What The Heck Are Barefoot Running Shoes? Monday, October 18, 2010

www.howtorunbarefoot.com At first glance, barefoot running shoes seems like an oxymoron I mean, how can you have shoes and be barefoot? Well, as this latest evolution of running shoes shows, you can have your cake and eat it too: barefoot running shoes make it so that you can get that barefoot running feeling and still protect your feet from the worst our roads have to offer. As a barefoot runner attempting the first ever barefoot run across America, I can tell you a little about what that "worst" is. You see, while I used barefoot running shoes extensively myself while preparing to run across America, I have run the 600 miles so far entirely barefoot, without the benefit of any kind of protection. And, as you will see, that presents some hazards. For example, the stretches of broken beer bottle glass along the roadside in New Jersey. The goose poop which is simply unavoidable in Central Park, NYC. And then there's what I affectionately call "tar knives" that I encountered in Ohio and Pennsylvania...all of which could have been avoided if I was wearing barefoot running shoes. But I wasn't. I'll tell you more about the horrors of barefoot America in a moment (including exactly what "tar knives" are) but first let me explain what barefoot running shoes are all about. Barefoot running shoes are also called "minimalist" shoes or "transition shoes" by the barefoot running community. They are often used for transitioning from wearing fully padded, "normal" type running shoes to ...



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