Today was the 5K!
I ran with them, semi-bandit. One Mom thought she had to register her kid again so Diane told her to go get a refund. Diane was left holding the bib and pins, and rather than try to find a garbage can I just sort of figured.....you know.....
shhhhh......!! Don't tell ANYBODY in that other thread!
Of course Diane and I ran barefoot, but only one of her girls did.
It seemed pretty obvious that the parents being present had everything to do with that.
Last fall it was in a huge park, this time it was smack in the middle of an old downtown that's making a real comeback as a hipster hang-out. Openly gay mayor, dozens of bars and shops, cupcake store, no shortage of coffee houses or Yoga studios, fixies parked in the street....you know. Unfortunately the local young folks take their own party to the streets, so not surprisingly early Sunday morning there was plenty of fresh glass scattered about the staging area. The parents would have freaked enough at the idea of their daughters running barefoot, but with all the broken glass and cracked up asphalt from this record setting cold and snowy winter it would have been a hard sell. Of course not a scratch between the three of us.
Over 4,000 girls total! Plus all the parents and sponsors, incredibly I only got stepped on maybe twice.
The good news is that this is not a running crowd, but a random sample of folks. They really have never heard of the barefoot running concept, and for the most part were amazed but positive regarding our feet.
If today was any accurate indication, the future for acceptance of bare feet whether just out and about in public or while participating in outdoor sporting activity looks bright for barefooters to me.