Hi, my name is Ian and I am based in the UK. I have been running with minimalist sandals for about 2 months now and barefoot for about a month. I first started with Xero Z trails, which I found pretty good. But due to the smooth sole, I found that my feet were forming calluses instead of tougher skin. So I then tried walking my dog twice a day barefoot which had the effect of rubbing the calluses down so that my feet started getting more leather like rather than hard. This very quickly led to me trying out barefoot running. I am now at the point where I can run about 15 miles in the sandals and do one 5 mile run barefoot a week. I can now run on smooth and rough tarmac without any problems and I am now no longer bothered by small stones. I understand that I am only just starting out, so I still walk my dog barefoot and can now walk fairly well in the woods, on gravel and on wood chip. I have been doing this in the hopes of toughening my feet up and learning how to place my feet in a controlled and safe way. I tend to do 2 runs a week in sandals, 2 in shoes and 1 barefoot at the moment. I will be slowly extending the distance I run barefoot and also taking different routes just to mix things up a bit. I have had a few aches and pains in my feet but for some reason I’ve found that they are normally caused by tight calfs. Which after a quick massage the aches disappear. At the moment I have found that this works for me, but if anyone can see any glaring omissions or have any advice for me, then please let me know. I hope to get some useful info from the forum and slowly progress in barefoot running to the point that I am happy to run races. I run Ultras at the moment and did a 100 miler last year and will be doing a continuous 250 miler next year with a 100 hour cut off. Thanks for reading