Monday, June 14, 2010

I Am A Socialite

Okay, well not really, but I did talk to quite a few people today while running.

First, my Dad and I went out to run. Dave showed up and ran with me while my Dad took a different route. My Dad is being really smart about transitioning to his Vibram Five Fingers. He is upping his miles slowly and doesn't claim to have any pain. We were all running next to me and my dad mentioned that, from left to right, we were sloping more minimally, from shod(Dave), to minimal(Dad), to barefoot(me).

Dave took me on a cool shortcut that reduced the amount of time we had to run next to the busy road. I am all for that. I like peaceful times.

When Dave and I approached the parking lot, my Dad was talking to a woman. I figured she was asking him about his shoes, then I saw him point to me and I was pretty certain I would be talking to someone about running barefoot. I was surprised by her first question, which wasn't the typical "Doesn't that hurt?", but "How does that affect your speed?" I told her I honestly didn't have an answer, since I didn't start running in shoes. We talked about RunKeeper and we were both having problems with it throwing a random point one mile away. I turned 3G and Data Roaming off on my phone and turned 3G off on hers. WiFi was already off on both. I think it worked better after I did that.

During that time, some older people we know came walking by. The man joked about joining together to buy me some shoes. His wife, who was extremely supportive, said, "He's got it right! Now he doesn't have to buy a $100 pair of running shoes!" Darn right! I joked, "Yeah well I figure my mom made this for me, I might-as-well wear them." She agreed and was super enthusiastic.

I then did my second run, ran by a few people who I just said, "Good Morning!" to and smiled. They seemed cool. One woman was really concerned.

Her: "You're not running barefoot are you!?!?"
Me: "Yep, it feels great."
Her: "Okay then... if that's what you want to do..."(or something like that. I was running and any negative feedback is just ran away from.)

Which reminds me. The other day I was called "Bananas." Let me explain.
Walking Man: Ouch doesn't that hurt!?!
Me: No it feels great.(as you can tell this is my typical response)
Walking Man: Okay whatever bananas.
 So yep. I suppose I am getting popular in the Yahoola area. Whatever, I am just running the way I want.

Anyway(sorry about rambling there), I ran about three more miles after everyone left. The asphalt was getting hot hot hot, so I ran fast.

Okay, so judging by the conversations above maybe I'm not a "socialite", possibly just the local nutcase.

2 comments:

  1. Stick to the same local route for a while, and the neighbors will warm up to you. Pretty soon it will be impossible to get a tempo run in because everyone wants you to stop to chat.

    Keep having fun!

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  2. Yup, that has started to happen already. Mile 1 a guy asks me if I do Martial Arts. He said a lot of Martial Artists ran barefoot in the 70's and said I had similar posture. Cool!

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