Ok, for all of you exhibitionists who were looking for an opportunity to run in your birthday suit upon seeing the title of this post, I’m sorry, we’re not there….yet. 2013, maybe. However, Agoodrun.com and The Naked Foot 5K race series have recently teamed up to develop a fun competition for nine readers of this blog, all for a good cause. The competition includes a free race entry for nine runners and the opportunity to do a good thing for a chance to win a free pair of shoes. More below.
The Naked Foot 5K is a national race series that occurs in ten U.S. cities where people bring shoes to donate to the charity Soles4Souls and then have the option to run barefoot! After the run, the race organizers host a healthy living expo with fitness demos, shoe demos, organic food samples, live music and more! They even host a free run for children during each event. While running barefoot is optional, founders of the series, Scott and Lauren Jones are both exercise physiologists and encourage the minimalist runner’s lifestyle and the benefits that it brings.
As many of you know, running barefoot or with minimalist shoes has taken off over the past few years. I first got a glimpse of minimalist shoes when running in the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati, Ohio. Unfortunately, the guy wearing the shoes took the minimalist lifestyle pretty serious, wearing only a speedo and a fake derriere as his race attire. It just so happened that he and I were running the same pace the ENTIRE race. I couldn’t shake him, but it provided for a pretty ASSinine story.
BUTT anyways (ok, I’m done), I’m a sucker for a great cause and I love the mission of Soles4Souls. The organization collects new shoes to give relief to the victims of abject suffering and collects used shoes to support micro-business efforts to eradicate poverty. I think that’s pretty noble, and I’d love to mobilize a few readers to help them out.
So here’s the competition and the benefits of it. I am looking for one person to run (with a free race entry – normal race fee of $35) in The Naked Foot 5K in each of the following cities.
- Salt Lake City – May 26
- Washington D.C. – June 23,24
- Denver – July 21
- Minneapolis – July 26
- Grand Rapids – July 29
- Nashville – September 15
- Seattle – September 29
- Austin – October 6
- Santa Barbara – October 27
The runner who collects the most pairs of shoes to donate at the race, wins a FREE pair of Altra minimalist running shoes (normally $99). I’ll ask each runner to take a picture with all of the shoes that they collect, send along the number of shoes and write a short post about their experience. If this isn’t a competition for you, ask your kid(s) if they might be interested. It may be a great way to get them interested in running for a good cause.
To secure your spot, leave a comment on the post about which city you’d like to book. First come, first served. I’ll get you linked up with the race to get registered for free. I’ll also place you on my calendar of runners for the year.
In the meantime, I’m going to take my new pair of Altra shoes for a test run and will have a review of them soon. Thanks Lauren! I may even consider ordering one of these to complete the outfit. Oh yeah, if you’d like to drop off old shoes for a good cause, see Soles4Souls’ dropoff locations across the United State. I think you’ll be surprised how close a location is to you.
