People's reactions when you run

Yesterday while running in Key West a kid said to his parents:
"Look at the weirdo, BAREFOOT!
Never mind that for Key Wierdness I'm just a drop in the bucket, but he found me comment worthy.
Later on I overheard a group of clean cut girls talking about their day's run, so of course I chatted them up. I was barefoot and eventually told them about our group etc. One of 'em said "Oh yeah, we saw one today. He was a really fit looking guy running in just shorts and a do-rag" I'd had a beer or two already so in the sunny wind and record low temp for the day I had to pull off my sun hat revealing my bandanna and lift up my four layers for a quick flash of the abs .
As if that was'nt a big enough "Your the guy!" moment, a few days ago a lady asked me wernt my feet cold . It was 47 degrees F in Key West, I was wearing my down vest over a fleece. Talked a bit about CIVD and she said that up north there's a guy in her neighborhood that runs barefoot in the cold.
Yep, turned out to be one block away!
 
Had one fellow on Saturday look at me in disbelief and said "barefoot?", as I was walking into a bowling alley. Mind you it was about -40C with windchill (only had a short walk from parking lot to the lanes). My daughter who was a few steps behind me said to the stunned fellow that her mom at least made sure I was wearing pants.

edit: I always have flip flops in the car if it looks I have a longer walk ahead of me in arctic like temperature that we have been having out this way.
 
That was enough to start a few minutes' conversation about barefoot running and it turns out this guy is a doctor at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. He has a book coming out on March 31st which he says talks a lot about the benefits of barefoot running but he doesn't believe it needs to be done all the time. I look forward to reading the book.
Here's a little more about his book!
 
A collection of memorable comments this morning:
"Awesome! I wanna try that" from a group of twenty-somethings
"You have to be fricking kidding me" shortly after I trotted passed a guy labouring up a hill in motion control shoes.
"Wow! It's early in the year for you to be out like that" from someone I was not aware I'd ever seen before.
 
Was running with my two youngest girls Friday. They were barefooted (and you may recall they are 18 and 21 years old), I was in my Luna's. One mid aged fellow was walking the opposite direction, slowly, from a sidewalk about 30 feet off to the side. I think we had passed in on the way out. He kept glancing at us in a perplexed way. I finally looked over at him and called out, "Just taking the kids out for a little run!" He answered in a tentative drawling out of the words, "Let's... just.. say, it's.. been interesting..."
 
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As an add-on to my last post on this subject on February 2nd about people's reactions when you run barefoot I want to say this - Just before Xmas my right leg from mid thigh to mid calf swelled considerably with the knee almost twice the size of the other leg and was painful as heck. I let it rest and tried the short run in February - that immediately resulted in more swelling and pain. I have no idea why the problem occurred - didn't twist anything, don't remember twinging anything. Even now I can comfortably join fingers and thumbs around the bottom of the left knee with both hands- but have about 1/2 inch gap on the other.

Here's the irony of the whole situation - I wear Bermuda shorts to work - so my legs are always unhidden. I can honestly say that now I have had more comments on one leg being bigger than the other than I ever had about running barefoot! How's that for a switch?
 
I run a lot at night on a treadmill since I'm a third shift worker so I don't see people a whole lot. But I ran the Princess Half down in Florida a few weeks ago and it was hilarious. I got everything from a nice guy offering me a pair of socks since he was worried something happened to my shoes and socks (this was only at mile 2-3), to a few ladies IN shoes having a LOUD discussion about the benefits of running barefoot somewhere right behind me, and a few dozen people both telling me how awesome it was and asking me how I could possibly run that way. It as worth running with only one earbud when around mile 9 I heard a lady from somewhere behind me extremely loud and in a pitch only girls can reach squeal 'Oh my gosh... she has no shooooooes'. On top of everything else (and the troop of men dressed up like different princesses) I almost fell over laughing.
 
i had my clinic final at school today so that means dressing nice and wearing shoes. the security guard is always making fun of me for walking around bf. don't worry, we pick on each other. i called him oreo a couple times. so he see's me coming out of the Student Assessment Center with shoes on and says something. i do a little dance then act frustrated and kick my shoe off. instead of flying at him i flung it up on the roof. doh! i had to get maintenance to retrieve it for me. the guard said the school would expel me instantly for climbing on the roof.

as i got my shoe and was walking to another building bf a clinic doc saw me and asked if i lost a shoe. i said "yeah, and it's right here in my hand". she laughed with me. or at me i don't really know. either way is fine.
 
I live on the coast, in Portugal
along the "fishermen trail", a 7 day trail with awesome landscapes in a national park

on that blog : http://www.liwl.net/trilho-dos-pescadores-dia-1-508517
written by hikers from Lisbon the capital, you can read :

"quando passa por nós um tipo a correr descalço, em calções e tronco nú, com o ar mais feliz do mundo. não sei o que é que ele andou a tomar, mas naquele momento não me importava de ter um pouco do mesmo :D"

or " a guy passed us, running barefoot with jeans and no shirt, looking like the happiest guy in the world, I dont know what kind of drugs he was taking but I wish I could try a little bit of it :)"

go barefoot my dear !

and the picture :
https://www.flickr.com/photos/isacosta/16742803137/
(I'm on the right side, little me)
 
Saturday as I was walking across a gravel parking lot at the golf course I was asked by a golfer whether I had lost a bet and therefore had to walk barefoot across the gravel parking lot carrying my clubs. My reply was that I had won the bet. He then asked what would have happened if I had lost, to which I replied that I would have had to wear shoes that day, and that would not have gone over well by me. As I left the club house he was still standing there trying to figure it all out. :D
 
I was walking around the city center barefoot this afternoon where there are offices and stores. A man came by and told me to be careful. I replied that I was always vigilant of what was on the ground. He said he was a member of the security team for the complex and pointed out that there were homeless people who left all kinds of things on the sidewalks of the city. He said the things he saw were worse at night and that I should be careful.

Earlier, I was waiting at the corner to be picked up after dropping off shirts at the cleaners. A lady crossed the street and walked within a foot of me while staring down at my bare feet. She didn't even try to be discreet.
 
i went on a hike after school on thursday. people kept commenting to me. a couple of cute girls made some comments and my friend fell in love with her. i asked him if he's going to start going bf now since he saw the attention i received. he said he'll start.
 
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