People's reactions when you run

Let me know when you are coming - maybe we could meet up.

Chris was the first BF runner I ever met to run with. He was great and tracked me down in my hotel after some confusion on my part. I still look back with much happiness on that run through the park with him. -3 or 4 years ago, it was...my how time flies!

(Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like an old banana. -G. Marx)
 
Chris was the first BF runner I ever met to run with. He was great and tracked me down in my hotel after some confusion on my part. I still look back with much happiness on that run through the park with him. -3 or 4 years ago, it was...my how time flies!

(Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like an old banana. -G. Marx)

Wow. What community this is!! It's so great that you support each other in the pursuit of BF running. Thanks!! I have loved Central Park since I was a little kid though I doubt I ever played there bF'd. My next goal will have to be a run.
 
... A trend or movement, maybe?


In my opinion we'll never be more than a left side pinkie toe nail on the greater body of runnerdom, or as I prefer to think of it, the elite of the elite! I think it's just a case of economics - we aren't about to blossom into a major new market for sexy shoes or anything else, really.
 
Unfortunately the better and more experienced you get, the more you seem like a freak of nature doing something inaccessible. From what I've seen, barefoot running went from being an activity of a few eccentric nutters to somewhat cool in 2010, when it hit a temporary peak. Incidentally that was when I was in my best shape so I was riding that first wave. Then many of the initial people who read Born to Run and tried barefoot/minimalist running became disillusioned and moved on to other things and barefoot running became less cool again. But in the wake of that, there is a larger group of eccentric nutters doing it now, and a lot of them have been doing it for a while now and are getting pretty good. Now there are quite a few barefoot runners around who can hold their own with the shoe crowd, but still not enough for it to seem like a real movement unless you look on-line. There are still only one or two in any given town. Even I wonder WTF I am doing sometimes, and I've been at it since 2003. I keep doing it anyway though. It's nice to be good at something, although there are self-identified barefoot runners running way farther and faster than me now. Barefoot Alex (both of them), Julian, Mark Cucuzzella, etc. People running a zillion marathons and million-mile races and breaking the sound barrier and whatever. There are books and videos too. A lot of them are kinda cheezy IMO but it's also cool to see this happening. So I'm not even as special as I used to be, but I'm still a barefoot running guy wherever I go. It's cool that now that people know it can be done, people seem to get good much faster now.
 
I have always liked being barefoot. Bare foot running has given me an outlet for being barefoot outside of home; though I too have been socialized to think the poor person, the hippie, or the nutcase goes bare foot outdoors or in public. So being barefoot in a physical activity like jogging makes me think it is more socially acceptable and easier to explain. Running or jogging, I also can't spend time observing others to think about their reactions so I can just ignore them. Health-wise, outside of the pains of conditioning previously underused muscles, barefoot running has strengthened my legs and feet and I attribute the loss of 15'lbs to the increased activity BF running has motivated me to undertake.

Finding BRS has given validation to what I am doing knowing that others find being barefooted is useful and enjoyable. It is nice to know there is a community of similarly minded folks out there even though I like being the oddball in my neighborhood.
 
To digress a little more...

I caught a few minutes of 60 Minutes a few weeks ago and the article playing was about meditation. They showed people at a retreat center very consciously sitting and slowly chewing their food. Then they showed Anderson Cooper consciously WALKING! very meditatively and slowly. I was reminded of myself going through an area of fresh crushed stone...only he had shoes on and much cooler hair.

(I tried to paste a picture of him here but it doesn't seem to want to stick.)

Truly, I feel that my running, when I'm in tune with myself, is a meditative act.
 
For the past week or so, I've been jogging with the dog that I am sitting while his family is away. We were out for a mid morning jog and saw lots of people on Christmas Day. One mom asked if my feet were cold, while her kids were saying hi to the dog. I said I had gotten used to it. Maybe it's me but I thought people found it easier to look at the dog rather than look at my bare feet. Dogs and babies are people magnets. LOL
 
Drive by shouting must be a new bi-coastal phenomenon. Running along Lake Merritt in Oakland two hours ago, a young woman passenger stuck her head out of the car to say "BARE FEET!" I waved back at her.

Women seem to be more open minded about it.
I've never gotten a scowl, odd look, incredulous or flippant comment from a female while out hiking, only smiles, thumbs up or questions of genuine concern or curiosity - are you cold? does that hurt?, etc.
 
Running through Central Park to work this morning I came up on, and passed, a runner who caught up to me and said "Cold enough for you to be wearing shoes today?" 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.