Barefoot Runners Society Atlanta Trail Run — Lots of Vibram Five Fingers (and a few bare feet!)

Action shot! Look at all that great barefoot/minimalist running form! Kudos to Norman (black headband) for braving the trail run barefoot -- his first ever such run!

Check out this motley crew of barefoot and minimally shod (Vibram Five Fingers) runners, as organized for a trail run at Lullwater Park here in Atlanta, Georgia (BirthdayShoes headquarters) by the Barefoot Runners Society. Note the President of the BRS is T.J. (the shorty in the group!). The bright glow emanating from the left of the photo isn't an optical illusion: it's merely my hairless head!

I had the pleasure yesterday of attending a group trail run at a local, in town natural park here in Atlanta — the Lullwater Park Trail, which is adjacent to (or part of) Emory University. The run was organized by the newly founded Barefoot Runners Society (Georgia Chapter) and in attendance was RunnersWorld barefoot running forum founder, President of the BRS, the fantastic T.J. (Tamara)!

Out of the eight of us in our group, three ran full-out barefoot on the trail, which included a bit of gnarly gravel, but was mostly composed of wonderful sandy spots by a rolling creek as well as a run across a suspension bridge (got a bit wavy)! I think the total run was only a bit over two miles though I know the experts in the group could have gone a lot longer. For my newbie running experience, it was a perfect run for a Sunday morning.

I sported the KSO Treks as did one of our groups leaders Jim. Jim has a great post on his Vibram experience at his blog Wisdom of the West titled "Fringe" — it's worth the read! We also had a couple Vibram KSO wearers and there were a couple Sprints in the group, too.

All in all, it was a beautiful day for a trail run here in Atlanta and it was great to meet local barefooting and minimalist running enthusiasts. If you're not already plugged into a local group, I highly recommend finding one — even if you're more of a lone runner you might make some new friends. I find VFFs are typically only the tip of the iceberg as far as having stuff in common with other fans.

Thanks to Scott Lenhart for taking the group photos (as well as to random guy walking the park!). Enjoyed meeting everyone in attendance!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 843 articles and 379 comments.