Barefoot (or near-barefoot) running. What an odd thing. What passions it do arouse to be sure. Here for the edification of the faithful and the encouragement of catechumens, and as my way of introducing myself, follows my own pilgrimage, in eight fits or stages.

FIT THE FIRST: INCOMPREHENSION

Wonder about running barefoot. Wonder why anyone would do it. Wonder how they stand the insults. Wonder what sort of a lunatic would run barefoot on such an obviously malign and horrible and spiteful and nasty surface such as concrete on their own actual, personal feet.

FIT THE SECOND: SCORN

If I don't understand it, it must be foolish. Of course. Take sides with all the critics. Repeat to self jokes about barefooters being antisocial weirdos from Queensland despite feeling guilty as still on good terms with ex from Qld, nice woman who deserved better. (And gotbetter, too. Different story. Mind own business. Chap entitled to some privacy.)

FIT THE THIRD: SELF-DOUBT

Read reviews. Read assessments. Read experiences. Look at pictures of Vibram Fivefingers and shudder. Does everyone else know something I don't know? How can this be? Been running with cushioned supportive shoes since age 13. Seventeen years' experience. Maybe weakling. Maybe not real man. Maybe should consider it. Look at more Fivefinger pictures. Feel self oddly diminished.

FIT THE FOURTH: DESIRE

Feel resolve slipping, opinion performing 180-degree facebrake turn. Find self walking to the mall. Shop sells Fivefingers. Resist temptation. Find self downloading pics of fivefingers fretfully in small hours. Growing dissatisfaction with old shoes, Asics Nimbus. Tell self shoes like women, all same in dark. Tell self obvious delusion, not all same in dark. Shoes like women, all dangerous in dark. Desire continues unabated.

FIT THE FIFTH: TRANSGRESSION

Wait until hair long, excuse for cut, only decent barber obviously on the mall, tell Herself just popping out for haircut, Herself says: At the mall? Tell Herself keep civil tongue in head or will go worse for her. Herself says: You're going to buy another pair of shoes. Lie. Tell Herself: Nonsense, darling, you are deluded; better have a nice lie-down. Get in car. Drive. Get haircut. Buy Fivefingers as ostensible afterthought ("Oh... while I'm here..."), fooling nobody, either self or sales staff. Go home.

FIT THE SIXTH: FEAR

Next morning, run in secret. Pre run stretch as usual, plus 10mg diazepam to be on safe side. Trembling hands. Look to make sure coast is clear. 4 Km out and back. Calf pain, Achilles pain. Heel pain. How can this be? Damn things clearly rubbish. Everyone on running sites obviously lying, boasting, pulling wool over everyone else's eyes. Pain.

FIT THE SEVENTH: REMORSE

Still in pain the next day. Legs hurt. Reach for soothing Asics but find unsuspected reserve of stern resolve. Use fivefingers instead. Worse. Pain. Aches. Regret. Anger. Herself: Why are you in bedroom shouting at your shoes? "Shut up," I explain. Resolve to sell thing.

FIT THE EIGHTH: REVELATION

One last go this morning, in order prove something self. Annoyed. Am going to be beaten silly shoes? Pish. Bugger it: just run. If pain, too bad. Run. Run. Run. Hello? Run perfect. Pain nil. Legs fluid. Feet happy..Hmm. Fivefingers seems to have pulled itself together after yesterday's tongue-lashing. Put all other shoes away in Secret. Never to speak of again. Strange feeling have found The Answer. Order a second pair for beach house. Breathe Zen-type sigh relief, feel deep sense brotherhood with other fivefinger users, deep sense pity for those who have not yet discovered. Turn over new leaf.

fin.

Having just purchased a pair of 5 Fingers myself on the weekend, I really enjoyed this post ScienceDan!

I am hoping that eventually I have the intestinal fortitude to give them a go on a run.....for now, they are just my weekend shoes. I am just coming back from a foot injury (plantar plate tear) so I will give it a while before I attempt my debut run.

PS: Welcome to Coolrunning!!!

ok since this was started I make a confession.

at 24H Coburg in some silly bravado moment perhasp attack of attention seeking I decided to put 5F
before start.
Easy relaxed slow walking style, should be no problem and lets see how many hours I can use them.

5F good, the cheap chinese socks not - their structure quickly created hot spots on the front, mincing the skin of the soles.
Never happened this on short 1 hour runs or races, and never tried them for longer.


Just realized this is not true : last day of 4 peaks, I did run/walk in this combo on the way up and straight back down to the car and had same spots blisters from it,
now my memory is telling me, bit late, hmm have to keep detailed diary and read it.

Gave up after 3 hours and was cooling feet in water frequently after that to prevent hot spot developing into full blown blisters, afected for the rest of the race.

I have a socks issue, somehow I mentaly cant make myself wear any shoes without socks,
if its not on its not on.

Have to break this and give pure 5F a go, sockless.

I bought some 5 Fingers on the weekend too!!
I love the 'idea' of running barefoot and hope that it's something I can achieve over time. I've been wearing them around and they are so comfortable.

Agreed good post ScienceDan and welcome.

Why use socks. I ran passed a guy on Saturday at Centennial Park in Sydney who was running barefoot. He was at it for over an hour as I passed him a number of times. It was slow and looked awkard but hey - he had no shoes on...

Brilliant! Next you'll be telling us you got rid of the 5Fingers and started running barefoot!!

I was just sent this great article....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/ar...aste-money.html

This makes me even more determined to try this out!!!

I thought that is why you are called 'RunBare' as you run barefoot.

Maybe I should buy a pair and change my name to '5Fingers'

You're the original inspiration. I just follow in your BAREFOOTsteps

Love the initial post on this thread, very amusing. I have been interested in the whole barefoot thing lately (been reading through the 'transitioning to barefoot' thread), and was wondering if those that have gone barefoot were able to build up to the same running speeds they had when running in shoes?

When I ran in shoes, I struggled to run far at all, no more than 10k, and never faster than most could walk.

I took my shoes off to try to fix the injuries I sustained. It worked, and I now run must faster than I ever could before. I am still no speedster, but times are better for sure.

Thanks for the greetings and the kind words.

Went for another run in the FiveFingers this morning, absolutely sublime. I think many a pedestrian mistook me for an escaped mental patient (moreso than usual). I must admit, I kind of get a sick thrill out of all the attention. Which leads me to my question: What else could I wear with the FiveFingers to really enhance the lunatic image?

Oh, and thanks to the assorted barefooters on this forum, it was your sage advice that motivated me to try this. I'm planning to integrate some barefoot grass running into my training ASAP.

Dan

Racing at sub 4 minute pace needs racing flats, but when you start running slower, barefoot is easier, no shoes to lift, easier on your knees and the pace is easliy maintained.

The only Marathon I did not go barefoot was Alice Springs, as running through a desert, not sure what might happen. I did add 40 minutes to my time.

I've only been doing fun runs since I 'converted'.

My first 10km was 50min 33sec, I wore racing flats but all of my training had been fivefingers, or aqua socks.

I doubt I would have gotten this time if I trained wearing shoes - I had knee pain and looking back at it I was quite inefficient!! My style has improved dramatically (well it feels like it has) since taking my shoes off.

Having said that though, the fivefingers aren't perfect for me - I get bad blistering on my big toes. I'm still trying to find the 'perfect' alternative!

Yep - and faster.
Did my first race in my fivefingers a couple of weeks ago: a half marathon, and did it about three minutes faster than any other time I've done in the last couple of years.
Overall: running faster for any given heart-rate.

ScienceDan that was gorgeous - did you see the poetry thread, and some of the Dr Suess inspired contributions?

With apologies to Lewis! :

Canto 1: The trysting
Admits curiosity with barefoot. Develops habit of running a few hundred metres barefoot at end of shod run.

Canto II: Hys five rules
Relax the feet. Push with hamstrings & glutes, rather than lifting with quads. Relax the feet. Stretch tall. Relax the feet.

Canto III Scarmoges
Barefoot is cheap. Five fingers are not cheap. But they come in really cool colours!

Canto IV Hys nouryture
Starts with doing short runs. No real intensity. Builds distance gradually. Collects strange looks from fellow denizens of the bike tracks. Ignores them. Enjoys running.

Canto V Byckerment
Wants to do too much too soon, Develops tendonitis as direct result. Takes it a little easier. Gets there faster in the long run (pun intended!)

Canto VI Discomfyture
Discomfort now thing of the past. All muscles tendons etc working well. Does first race. Weekly distance back to normal. Running pace now faster. Discomfyture is solely in the minds of beholders.

Canto VII Sad Souverence
Says a farewell to all other pairs of running shoes, and relegates them to the back of the wardrobe, earmarked for disposal at next clean-out.

Are you wearing toesocks when the blistering happens?

One funrunner to another: "He looks like he just escaped from prison!"
Pieter H (barefoot runner): "I did! The shoe prison!"
(This quote came from the Remarks section in runningbarefoot.org)

Good onya ScienceDan, thanks for sharing your fears - I'm sure we all have them!
I don't think we're lunatics, we're enlightened (as phYx said in the Transitioning to Barefoot forum).

This leads me to thoughts on an acronym for people transitioning to barefoot running. How about ABER (Almost Barefoot Enlightened Runner)

or BAR (Barefoot (Almost) Runner)

Sorry, this is pretty lame! Anyone got any better names?

No I haven't been. I bought some injinjis and after 2 wears a thread pulled and half the sock disappeared into the wash

I was thinking that might solve my dilemma (and decrease the smell factor) - injinjis are expensive though!

I will be running barefoot with several others in Centennial Park this Sat morning. Starting with shoes for warm-up then going barefoot on the fast (for me) bits. Some of the barefooters will blast out sub 3min kms for up to 10km in this session; they won't be slow or awkward. Some may wear five fingers.

Could someone please post a photo or describe exactly what aqua socks are & where you get them.

Thanks.

It's wonderful to hear it said that not all runners going barefoot are slow. Mostly because I'm not the worlds best example there!

You should let TOESOCKS or Injinji know about your thread pull.

I thought you could chuck the 5fingers in the washing machine as well but i guess you wouldn't want to do it too often.

aquasocks are rubber at the bottom, lycra on the top,
cost about about 6-10 AUD in stores like BigW, Target, Kmart,...
usualy found in the section with watersport stuff, next to gogles, fins and kids safety swimm stuff.

are used to walk on the beach, rocks etc.

expensive models - 20-30 aud are sold in surfing shops, some are used to stand on the bord and have antislipery design.

My experience is that lately they manufactured in very wrong designs, they are very heavy, tegh soles are made too thick, there is sometimes even design attempt to make heels higher and cusioned.

and often the insoled are kinda glued into the shoe, but this glue melts easily from feet heat and insoles start sliding inside and than glue themselves int the wrong position, bended etc.

taking insoles out leaves very sticky gluey inside of the shoe.

I think the manufacturing of aquasocks was sabotaged to a degree, so teh runners could not use them anymore, anyway thats my take and I am sticking to it.

everything was better in the good old days, even the aquasocks

What else could you wear to enhance the lunatic image?? I wish I could work out how to post a pic of CR Slowmo in his fancy pants!!! If anybody else has these computer abilities, please help me out! Slowmo....are you out there???

A question to all those barefooters out there. What style of shoes do you use when your not running. Are you wearing "support" style shoes day to day or generally flats (eg leather soled shoes) during the day.

I have only just got back into running after many many years & thus am unfit & working on my stamina. I saw this thread after reading some other interesting articles about the foot & natural running styles. Because I am "relearning" how to run, I decided that I might as well give this a go Will let you know of my progress.

I did my first 30 minute run around the park in 5 fingers yesterday. Ran on the grass, over park rocky path and bitumen. All good except larger rocks on the path hurt.

Felt like my style changed but generally on pace with no probs. Had the dog with me so there were a few short stops along the way. Went running later that evening with training group and feel pretty good today.

I looked like a whacko I'm sure but it's a very encouraging start. I may even get to Damascus.

I try to not wear shoes at all whenever possible. Purely personal choice, nothing scientific about it. I wear thongs or Nike Free 3.0's if I need to wear shoes, but never anything with a heel. Even my 'going out' shoes are flat leather ones. I think this makes me not quite a proper girl, but I can live with that

Soon 'whacko' will become the norm. Later if for some reason you front up to a run in normal shoes everyone asks what's wrong?

I've never worn heals in my life. All my non running shoes are flats

Ah, I didn't really mean heals but more do you wear sneaker style shoes outside of running in just general day to day or do you "live the dream" and wear barefoot style shoes.

Yay Fastguts!! I had my debut 5 fingers run yesterday also. Mine was about 50 minutes, mostly on footpath but a small amount of grass and included flat and a few hills. My "normal foot" felt fantastic but my "bad foot" (torn plantar plate) felt a little sad and sorry. I am thinking my "barefoot career" may not be able to take off until my plantar plate miraculously heals, which I am devastated about.

I felt so free and so light and I am sure many people were making comments about them but I had my Ipod on so I could not hear.

At the end of my run, I had developed a few hotspots (including under the big toe of my bad foot).....but I forgot my vaseline so my lack of lube may have caused this. There was no major blistering to report.

I must say the grass surface felt awesome....like I was tiptoeing through the tulips!

At home always barefoot, but at work a good quality black walking shoe and for casual outings Asics or Nike training shoes.

At home barefoot or socks. At work flats. Out and about usually thongs, volleys, or these other cool sneakers I have. They have no support though and are close to the ground. They just look better than volleys.

I don't know if wearing barefoot style shoes is living the dream. If it was your dream to go barefoot then I say really go barefoot, not imitation barefoot. I used to walk everywhere barefoot as a teenager so I guess I was living a dream then, until I cut myself on glass.



The great thing about FFs or barefoot is you really can't do it properly with an injury. You are forced to recover, which is of course best for your body. Or do what I do and run in Nike Frees 3.0 aswell to pretend you are not so injured. They are really just a normal running shoe that is light.

I think it is great when people make comments about the FFs. You can tell them how good they are and how comfy they are. I am always talking them up and most people think they look great.

Now what made you think of me MissPinky ?

Courtesy of Tiger Angel...
http://coolrunning.smugmug.com/gallery/795...516723526_DeqiS

slowmo

Note the lovely relaxed foot position in that photo! (that's if you can drag your gaze away from the tights).

Thanks Slowmo (and Tiger Angel) for posting this lovely pic!
I must say that I certainly do not think you look like a "lunatic" Slowmo.....you provide a fabulous splash of colour and originality to the sport of running!

Well, just did my first run barefoot this morning.

Did a short 1.3km around the block on the pavement. Surprised how easy if feels on the feet, except for the odd gumnut along the way (I can see why fivefingers or some homemade slides like slowmo's are the go). I'm sort of trying to do the pose thing but I feel a bit unco-ordinated, I think my technique is way off, but I'm still striking on the balls of my feet. I just felt like I was moving up and down more than forward. My calves and achilles are pretty tense after the run, I can see it is a big change to muscle groups you would normally use. Can't wait to get a few more runs under my belt to see how it goes.

Any other beginnner barefooters in Melbourne would love to hear from you and maybe catch up for a run.