Jason Runs in Red Sprint FiveFingers

By Justin Owings on Aug 26, 2009 | In User Stories | Leave a comment »

Jason ("Ardent" on the forums) sent in the above photo of his slightly muddied red and black Vibram fivefinger Sprints*. Jason's been regularly running in his Sprints now since early this year. Here is what he had to say about the experience:

At the time this pic was taken (feb) I was converting from ordinary run shoes to vffs alternating from one shoe to the other and slowly increasing the amount of runs in the vffs. I now only run in vffs. Road, pavement, fields, paths, tracks, whatever. However, back in Feb we had snow, to be fair it was melting at this point but plenty undisturbed in the fields. Looking at the sole of sprints tells you there is going to be minimal grip when it comes to snow, mud and sludge. I was right. I set off along a bridal path and was skittling about like bambi on ice and having a great time. The thing I always remember was the thought of the expression on peoples faces that followed. All these seemingly barefoot footprints.

Even though I had been running through snow my feet where strangely warm (wet suit effect). The sprints were only this clean as crossed a stream shortly before the end of the run. I have gone on to clock over 220 miles in the sprints. Done the Prestwold 10k in June, caused many double takes afterwards.

Jason regularly blogs about his training pursuits, including those in his VFF Sprints at his blog here. Thanks for sharing, Jason!

* My favorite color combo**, the red and black Sprints make your feet look irradiated—like anthropomorphized Martian feet. They look particularly creepy in darkly lighted rooms (like movie theaters).

** I'm a University of Georgia alum, what can I say?

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 754 articles and 302 comments.