Barefoot Running in the Pacific Northwest

[Shoeless Randy]

I'm new to barefoot running, since I live in Seattle; most of year it is constantly wet. I'm worried that my pad development will go for nothing since most of the year it is always wet out side. Will the wetness of Seattle keep my pad development from improving?

 

[meiniles]

I can't speak from personal experience, but a BF runner in Portland mentioned that he runs year-round, which means a lot of running on wet pavement (in his case). He's still cruising on some long runs this summer, so I don't think his pads have had much trouble adapting.

 

[NickW]

I ran all winter here in Portland barefoot this last winter and didn't have any troubles. In fact, I searched out puddles.

 

[Phil Hart]

We don't stay wet here in NC, but I get a couple of wet runs per week in, and I look for puddles to splash through and wet grass to run on whenever I get the chance. It has not seemed to do any harm so long as I pay attention to my form when running on hard surfaces with wet feet so I don't scuff them.

 

[kozz]

You don't lose the calluses in winter. They get soft, but they're still there.

It can be a little painful to run on some kinds of wet pavement. It can actually result in more friction. Wet textured concrete in particular.

 

[Robbi]

So far so good running in the wet here in SA, though of course we don't have the persistent wet of Seattle. Point being, I didn't tear calluses off or anything and in fact also sought out puddles on the odd occasion.

In terms of cold-resistance, I keep my core warm and am now after 2 months or so of winter able to run in cold and wet below 50F without much trouble.

I have run in the dry in Seattle below 40F comfortably...wet may be another story, though, it doesn't get THAT cold here .