Barefoot... On the Track?

The temperature outside this morning in River City, upstate New York, is 3°F, with a windchill of -10°F signalling the fact that winter has finally arrived (this time for sure!). So, as schools are closing and the local newscasts are sending reporters into the cold to discuss driving in snow, one's thoughts naturally turn to... being barefoot?

This topic comes courtesy of a "seventeen degrees of separation"-type thought process which began with my backtracking through the search engine that brings visitors to this blog. In going backwards I stumbled into the search terms which bring (brought?) folks here, and it was there that I realized that the terms "run feet" also lead folks to a website called the Society for Barefoot Living which espouses a more "bare" lifestyle.

My first memory of really being aware of the art of running outside what I was required to do in physical education class was during the 1984 L.A. Summer Olympics. Like most 14 year-olds, I did not have a crush on super-cutie (and freshly minted 39 year-old) Mary Lou Retton, but was more smitten with American track star Mary Decker Slaney.

So what does that have to do with being barefoot?

Wikipedia can summarize better than I:

Decker was heavily favored to win a gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics, held at Los Angeles. In the 3000 meters final, (South African) Zola Budd (now Pieterse), running barefoot half a stride ahead of Decker, moved to the inside lane, inadvertently crowding Decker, who collided with Budd and fell spectacularly to the curb. Decker's hip was injured and she was unable to resume the race... Track officials initially disqualified Budd for obstruction, but she was reinstated just one hour later once officials had viewed films of the race.

Zola originally shot to international fame in 1984, when at the age of 17, she broke the women's 5000 meter world record, while running barefoot. Unfortunately for her, since her performance took place in apartheid South Africa, the world track and field establishment refused to recognize the record, until she later broke it again, this time in Europe.

So are folks still participating in the niche art of running barefoot? I do seem to recall reading in one runner's magazine or another about folks who still use this practice...

Adio, wli nanawalmezi.