NYC Barefoot Run 2011 Recap

Had the fantastic opportunity to get up to New York City for the 2011 NYC Barefoot Run this past weekend. Special thanks to Merrell Barefoot for getting me up there — you want to talk about a company that cares about an authentic supporter of the…

Various photos from the 2011 NYC Barefoot Run on September 25, 2011, on Governor's Island.
Various photos from the 2011 NYC Barefoot Run on September 25, 2011, on Governor's Island.

You can jump around on this post (as it’s a bit long) via these links or the pagination/navigation below:

Saturday

Sadly, I woke up with something of a bug (I swear I wasn’t hungover) Saturday and didn’t make it to the running clinics. My loss as it looks like they were a blast.

Thankfully, I was well on the mend by lunch and made it to the super-secret private meeting of barefoot and minimalist shoes enthusiasts led by Merrell. Basically, Merrell’s marketing group, designers, and the President of their Outdoor Group wanted to hear our thoughts about the barefoot running/minimalist footwear movement, where we thought it was going, how it might be growing, and more.

What transpired was a fascinating round table discussion that jumped from the importance of foot-friendly shoes for kids to having the legendary Amby Burfoot interjecting with a comment that amounted to calling us all a bit off our rockers.

The whole afternoon just evidenced (to me) that Merrell really does “get it” when it comes to taking the barefoot movement seriously and wanting to get their product “right” while also encouraging people to actually go barefoot. In attendence (H/T to Christian Peterson — a.k.a. “Maple Grove Barefoot Guy” — for building this list and demonstrating what it means to be awesome for us at the meeting!):

A couple folks from Vibram also were there, too.

It was a fun discussion and I happened to video a minute of it. Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, who recently won the Air Force Marathon with a time of 2:38:48 and runs Two Rivers Treads (“The first walking and running specialty retail to promote spending as much time barefoot as possible.”), talks about the “big picture” (the 97% of the population that doesn’t run).

That there is a huge population of non-runners out there who could all benefit from more foot friendly shoes is something I see as exceedingly important — mostly because that’s how I came to minimalist footwear in the first place (as a non-runner).

Oh and who ran a sub-5 minute mile? It was Barefoot Josh Sutcliffe! He ran the 5th Avenue Mile race in 4:57 Saturday morning! You know, just for fun.

By Justin

Justin Owings is a deadlifting dad of three, working from Atlanta. When he's not chasing his three kids around, you'll find him trying to understand systems, risk, and human behavior.

7 replies on “NYC Barefoot Run 2011 Recap”

IT was awesome. Sorry I did not get to meet you Justin.

After meeting all the greats and making new friends I came back motivated to start up a Rhode Island Chapter.

MY previous PR was 13 miles, I came back and this week did a 16 then a glorious 26.2 miles in 4:14 all barefoot. Best part is no soreness, no issues other than the usual bit of tenderness on the soles.

Now 3 days later, I went out and did a nice 3 miler feeling great.

See you next year!

Barefootin’ the way we were meant to be…

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