I used to run the 2 mile in High school track back in the 90's. I had the typical shod running style, total heel striker. I was no where near the fastest on the team and at my peak I could run the mile in 5:55.

Fast forward to now. I am in my 30's. I run mostly barefoot. I run everyday in 90 to 100 degree weather. I always bring my huaraches with me and throw them on when my soles get sore or the ground is too hot.

I do not race. I run for fun, fitness and spiritual awareness. I do not time myself ever.

yesterday I decided to time myself just so I could respond to this post.

I ran a little over a mile in 5:30 totally barefoot.

I am faster now without shoes. I can only credit this to technique. I am not wasting any energy now. I am flowing across the earth.

The way I see it, running barefoot is a major advantage in everyway. I guess a better way to put it is that wearing clunky high heeled shoes is a major disadvantage in everyway.

Thanks again Steven for this amazing open forum! I cannot wait to try the new sole material.

-- Joey

I'm all for barefoot/minimilism running but I'm kind of disappointed at the very slow pace of so many barefoot runners.  Now to be fair, they're usually running on pavement so perhaps they're being very careful of debris and if they haven't been doing it for years, their feet might be rather sensitive to those lovely 1/2" rocks we love to pound down on just to up the waning pain threshold in our lives.

When I first started barefoot it was playing frisbee on grass.  Barefoot gave me a much better grip due to the aiblity of the toes to grip.  Sprinting was electrifyingly explosive.  Without a doubt I would say I was much faster barefoot but I wasn't worried about getting impaled by a syringe.  Because we all know the sidewalks are blanketed with razor sharp glass shards, rusted nails positioned perfectly upwards and needles infected with the latest incurable malaise.  Seriously, its a lot easier to run on grass because your mind is carefree.  Its the way it should be.  Its the way kids run around on grass.  And so much of barefoot running takes you back to your childhood.  Those were pure, intense and fervently happy times.  Its wonderful to bring some of that back now.

So I'd like to hear people's times on grass with and without shoes.  For me though, even if my time was half of the shoe time I'd go barefoot.  There is nothing on this earth that feels quite like the bottom of your feet massaging the planet.  Every person that I can convince to lose their shoes on grass remarks on how pleasant it feels.  And that's with their atrophied foot muscles struggling to deal with this foreign surface!

Maybe the solution is to just stop running on artificially hard and flat surfaces like concrete.  It may not be the hardness that is the problem so much as the flatness.  Before I went barefoot I would notice how much nicer it was to walk on uneven surfaces.  Even in the worst shoes imaginable, walking over uneven surfaces provided a variety of foot positions that helped any foot ailment I might have been afflicted with at that time. Sore feet become pain free feet very quickly.  Much of the earth is soft but lots of it is also hard when there is a lack of rain.  The earth compacts and it is hard.  But rarely glass flat like concrete.  With that, you're using exactly the same combination of muscles over and over and over.  That is unnatural.  And what is unnatural is not sustainable.

What we really need is a sure fire way of toughening up the bottom of our feet quickly.  It takes years to build up 1/8" of callus that some nomadic people have.  I'd kill for that kind of natural protection!  Imagine putting your feet in some sort of machine that rubs your foot bottoms in a way to activate callus production.  You could be having your feet worked on as you're reading and replying to these posts.  How cool would that be?  :)  Does anybody know how to encourage callus growth?  Walking around barefoot would take years.  We just don't have that kind of time!  Is it abraisive or rubbing action that works best?  I'm guessing rubbing but who knows?  Not exactly a quick process you can daily observe.

Why are they slow?  If its a natural mode of movement you'd think it would be more efficient in every way, including speed.  Or is it because they haven't built up the necessary musculature in the feet and legs yet?

And what is the difference between a callus and thick skin?  I just want to run over small rocks and not wince in pain!

I still think we need a machine that "works our feet while we work".  Without all that protection, rocks and sharp objects are just going to plain hurt.  I see videos of people hiking over 2" sharp rocks.  I'm not sure if they're just silently putting up with the pain or not.  But their feet sure don't look like people that have always lived in a barefoot environment.

So you don't think that most runners are going slower on concrete when starting barefoot? When I see barefoot videos, they tend to take tiny strides which seems to slow them up.  And these are experienced barefoot runners.

Your skin only gets a bit thicker? When you step on that dreaded 1/2" rock or larger rock, that's got to hurt.  Only by having a very tough covering on the bottom of your foot would enable you to scamper over terrain like that comfortably I would think.  They say a lot of people that are barefoot most of the day have up to an 1/8" callus on the bottom of their feet.  That would be great to aim toward.  Plus, I'll be taller!

I wonder if hikers have much of a problem with stubbing their toes on rough terrain, espeically if their feet slide on some surfaces, say a sandy rock incline?

Three things have happened to my feet from almost two years of barefoot running.

One: I have noticed that there are pads of fat developing under the parts of my foot that hit on concrete.

Two: my skin is tougher now. I think (after reading Sandler's book) that it is skin with the moisture pressed out of it. It is more durable and since it is less flexible than reg skin (regular is subjective I know)  little rocks don't stick to my feet forcing me to stop and brush them off. When they stick to your feet and hit the same place 3 or 4 times in a row it can hurt and be annoying. Unfortunately if I go surfing or do something that makes my feet wet for prolonged amounts of time, the skin wears off and i start over. The fat is permanent.

Three: As Steven said earlier, your nerves adapt. You start to realize that what you are feeling is not "pain" anymore but just stimulation. I now feel that little rocks and abnormalities have a therapeutic effect on my tired feet while running.

As with everything else there are pay offs. People may be faster as they take huge leaps in their moonlanding running shoes, but they will be hurting more, running less, and have a finite amount of strides until it is game over. Running barefoot is more fun, healthier, better for your form. When people run barefoot they look like they have been trained by a professional running coach. Shod people make me laugh with their funky running techniques.

If you go to the dentist and get a shot to numb your mouth you definitely wouldn't eat a steak; you would destroy your mouth.

In this analogy the shot equates to the pair of running shoes. If you numb your feet you destroy your body.

It does make you a better runner when you run barefoot. The racing benefits are definitely most visible in the long run. A good example would be super athletes that grow up running barefoot in africa. 15+ years of running barefoot over dry clay, rocks, and dirt have and amazing effect on your body.( ligaments, bone density, form, symetry)

It makes you fast in the long run. for example, youtube Abebe Bikila, and you can watch footage from 1960 (or 61) of him winning the olympic marathon barefoot on cobble stones and cement.

For those of us that grew up in shoes, we have a lot of time to put in before our bodies can perform like this. But really when you think about it, who really cares how fast you are running? Really, if you are racing, then yes your time matters. If you are looking for an extremely healthy body that is grounded,  balanced and symetrical then barefoot is the answer and time is just a false dilema created by our competetive nature. Ask yourself: are you running for yourself or for the people that you see on your runs that are painfully smashing along and are posting their 5k times on the internet?

The main point that I haven't made is that the real secret of barefoot running is that it is fun. It is our natural source of fun. This seems redundant but it is over looked. When you are running for pure fun you don't need to have a good pace or mile time to justify yourself. Having time goals are for people that don't enjoy actual running or are proving something with their running. If they run slow = they are not pleased or happy with their workout. I don't need to run fast anymore to feel like I have done something worthwile with my time because the run was actually really fun. The joy that I get out of it is worth doing it, regardless of speed. I also am faster now and I feel that putting in hours going a little slower and working on form has made me faster than trying to go too fast too soon with sloppy form.

One more thing: I avoid 1" diameter rocks (especially when I was in shoes). I can jog barefoot on a bunch of 1" rocks if they are abundant and packed together. But if one is sitting by itself on a trail, I avoid it.

Michael Sandlers book is the best thing that ever happened to my running. I suggest that you get it and read it. It has hundreds of pages dedicated to all of these topics and has a chapter on toughening up your feet and how to keep the skin from wearing away.

Though some people would be able to claim that they are able to run faster bare footed, I personally have not chartered that territory yet.

Though it is something that is more comfortable, my running has been placed well with the use of regular running shoes, which means that some more time would be needed to maximize the form and build of Vibram and take advantage of it.