I just joined this group the other day. I am 57 years old, male, and completed my sixth year of running barefoot this past August.
I live in Vancouver, Washington (the OTHER Vancouver, the OTHER Washington!)
My barefoot running career began because of plantar faciitis. My running had dwindled from about 30 miles per week to near zero and I had the typical PF pain symptoms every day. I am too cheap to throw money at trying out various runners or orthotics just to see if maybe they helped. Running seemed to be too much of a natural activity and I felt there had to be a natural way to overcome this.
I found a mention about barefoot running from Ken Bob Saxton on the internet. I figured the price is right, its natural and easy, and if it doesn't work, I can always go the other way. So I started walking barefoot, only a block or two at a time for a few days, then I started adding some short little runs. I went through the calf muscle tightness and stretching that many new runners have to go through. That lasted a few weeks, and then I built up my running distances until I was running 1 - 2 miles per run a few times a week. My PF symptoms never returned, except for one time in the winter when I chickened out and put on my runners for some freezing weather. I only got about 1/4 of a mile when all the PF pains hit me. I stopped and threw away my runners, finished my run barefoot and have never looked back.
I am mostly a recreational runner - seldom entering any established races. I run from 20 to 30 miles per week, with most of my runs being from 8 to 12 miles long. I run a lot on cement sidewalks, some on asphalt, very little on grass, and some on river beach sand. The furthest I have run barefoot is 20 miles, with difficulty. I have run a couple of 1/2 marathons without any serious problems.
One thing I have done is create some barefoot running "challenges" from time to time. I was running in Portland, Oregon one time and a guy on a bicycle yelled that I was ruining my hips. I told him, "Nope - this is good for me!" He yelled as he rode off, "I'm an orthopedic surgeon -- I KNOW!" Well, that got me. I could tell he was heading up to a hospital called OHSU. So one day I decided to run up there and "show off" my barefoot running form to the doctors up there. From where I park, its about five miles up and five miles back. When I got up there, I noticed they have this skybridge between two buildings. I decided to cross the skybridge. So I found a door, went up the stairs, walked across the skybridge, and found my way back down to an exit. I got a lot of stares on that one!
Another time I heard some ads by Nike about their running shoe they boasted was just like running barefoot. (Yeah... right!) So I drove out to their world campus and ran around it two times. There are always a bunch of Nike employees running all over that area, so I got a lot of stares from them. A few treated me with contempt, a couple seemed supportive. I didn't get a t-shirt made that I had thought about, which would have said: Hey Nike! THIS is FREE!!
I'm thinking about starting up a Forum topic on the types of comments and reactions I get from people. Some of them have been choice!
Any northwest runners want to go over the Nike and run around their world campus with me some time? Its 2.5 miles around once, staying on the public sidewalks. They also have a private track around the perimeter of their campus, which is probably close to 2 miles in length. I thought about running on it, but it is covered with wood chips and I didn't want to get slivers.
Ryan W.
I live in Vancouver, Washington (the OTHER Vancouver, the OTHER Washington!)
My barefoot running career began because of plantar faciitis. My running had dwindled from about 30 miles per week to near zero and I had the typical PF pain symptoms every day. I am too cheap to throw money at trying out various runners or orthotics just to see if maybe they helped. Running seemed to be too much of a natural activity and I felt there had to be a natural way to overcome this.
I found a mention about barefoot running from Ken Bob Saxton on the internet. I figured the price is right, its natural and easy, and if it doesn't work, I can always go the other way. So I started walking barefoot, only a block or two at a time for a few days, then I started adding some short little runs. I went through the calf muscle tightness and stretching that many new runners have to go through. That lasted a few weeks, and then I built up my running distances until I was running 1 - 2 miles per run a few times a week. My PF symptoms never returned, except for one time in the winter when I chickened out and put on my runners for some freezing weather. I only got about 1/4 of a mile when all the PF pains hit me. I stopped and threw away my runners, finished my run barefoot and have never looked back.
I am mostly a recreational runner - seldom entering any established races. I run from 20 to 30 miles per week, with most of my runs being from 8 to 12 miles long. I run a lot on cement sidewalks, some on asphalt, very little on grass, and some on river beach sand. The furthest I have run barefoot is 20 miles, with difficulty. I have run a couple of 1/2 marathons without any serious problems.
One thing I have done is create some barefoot running "challenges" from time to time. I was running in Portland, Oregon one time and a guy on a bicycle yelled that I was ruining my hips. I told him, "Nope - this is good for me!" He yelled as he rode off, "I'm an orthopedic surgeon -- I KNOW!" Well, that got me. I could tell he was heading up to a hospital called OHSU. So one day I decided to run up there and "show off" my barefoot running form to the doctors up there. From where I park, its about five miles up and five miles back. When I got up there, I noticed they have this skybridge between two buildings. I decided to cross the skybridge. So I found a door, went up the stairs, walked across the skybridge, and found my way back down to an exit. I got a lot of stares on that one!
Another time I heard some ads by Nike about their running shoe they boasted was just like running barefoot. (Yeah... right!) So I drove out to their world campus and ran around it two times. There are always a bunch of Nike employees running all over that area, so I got a lot of stares from them. A few treated me with contempt, a couple seemed supportive. I didn't get a t-shirt made that I had thought about, which would have said: Hey Nike! THIS is FREE!!
I'm thinking about starting up a Forum topic on the types of comments and reactions I get from people. Some of them have been choice!
Any northwest runners want to go over the Nike and run around their world campus with me some time? Its 2.5 miles around once, staying on the public sidewalks. They also have a private track around the perimeter of their campus, which is probably close to 2 miles in length. I thought about running on it, but it is covered with wood chips and I didn't want to get slivers.
Ryan W.
