People's reactions when you run

Yeah, I did that too. Didn't come up with anything. I kind of think he was saying, "Get some shoes!" or something. Hoped maybe someone on this site would know...

 

The guy that smiled and gave me two big thumbs up two days later made up for angry dude.

 

@jjb:

I wonder if the guy was actually calling out the name, 'Emil Zatopek'? He was a runner from Czechoslovakia.
"Emil Zátopek was a Czechoslovak long-distance runner best known for winning three gold medals at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki." Wikipedia

 

An interesting theory, but I wasn't running in heavy military boots.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Einstein was once asked why he didn't wear socks. He said, quite tersely, "When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock. So I stopped wearing socks."

It hasn't happened yet, but here is how I hope to reply one day:

Onlooker: "Hey, you aren't wearing shoes!"
Me: "Well, I used to wear shoes, but I found that the soles kept wearing down. So, I stopped wearing shoes."

Unfortunately, I have never been able to pull off a snarky pre-planned response such as this in my life. So maybe someone else can try it.

 

Today, I received a simple. "Barefoot! Good for you!" from a lady in her 40's riding by semi-casually on a bike (no helmet) It was quite refreshing.

 

Had a fellow stop in hiss car and go, "Barefoot?!"
I give the thumbs up sign.
He says, "Doesn't that hurt???"
I respond, "Practice!"

 

Apparently, they were talking about me on the radio the other morning as I ran by the station (I live in a smaller city):

Radio guy: "Now that's interesting. I like to run, but I don't know that I'd like to run barefoot."

 

Ran to the gym on Wednesday and a voice from behind goes "doing good"! The greeter was another barefoot runner! He just zipped by me! Pretty neat. I think I've seen him run by me before but this was the closest encounter.

 

Just back from 5 mile run. A woman running in shoes toward me gave me a double fist pump up into the air and exclaimed "barefoot" with a big smile. I replied "yeah! Try it!"

 

I live near an Army Reserve base and occasionally see the reservists out running along my route. This morning I passed a group of them running the opposite direction and one of the guys said, "Running barefoot! That's the way to do it! That's awesome!"

Made my morning!

 

A few recent ones:
- A lady says "you forgot your shoes" as I ran past (not in a nice way). I always bite my tongue with comments like that..
- A guy said "hey I like your shoes!". I said "Yeah me too, they're really cheap as well, you should try some"
- A car stopped to let me across a side road. The driver pointed to my feet then gave a big smile and thumbs up - these reactions are the best!

 

I took my gf hiking. She wasn't used to all the attention I received. She laughed hard when a lady looked at me a little concerned and said the usual, i lost my shoes. When i replied " ya, have you seen them?" My gf lost it. Oh the fun of being a smart ass.

 

Jeez! What did you do?

 

Challenged their expectations and comfort zone.

 

Out for a barefoot walk with my son and met another family - mom & dad plus 2 young kids. They saw my son running around super fast barefoot and the mom said to the dad "we have to let our kids do that, look at him, he's so fast!". My son is 17 months old - proud dad moment!!

 

While out for my barefoot run this morning I got "Those feet have to be cold and that has to hurt". My reply was that the feet felt great and that this is my favourite temperature to run in. The air temperature was 3°C but with the windchill it was -3°C. This is about the third time this fall where I've run in temperatures on the minus side already. Time to start the winter challenge before the snow starts flying (which it has not that far north of us here in Winterpeg).

 

Let's bump this thread up again.

Today was a classic. After running some trails in the open space, I was trotting down a residential street with my Navajo rez-dog Charlie. An older gentleman and his wife were putting up Christmas lights on their pinyon trees. He saw me running barefoot and called out, "Hey, you lost your shoes!" My reply (with a big smile) was, "I lost 'em seven years ago and haven't found them yet!" I love it when they set me up like that.

TrailDancer
Albuquerque, Chile Republic of New Mexico

 

Seeing that it's beautiful weather for November, I was out running on the open space trails again today. A mountain biker was going uphill, and just when he was passing me (also going uphill), he noticed my bare feet and barked out, "You're crazy, man!" I called out to his back, "Seven years worth of crazy!", but evidently I was too much of weirdo to bother engaging in further conversation. Interestingly, I caught up to him a couple hundred yards further at a trial junction where he was stopped and guzzling water. I would have like to have passed him, but we went in different directions. I can tell who the serious mountain bikers are; they're strong and can easily pass me going uphill. The weekend warriors are easy to spot, too -- I can often keep up with them and sometimes overtake them going uphill. It's immensely satisfying when they're pulled over to the side of the trail puffing and panting, and my rez-dog Charlie and I trot past them at a steady climbing pace.

As I was coming back downhill, the trail I was on merged with another trail, and two lovely ladies in their late twenties were coming down the other trail with their pooch. One of them saw my bare feet and blurted out incredulously, "Bare feet?!" I pointed at Charlie and deadpanned, "If it's good enough for her, it's good enough for me" and then broke into a grin. That got a chuckle from them.

TrailDancer
Albuquerque, Chile Republic of New Mexico