Hello from South Africa

Sky

Barefooters
Apr 24, 2015
3
8
3
53
Pretoria, South Africa
Hi. Quick intro though hope I do not get carried away with the history. Firstly would like to express my appreciation to all the super talented and helpful members of the barefoot and related running online communities. Have learned a ton from scanning sites, posts, comments, debates and advice.

Am 44, a road ultra marathoner doing Comrades 87km to 89km and Two Oceans 56km every year since 1999. Run mostly solo and am self coached. More of a type B personality runner. More of a lifestyle than a sport.

Used Nike Frees since 2007 and switched to Vibram Bikila LS in mid 2012 after buying 2 pairs at the Two Oceans expo. Ran easy 35km weeks for 5 months mostly with Chariot twin running pram with two toddlers. In December 2012 started to up pace and mileage for upcoming season. Started to get calf strains and by late Jan 2013 got top of foot pain in left foot. Led me to look for solutions on the Internet as most physios etc are not familiar with this as it is not common in traditionally shod runners.

Stumbled upon Jason Robillard, Lee Saxby and Ken Bob Saxton, Mark Cucuzzella, Dan Lieberman etc on the Internet. Read them for a week or two, bought Saxton's book off Amazon, then in mid Feb took off Vibrams for last 7km of a 21km run and never looked back. Switched to fully barefoot in June 2013. Picked up a calf strain in November as I upped mileage but went back and read more on form and adjusted to use glutes and hips more and do squats, lunges, hip hikes etc and since then have been fine. In fact still have unused $100 second pair of Vibram Bikila LS in the original box. Need to look into selling it or just using it for casual use which is actually a waste.

Ran 4630km barefoot in calendar 2014. 95% or more on asphalt so out the window goes any argument that the body needs cushioning. In fact in my experience, the lack of cushioning is not relevant compared to say form, the roughness of the surface etc. The hardness of the surface is not an issue, hence no need for cushioning at least at paces from 4min to 7 min per km even on concrete. Sure it is an issue for softer or irregular surfaces like grass or sand but these then mean you adjust technique, speed, scanning for hidden objects etc.

For 2014 Comrades 89km only went 45km barefoot in training and ran 2 marathons barefoot including first barefoot marathon in Jan 2014 in 3.31. For Comrades was on track for a silver finish at sub 7:30 but the last 13km felt a bit too rough and picked up a blister on right outer heel. Slowed down to an 8.06 finish but recovered well and was running again after 5 days rest. Used to wear out right outer heel in shoes more before after say 1500km and I suspect that beyond 60km I am still slightly defaulting to this legacy form. Never notice this below 60km as I am not wearing the sole enough through accumulated friction. Thing is I only run more than 60km once a year at Comrades. Will be more conscious this year at Comrades on 31 May. In this race will rack up my 9000th kilometer of barefoot running since March 2013.

Since October 12th 2014 I have stumbled upon the long term barefoot benefits once you sync form and posture and adaptations and recovery feels/intuitions based on practice. So basically I ended up running every day barefoot since then and in the December and January summer holiday months got carried away and racked up 1500km in 2 months. Till today that is 196 consecutive days and a total of around 3650km totally skin to ground.

Ran first barefoot Two Oceans 56km on 4 April 2015. Tried to push the pace for a sub 4 hr Silver. as I am a borderline potential silver. Got through marathon in 2.59 which is a barefoot PB, not far off my shod PB of 2.56 but low energy phase hit for a while at 45 to 50km and came in 4.13 which is still OK as it is top 250 out of 8700 finishers. Recovered well though and ran slow 12km the next day to keep to consecutive streak going at least to May 31 which is Comrades and who knows, maybe if I feel OK will do a 6km the day after.

Not doing this to chase targets but rather to reap benefits of barefoot running at over 125km average weeks for 6 months whereby the all-body strain and aches are a lot less than shod marathon training. Also the mental freshness to motivate oneself to run the next day is a result of the gentler effects on the body and hence mind.

But anyway, this forum knows all this so that this as just another confirmatory example.

Have been going on too long, but figure I might as well put this all down in one place.

Last thing, I have a sneaky suspicion that since going barefoot fully, I am getting less prone to colds and flu. This is the 3rd flu season since going barefoot and while it might be coincidence, I think the lower all body strain, probably the stimulation of the nerves of the sole etc, might be leading to better immune response given 125km ultra marathon training weeks for 6 months. What do others think and feel. Wonder if this is also another area where sports science may need to catch up to the experimental practitioners, us. Being fresher, less run down, etc. I think is helping the immune response given endurance training stresses. So even if you lose a little race time and even then maybe not, it is still worth it in terms of the other 99% of training and recovery/living time.

On that note, forgive the long post and thanks to all of you out there who without knowing have been a fantastic resource and example. Enjoy the northern hemisphere spring and keep up the running as rejuvenation philosophy.
Ibrahim Seedat.
 
welcome Sky,

i heard south africa has tradition of going barefoot is it true? Sky you see people barefoot in the streets?, only south africa, new zealand, and australia are the only countries that people go barefoot i heard

Hi Narrowtoe... Unfortunately not anymore. Maybe in the 70s and earlier. 60% of the population is urbanized and all wear shoes. Low or high income people in cities will all think someone walking or running barefoot is either homeless if very scruffy or hippyish if middle class. Rural South Africa is also mostly shod. Really only young children barefoot on farms and villages. We are almost like the U.S. in seeing shod as the norm.

By the way Zola Budd grew up in the 70s as a child barefoot. She runs in Newtons now, still very good. Ran a sub 7 hour Comrades last year in her late 40s. She does say that she never did barefooting on the road even in her younger days. She came at it as a natural extension of her barefoot childhood and then ran on tracks and grass barefoot as a teenager and moved to minimal shoes as an adult (probably similar to the East African elite marathoners who might even use racing flats even if they were not sponsored simply as a racing tool) as opposed to say Ken Bob Saxton who rediscovered barefooting as an adult and then experimented and applied it to road and trail.

Strange as it may seem to you, it is really the U.S. barefoot community who are forging the global path for road and trail barefooting and even getting children barefoot - even for developing countries that are rapidly urbanising and where shoes are seen as modern and bare feet means you are poor or strange even for the parents of young kids.
 
Last thing, I have a sneaky suspicion that since going barefoot fully, I am getting less prone to colds and flu. This is the 3rd flu season since going barefoot and while it might be coincidence, I think the lower all body strain, probably the stimulation of the nerves of the sole etc, might be leading to better immune response given 125km ultra marathon training weeks for 6 months. What do others think and feel. Wonder if this is also another area where sports science may need to catch up to the experimental practitioners, us. Being fresher, less run down, etc. I think is helping the immune response given endurance training stresses. So even if you lose a little race time and even then maybe not, it is still worth it in terms of the other 99% of training and recovery/living time.

Welcome Sky,

I've long suspected barefoot running has helped me in sickness prevention but have no clue as to why it helps...think it could be coincidence also but there has been a distinct change since starting about 10 years ago when I took up barefoot running. I've only been sick once in 10 years but used to get a cold or worse 2 or 3 times a year before that.
 
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Hi.The May edition of the South African Runners World has a feature on an interesting couple who are aiming to do Comrades 2015 barefoot. Their blog site is www.bareyoursole.co.za.
Welcome, Sky! Please feel free to join the South Africa Chapter above through the Chapters link.