Last Monday, July 18, 2011, I gave my first formal talk on Barefoot Running at the local REI in Stockton, CA. There was quite a good turn out. The room was pretty much full and had a handful of familiar faces - my parents (of course), my wife's cousin (who is now training barefoot with me), a couple of my old shod training buddies, a neighbor, and the father of a buddy of mine (both of whom are runners. It also turned out that one of my high school PE coaches was present in the audience. He approached me after the talk. That was pretty cool.
Going into the presentation I was worried that I would not be able to fill the time slot of an hour plus. In the end, it was perfectly timed. I had intended to video the presentation and even had the camera set up. However, in my nervous state just before the talk, I forgot to turn on the camera!
For the presentation I gave a brief introduction of how I came to BFR, a little about the Barefoot Runners Society, a brief history of BFR, how to get started in BFR, and a discussion of minimalist running. I had planned to show a couple of short video clips of Barefoot KenBob, Last Place Jason, and Lieberman's video of impact forces, however, due to a technical glitch in my powerpoint I was unable to play the videos. Nonetheless, the night went fairly well and people seemed to enjoy the talk. I hope that the local barefoot running scene picks up, since it would be nice to have some local runners to train with.
I may offer to do a class on the actual implementation of BFR next time rather than just talking about it. All in all, I had fun.
This is the link to the article that The Record did on barefoot running in advance of my presentation last Monday night at REI in Stockton. Enjoy!
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110718/A_LIFE/107160313/-1/A_LIFE
Terry, one of the people quoted in the article you linked is in the picture you posted on this page, too (on left in black cap): http://barefootterry.blogspot.com/2011/05/international-barefoot-running-day-san.html I think one of the Record writers is in our running club.
ReplyDeleteHey Matt, I think you are referring to C-Dog from our club. He was quoted in the article. I don't know for sure if there is a Record writer in the BRS. It would be cool to know though!
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