The Barefoot Team
The Muse
This is our son. He has been the reason for moving out of the big smoke, as well as the need to teach about good choices.
The Brains
This is Suse. She cares little for barefoot running, but she is a thinker and an ideas person. She is the out of the box thinker.
The Lab
This is Jasper. He also cares little about barefoot running, as he is permanently bare-footing it. He is the motivation to go out and run, for if he doesn't exercise, he becomes irrational.
The Barefooter
This is Ben. He does care about barefoot running. In general he likes running. But having transitioned to barefoot runners 10 years prior to today, he quite likes the novelty, and the physical benefits he feels it brings to him.
A little more background to The Barefoot Daddy…
I am, for the most part, a stay at home dad. We moved out of the smoke of London to the wilds of Wiltshire when our son was 3 months old.
Over the next 3-4 yrs, we grew (and still are growing) a toddler. But we’ve bound other things to that job. When our son was 6 months old, we added a dog, Jasper, to the family. That seemed like it; and then 2 yrs ago, my wife returned to a proper job. Being that I run a business that allows me to work from home, I became the “stay at home parent”, though this all happened without any major forward planning, it just presented itself to us.
We then moved house a second time, to accommodate my wife’s job, and not blight on family life by her having drive hours a day to get to work.
At this stage, still in the country, at our second White Horse, our son (and dog) were 3 yrs old, and a parenting system seemed to have settled in. My wife would essentially head to work, I’d drop the boy at nursery, and then take the dog out.
Enter barefoot running. I have been essentially a barefooter since my time living in Canada, where, in a bid to be different (I was running longer distances then) I bought my first pair of New Balance Minimus. They took a bit of getting used to but over the following 8/9 yrs I ran them to shreds. On my return to the UK, I discovered the Vibram Five Fingers and so adopted them, until earlier this year, I wanted another “standard” barefoot runner and got a pair of Merrell Vapour Gloves, of which I now vary, depending on terrain.
I will say that it’s only been since the dog has actually been allowed to run with me (they can’t run until they’re 12-18 months old) that the running bug, and for that matter, barefoot running bug, has really bitten again. I’ve picked up some injuries over the last couple of years; a niggling knee injury that spurned from running longer distances previously and a case of plantar fasciitis; these have forced me to get deeper into the running, and my technique....
Through the running, I’ve realised I needed to lose weight, and what’s worked for me previously has been a lower carb regime. So planning supper for the family, I’ve started to really focus on what’s tasty, and what would be accepted by a toddler, as well as my wife. Having had an education/ career that focussed on food, this has taken route in what I like to do, and I seem to be improving my cooking creativity with the goal of feeding my family.
Finally, pallets... this has just become some sort of obsession over the last few years. I’ve had no training, but enjoy the building process, and while my projects are fairly simple, this string has firmly entrenched itself in my bow.
