At the risk of being accused of blowing smoke up my own ass, I just wanted to share some personal experience with like-minded individuals and hopefully offer some encouragement as I in turn have been encouraged. I also thought I would kill 2 birds with one stone rather than posting in new member introductions...
I started barefoot running last September at the same time as starting to run ultras, and set myself a silly goal of trying to break the 2 Guinness World Records for barefoot running, ie Fastest 100km Barefoot and Farthest Distance Barefoot in 24hours. It's been a steep learning curve, but to my wife's amusement I broke both records at the Sri Chinmoy Australian 24 hour Championships in Sydney in June this year, recently accepted by Guinness (100km was done in 11h17mins and I continued on to do 166.444km in 24 hours). The following link has a bit more info and a link to a gallery of some photos from the run:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/quest...ot-ultramarathon/story-fn8m0u4y-1226416885210
(n.b. I did not coin the name Barefoot Bandit, you can blame that on the journo who seems to have been inspired by my Akubra hat...)
Anyway I realize not everyone here runs barefoot to be competitive, but for me thats what floats my boat and I hope that by pushing the envelope I can do something positive for the sport, ie show that barefoot can be a viable alternative for competitors at the ultra level. In this spirit I am very much looking to break these records again and again and again, and hopefully encourage others to do the same. I think a sub 10 hour barefoot 100km is achievable, and 200km in 24 hours (note though I am not saying who will achieve it or when!)
To this end if anyone can benefit from my experience to date then happy to share as much info as people are interested in. I am certainly indebted to those that had posted their experiences online when I was trying to get my head around barefoot running over the past year.
All the best,
Rob
I started barefoot running last September at the same time as starting to run ultras, and set myself a silly goal of trying to break the 2 Guinness World Records for barefoot running, ie Fastest 100km Barefoot and Farthest Distance Barefoot in 24hours. It's been a steep learning curve, but to my wife's amusement I broke both records at the Sri Chinmoy Australian 24 hour Championships in Sydney in June this year, recently accepted by Guinness (100km was done in 11h17mins and I continued on to do 166.444km in 24 hours). The following link has a bit more info and a link to a gallery of some photos from the run:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/quest...ot-ultramarathon/story-fn8m0u4y-1226416885210
(n.b. I did not coin the name Barefoot Bandit, you can blame that on the journo who seems to have been inspired by my Akubra hat...)
Anyway I realize not everyone here runs barefoot to be competitive, but for me thats what floats my boat and I hope that by pushing the envelope I can do something positive for the sport, ie show that barefoot can be a viable alternative for competitors at the ultra level. In this spirit I am very much looking to break these records again and again and again, and hopefully encourage others to do the same. I think a sub 10 hour barefoot 100km is achievable, and 200km in 24 hours (note though I am not saying who will achieve it or when!)
To this end if anyone can benefit from my experience to date then happy to share as much info as people are interested in. I am certainly indebted to those that had posted their experiences online when I was trying to get my head around barefoot running over the past year.
All the best,
Rob