Thank you, Ansie, for submitting a Yay For Me to the Run Barefoot Girl podcast!
(If YOU would like to share a great barefoot experience – check out the Yay For Me page for more information!)
“I live in Pretoria in South Africa. I have always run barefoot so for me it is normal to not wear shoes to run. In South Africa at school we always ran barefoot including for cross-country runs. Running barefoot is not very usual in South Africa, although in Pretoria it is probably more than elsewhere. Some runners do wear barefoot shoes – this I cannot understand, I think it must be either just barefoot or not. I run usually about 10km per day in the street and a park circuit (about 3km on gravel path). I have done 2 half-marathons so far but do not do races much. The furthest I have run at one time was a charity run of 30km. Actually I go barefoot most of the time but must wear sandals for work, but our weather is right for this, not ever too cold. In Afrikaans we say “Kaalvoet draf” for running barefoot. I once bought a pair of running shoes for a competition race because they said I could not do it barefoot and when I arrived I found there were 2 other runners with barefoot (so I ran barefoot and won! – I still have those shoes – never used!). Naturally my feet are very used now to being barefoot. I run sometimes with a number of other girls from my work, they were interested that I run always barefoot and at first they would not be barefoot but some now sometimes do.”
Thank you, Ansie!
