Running naked

It probably wasn't important anyway.....

Published on August 28, 2004 By Spc Nobody Special In Sports & Leisure

Well I might as well be with the looks I get.

I love to get up on a Sunday morning and run naked......from the knees down. It's great, finishing up an eight, ten mile run, and swinging by the house a couple of miles before the end to drop off my shoes on the way by.

Enter the next question. What kind of dumb asshat runs barefoot on city streets? Is he insane?

Gentlemen, I am that asshat, and yes, I am insane. After all, who in their right mind trains for a marathon in the first place? I had run on and off since I joined the army five years ago, but never stuck with it consistently. The longest continuous point was about three months in Korea, when I spent a couple of hours a night running and/or working out, so I would look good naked when I came home on midtour leave.

After Korea, I proceeded to Ft. Hood, where I spent the last year and small change gaining twenty pounds. I tried the Southbeach diet, (and abandoned it, the mind was willing, but the stomach was weak.) and finally saw the scales top out at....well, they topped out higher than I liked, and my pants were getting tight. So I started to run.

I got serious. I started training for a half-marathon in Nov. and a full Marathon in Feb. The pounds are dropping, the pants are loose, and I'm starting to get faster. Then I was flipping through Runner's World Link and I ran into this. Link

Apparently running barefoot is better for you. You run around five percent faster without shoes than with, and you're less likely to injure yourself. Olympic winner Abebe Bikila set the marathon world record wearing nothing but the shoes he was born with. (Of course later he did it faster in a blindingly white pair of Puma's.) Link Wow.

So at the end of a short (four mile) run, I pulled off the stinky old shoes and tried it. OUCH!!! The part I missed, is that first you have to build up the bottom of your feet. It only takes a couple of weeks to get to running (short distances) barefoot, a fact that I researched in depth after limping home, leaving bloody toeprints on my neighbors' sidewalks.

So a couple of days later, I started walking barefoot, then running short distances. Now I can go a couple of miles without tearing up my feet. It feels good, I can go faster and feel better. I love the sensation of the road on my feet. And no, I don't cut myself on broken glass and pointy sticks. I can even run over those damned burrs in the grass now without pain.....most of the time.

But........people do stare. They drive past you really slow. Sometimes they yell out original things like "Hey put some shoes on." or that old classic, "Are you out of your damned mind?" And I have absolutely no idea where they ziptie your timing chip at the race when it doesn't go on your shoelaces........heh heh......wicked thoughts......

My goal, marathon barefoot. Why not? This guy does one a month. Link And they think I'm psycho.

Comments

on Aug 28, 2004

Honestly, anyone who wants to run a marathon is a bit crazy.

Spc Nobody Special

on Aug 28, 2004

Then I think you'd make a great runner.......if there's no age limit.....

on Aug 28, 2004

1) Running on purpose is a sign of insanity.
2) Running makes you sweat, and sweating is a sign of insanity.
3) Running a long way causes you think that you are a healthy person, also a sign of insanity.

Shoes or no shoes, you should immediately see your mental health authority about the compulsion you have to move quickly without due cause. I would even go so far as to say . . . run, don't walk, to a nearby doctor specializing in strong lung and non-flabby ab disorders.

on Aug 29, 2004

- no shoes.

I am no runner... I only run when playing team sports... running for marathons etc. is for wierdos!!! The conditioning of the feet story is fun though. I start to walk around home etc. in the early spring without any shoes - this is to make sure my feat are in the best possible condition for walking on beach rocks and scorching hot sand in the summer...

Good luck with running and stuff!

BAM!!!

on Aug 30, 2004

I miss being able to run long distances - my back injury makes running too far a little dicey. I know what it's like to be called insane for running (although I've never had the desire to do it barefoot and I've never gone as far as a marathon). I did a half marathon once. It was awesome! I also did the Oahu Perimeter Relay. That was 134 miles broken up over 7 people (6 legs each - I did 17.4, IIRC) and that was great, too. Especially since I got to run the finishing leg - what a rush to be running through downtown Honolulu at the end of that race! When I was in Hawaii, I had a regular group that would get up at 0530 on Sunday and run from the barracks to the North Shore. It was a hair under 10 miles and the last 6 was a gentle down hill. It was great to see the ocean getting closer, the sun rising on our right, and a gentle breeze blowing in from the water. We'd have a lazy ass, er.... good friend, meet us with a car and we'd have breakfast at Cafe Haleiwa and then ride back.

So, I say, 'Keep up the insanity! Chase down your barefooted dreams!' Next time someone hits you with a -

"Hey put some shoes on."

Tell 'em to put on a mask! Cause their face is hurting you worse than your feet!

And as for ziptie and timing chips... remember, they usually want to cut those things off quickly at the end of the race to make sure you don't take it home... I can't think of too many places on my lower body I'd want some busy body to be shaking a pair of scissors... You might consider a velcro strap of some sort, or zipping it to a watch...

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