At the beginning of April I wrote this post, which was initially going to be on trainers, but ended up more about barefoot running. At the end of it I decided that I would give barefoot running a go, just to see what it was like, though I was slightly apprehensive as to what this might do to the soles of my feet.
Near the start of the trail - notice the reasonably clean feet!
Reading Born to Run a little while ago also raised the notion of barefoot running and it’s possible advantages. The book did seem to make out that running shoes were completely unnecessary and that everyone would be better off without them (though you have to wonder why, if this fact is as well known as Christopher McDougall makes out, you rarely see a barefoot runner).
To ease myself into the idea of barefoot running I decided to try the Barfuss walk in Trentham and so went there yesterday with Claire, Scribs and Lauren. It’s a 1000m (though it seemed a lot shorter) path through the gardens that has a number of different surfaces, based on a natural theme, and generally broken into sections of about 10-20m. We had stones of all sizes, logs, grass, water, woodchips and mud – which was surprisingly deep, and funny :-)
Getting muddy.
The idea of walking barefoot on these different surfaces stems from the principles of Sebastian Kneipp, a priest in the 1800′s who is most famous for his hydrotherapy techniques but also incorporated barefoot walking into his treatments, believing that walking barefoot could cure the body of a myriad of illnesses.
I’m not sure if doing the Trentham Barefoot Trail could cure me of consumption but it was certainly interesting. I found it best if you take your time and really pay attention to the different surfaces under your feet, not just the different shapes and textures but the temperatures as well. Speed round the trail also seemed to be dependent on just how tough the undersides of your feet are. I was hobbling over some of the gravel like it was hot coals and Scribs was miles ahead of me like he was walking on a pile of feathers.
Standing in the water section doesn't really do much to get the mud off.
Overall, it was good fun (we even went round twice) and I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn’t ill at the moment. Trentham seem to have it covered by providing lockers to keep your shoes in at the start, along with some taps to wash the mud off your feet when you’re done (though the water was freezing and washing all the mud off was an impossible task – flip flops were definately an advantage). On the downside it cost me £6 for a student ticket to get into the Italian Gardens where the Barefoot Trail is located.
So now that I’m prepared for the barefoot world I shall be attempting a barefoot run…as soon as I’ve found somewhere that looks gentle enough!
Many thanks to Claire for taking the above photos.
