I ran barefoot for 3 years in college in XC,indoor and outdoor so unless something changed it is perfectly legal. Also most of the college xc courses are quite nice in terms of mostly grass etc and if you train a fair amount of the time without shoes then your feet will have no problem handling it.
one other amusing thing that came up on this thread that people always used to say about getting your feet stepped on- noone ever stepped on my feet etc. If you think about it getting your feet stepped on would be just as bad with or without shoes on. Also its virtually impossible to step on someone elses feet during a race you would have to be running in the same place as them. Anyway it never came up obv.
Since im blabbering about it one thing I would say is that dont do too many workouts barefoot- its fine in XC but lots of laps in workouts on track wears you down a little. Plus I prefer now to save the racing "shoes" heh for the race.
thanks everyone
...and last but not least you could ask all the other competitors to take their shoes off as well. Fun, not to mention great visuals!
if you are going to go ahead and be shoeless why not just do that with the rest of your body and go nude. it would feel mighty fine. i'm sure there is nothing wrong with that.
Didn't Kiran run barefoot at Nebraska?
Beowulf would be mighty proud
joknos wrote:
if you are going to go ahead and be shoeless why not just do that with the rest of your body and go nude. it would feel mighty fine. i'm sure there is nothing wrong with that.
hannsen wrote:
I ran barefoot for 3 years in college in XC,indoor and outdoor so unless something changed it is perfectly legal. Also most of the college xc courses are quite nice in terms of mostly grass etc and if you train a fair amount of the time without shoes then your feet will have no problem handling it.
Rules have changed. It's part of the uniform rule. Any meet director can/should DQ you. The NCAA rules are very clear about it. They did not DQ anyone at D3 Nationals a few years ago when it was pure mud, but if it's clear you kick them off someone will notice.
just run
Dale Story of Oregon State won the NCAA XC title in 1961 barefoot. It was four miles over a golf course at Michigan State
I remember seeing an East-African-looking dude running barefoot at Paul Short in either 1999 or 2000. We also saw an albino squirrel before the race, then had a terrible day, and always thought albino squirrels were a curse after that.
What college did you compete for?
quenton wrote:
Vibram Five Fingers are heavier than a lot of spikes, so you might want to rethink that.
Maybe, but they don't squeeze your toes in.
Albino Squirrel wrote:
I remember seeing an East-African-looking dude running barefoot at Paul Short in either 1999 or 2000. We also saw an albino squirrel before the race, then had a terrible day, and always thought albino squirrels were a curse after that.
It was probably just a coincidence.
I have seen a number of South Africans run XC barefoot here in the USA. I wouldn't ever do it but for some reason they like to run barefooted.