5 Tips for Barefoot Running

Have you read or heard about barefoot running and decided that you wanted to learn more about it? Perhaps you have even seen someone running barefoot and wondered about this approach to running.

Here are five tips for barefoot running for you to consider when you are unable to run on a pristine beach.

Tip #1. Keep an eye out for dog poop.

Yuck, right? When you run barefoot, you are effectively applying everything that you encounter on the surfaces of your running path to the bottom of your feet. This includes dog poop. Can you imagine the poop now squishing between your toes? Can you see it spread all over the soles of your feet? Can you smell it later, when you track it into your house and are in the shower, trying to scrub it off your feet? Remember, this is not like running with shoes, which, when dirty, you can leave outside and clean outside. Oh, fun!

Tip #2. Keep an eye out for glass.

Bloody, right? When you run barefoot, you are exposing your tender skin to every little shard of glass along your running route. Do you not believe that you have never encountered glass when out running? Lucky you! For the rest of us, just look at the bottom of your shoes to notice odd little pieces of glass embedded in their soles. Those shards would have been in your feet instead. Oh, fun!

Tip #3. Keep an eye out for stones.

Painful, right? When you run barefoot, you are taking the chance that you will step on various stones along the way. We are not talking about large, smooth, flat stones such as ones that you would see for sale in a gift shop. No, we are talking about the kind that will embed themselves into your feet — or at least give them a good poke in the skin — just like the ones that can get embedded in or can poke at the soles of your shoes today. Oh, fun!

Tip #4. Keep an eye out for nails.

Pointy, right? When you run barefoot, the risk from stepping on a nail is not necessarily from its sharp “business end” or point. No, much of the risk comes from stepping on the side of the head of the nail, given that most nails you encounter will be lying down, not pointing straight up. But even the side of the head will feel pointy as you jam your foot onto it. Oh, fun!

Tip #5. Keep an eye out for oil.

Slippery, right? When you run barefoot, unless you are always doing trail running, which has its own hazards, you will likely encounter motor oil along the way. Cars leak oil. Unless you are superhuman, you will at some point step into or onto some of this oil. And skin does not necessarily grip an oily surface as well as shoes can. So you may slip and fall, at which point your dirty feet will be the least of your problems. Oh, fun!