with 1/4 Latigo strap leather. After a few modification and one complete rebuild, I was able to run a mile in them.

I've had them for 2 weeks and am up to 7 miles. So far, each time I run, I have to "Goldilock's" the strap tightness for the first 1/10th of a mile then, there is no rubbing at all. The strap does wear lightly in between my toes. This is the only setback keeping me from doing some real distance in these. I believe that gradual use will eventual callous the skin in between there and thus this will be possible.