Dirty hippy

You should have seen the look of disgust I got from a girl who was out walking her dog in the woods when she saw me running past with my bare feet covered in mud. But hey, if it takes being a social pariah to be able to run pain free, so be it. I've always been a bit odd.

Isn't the whole point of getting insoles that you get to run without problems? I think mine are broken, because my knee doesn't get any relief when I run in them. When I take my shoes off, on the other hand, it loves it. That's not news, of course. It has felt like that ever since I started making my comeback to running, one step at a time.

The news, the revelation, the profound epiphany of today's 4,3 km was that you can, in fact, run barefoot even on trails. Actually, it is so much softer than running on gravel or on tarmac. It's like your feet are being massaged with kittens. And the advantage of running on a trail versus running on kittens? The trail doesn't mind that you're running on it. The trail wants you to run on it. Our bare feet and trail? True love. We're talking Romeo and Juliet here, people.

 

The girl with the dog wasn't the only one giving me looks, although the rest of the people I met on my run only glanced discreetly. I couldn't help thinking about how something that has been so natural for the vast majority of humankind's time on this planet is now something that is frowned upon by some.

They're starting to look lonely

Of course the weather was perfect for a swim, because I didn't have my bathing suit with me

As I washed off the mud in the lukewarm lake afterwards, I even remembered a comment an old couple made, when they saw me running, holding my VFF in my hands, last year:

”But you have shoes!”