Eric's first trail run in KSO 5 Fingers in Houston

By Justin Owings on Jan 7, 2010 | In User Stories | 1 comment »

Eric takes his brand new black and orange KSO FiveFingers for an introductory spin in a local Houston trail. Nothing like a good mud coating to break them in!

Justin -

Love the site. Got my V5s for christmas after my wife wouldn't let me open them for weeks. I'd been running barefoot in the gym on the indoor track for a few weeks getting ready. Took them out for a 5K on Christmas day, came back with the dreaded fore-arch blisters. Nothing a little duct tape couldn't handle.

The attached pic was taken just after my first trail run in the KSOs at Memorial Park in Houston, right before I hosed them down at the dog/bike wash.

The last mile on the loop is on a fire-road on the utility / rail easement. Over the last several wet months, parts of the road have become virtually impassible in shoes due to standing water/ruts. The KSOs, with a little trepidation of what broken, improvised former water crossing materials may lurk beneath the brackish surface, took the mud in stride.

Also, I should add that I was initially a little bummed that I didn't think my Suunto Footpod would attach to the KSOs. Even though that kind of telemetry goes against the barefoot/minimalist grain, I considered writing Vibram to request they add some kind of fabric loop to the top of the shoe in future models. But then, after some experimenting, I realized that you can simply velcro the holder clip into place when fastening the shoe, and then snap the pod in over that. Voila! Metrics On!

Keep up the good work.

Eric

Eric, good to hear you finally got to experience the wonderful world of Five Fingesr. And glad you braved the muddy road and made it safely to the other side. Mud can make for interesting experiences in VFFs (e.g. mud surfing!).

Also, good to hear you figured out how to make your Suunto Footpod work with your strap. Others have used similar methods for attaching the Nike sensor.

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 754 articles and 302 comments.