2 favourite activities

Running and being barefeet are 2 of my favourites...

And since the 2^nd anniversary of my barefoot life is nearing (3 week ahead), I decided to combine these 2 activities, even though its raining regularly.  Of course, an added bonus was, a 7 month old Doberman dog, which is happy to accompany me on this run.  I will write about it later. 

I took a path, through the forest area nearby for this run and its about 2km long.  It’s a mud path, and there are streams of water running through various parts of this path.  Due to my barefeet, I could feel, soft mud, slippery mud, hard mud, grassy mud, watery mud and so on, as I run through them. 

This path, through which I run at a moderate speed, would be impossible to go through with almost any kind of footwear.  There are areas where water levels are ankle deep, and sticky mud filled areas and so on.  I won’t recommend this jogging path to a newbie barefooter, but then I have been almost barefoot 24/7 for last 2 years and toughened up considerably. 

During this run, there are so many unique experiences.  I haven’t met any person in ths forest path stretch so far.  But I never felt lonely… rather, these runs almost feel meditative.  Though I am not running blindly or without care, but with atmost observation of my jogging path and caution.  The dog takes its own route and goes away to explore but makes sure it doesn’t lose me at all… and helping me understand the phrase ‘follows like a dog’ in totality. 

While running barefoot, the forefoot strikes the ground first.  The outer edges of the forefoot (the area just below your 3 small toes) hits the ground and then cushions the fall of the rest of the foot.  When you run through muddy areas, your foot will sink in, and if the ground is wet and soft enough, then mud will push through your toes up… this is a wonderful feeling, which has to be experienced and cannot be described in mere words.  

There is a reason too – as our toes are curved, one part of them do not generally come in contact with any surface, unless our feet sinks in.  thus the bottom part of our toes which are connected to our feet is like a virgin and this mud stimulates that area (now I hope you can imagine the sensation).  

Anyway, even though I run through all kinds of surfaces, I have not gotten hurt so far.  Not surprising to me now, but if someone had told so couple of years ago, I wouldn’t have believed and would have totally argued against it just like you want to…  (and now, see ya later, barefooter).