Snow, ice, rocks, the smell of fresh pine, bright blue skies, soaring mountains, and the soft sound of Five Fingers running. Yep, that pretty much sums up my enjoyable Christmas Eve run in the San Gabriel Mountains between Los Angeles and Palm Springs. It was my first opportunity to run in the snow with my Vibram Five Fingers. The run was nothing short of spectacular. Well, except my toes ended up pretty much frozen after 3 miles and 1,300 feet of elevation gain.

I recently finished reading the incredibly eye-opening and delightfully inspiring book Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall. In it, Chris introduces us to Barefoot Ted, a big man with a big mouth and an equally big heart who used to have terrible foot pains that crippled his running ability. He began to walk without shoes [...]