Public Barefoot Running Policies

[Jim Zychowski]

I am a barefoot runner, have been for eight years running primarily outdoors year round. This year due to the excessive cold I went indoors in a Cleveland, Ohio Rec Facility (Gunnings) and attempted to run barefoot on their track only to be told it was against the policy due to safety and health reasons. (although you can be barefoot in the locker rooms, bathrooms, shower area, sauna, pool and pool deck) I am appealing this policy and have been in email conversation with someone at the rec dept. My next step is to talk with the commissioner of the rec dept and if need be the director of public works. Does anyone have any ideas on what approach I should take, who to talk with or any other ideas that may be helpful to get this policy changed? Has anyone run up against this and was successful in getting the policy changed? I would greatly appreciate any and all help with this.. Thank you
Jim Zychowski

 

[Tristan]

You might check the barefootedness sub-forum, I think there are some conversations in there about fighting policies and such like that. Good luck with that though, I am pretty sure any privatly owned place can set whatever rules they want. But it is kind of funny when you think about all the parts of the facility you can be barefoot just fine. Keep us posted! And welcome to the forums.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Longboard and BRS peeps were interviewed by the Wall Street Journal about this issue. Hopefully, he will chime in shortly. He's our crusader when it comes to gym policies around barefootedness.

There are many on this topic here, but check out these threads

http://thebarefootrunners.org/threads/wall-street-journal.13448/

http://thebarefootrunners.org/threads/liar.15110/#post-143872

Welcome!