Michigan Chapter
Welcome to the Michigan Chapter of the Barefoot Runners Society!
The Michigan Chapter of the Barefoot Runners Society continues to grow! As of November 9th 2011, WE HAVE 143 MEMBERS. Please take a minute to add yourself to the Michigan Chapter Member Map! Instructions on how to do so can be found in the Michigan Chapter Forum! Thanks!
View Michigan Chapter Member Map in a larger map
Upcoming Events in MI:
GROUP RUNS:
RACES:
November 13: Jingle Bell Run/Walk for Arthritis (Portage) Chapter Prez is captaining the Kalamazoo Area Runners team (which is kicking butt, by the way). It would be great if some other BFRs crashed the party! If anyone would like to donate, you can do so at my fundraising page.
WORKSHOPS/CLINICS:
Nothing on the horizon, but as I learn of them I will post them here!
International Barefoot Running Day - May 6, 2012:
I am hoping to get some interest from you all in joining me in Kalamazoo for IBRD 2012 which happens to coincide with the "Borgess Run for the Health of it" event in Kalamazoo, which features a 5k, half marathon and full marathon. With the variety of distances I think we could have most experience levels covered nicely! Also, pending spousal approval, I may be able to provide either/or a yard to camp out in, or some space in the house for people who want to come but can't afford lodging. This is not written in stone and I have yet to even present this plan of mine to my better half, but I am fairly sure 8 months notice should be enough time to convince her! 
Several folkd have already said they would be there and I'm hoping for many more! It's gonna be fun on tha bun!
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Seven seen running barefoot indoors at the Ann Arbor Track Club indoor workout a couple of weeks ago.
Before the holidays, at the indoor tuesday evening run with the AA Track Club, there were 7 people running barefoot at one point.
Last Tuesday, three were barefoot all the way.
The surface is great. Doors open at 7pm, low-key run at any pace starting at 7:30. Come and try it. $5 drop in fee. http://www.aatrackclub.org/
Fat Ass Marathon, December 11th!
I posted this over in the 'other' chapter thingy, but thought I'd put it here to. Here's the original posting:
Hey folks,
There's a 'Fat Ass' marathon coming up. I guess 'Fat Ass' designate 'free', and this will be my first, but basically it's just a bunch of people getting together of their own accord to run a marathon. It's in Brighton, north of Ann Arbor. And, it's a trail marathon.
Potential November Group Run: Planning
OK Folks! I'm looking to plan a group run for the weekend of November 19th if anyone is interested. Whether it's the 19th or 20th largely depends on my wife's work schedule, as "retail season" is starting to ramp up, but I am hoping she'll either have one of those days off or at the very least work an evening shift so I can get away in the morning
A year of epic BFR experiences, now considering cold feet and an Ann Arbor BFR friendly shoe store.
Greetings Friends,
I am completing my first year of running. Barefoot running. I ran some 5ks, a 10k, a half-M barefoot and one in luna sandals (I still wonder why), and I also ran my first marathon, barefoot, in Detroit. The marathon is an amazing experience. I look forward to another. To the core, I am a barefoot runner. I believe the prophecy that we are built to run well. I so adore the real and true experience of feeling the ground when I run.
Bad Apple Ultra
The Bad apple was a bad apple. Mother nature did not cooperate for the first twelve miles of the race. I pulled the plug at 11hours and 48 miles later. I had time to do another 4 mile loop but did not see the point. I accomplished the miles I had hoped to do at a minimum. If I had been at 56 with the ability to reach 60 I would have dragged my self around the course one more time.
Detroit and GR marathons? How'd everyone do?
Hey folks. Well, I did 4:07 at Detroit today. Saw one other BFers, doing the half (after only running BF since September!) and numerous VFFers.
Winter Meet-Up Discussion
I've started a discussion thread over in the Michigan Chapter Forum to discuss Meet-Ups over the winter months and whether any of you guys continue to run in the "offseason". Please throw in your 2 cents because I'm trying to figure out how we want to handle things over the winter (outdoors, find an indoor track somewhere, sit at the bar, etc.).
drop in and make your voice heard!
October Meet-up?
Heya Gang!
October's coming up fast and we're quickly running out of barefoot-friendly temperatures for 2011! It would be great to get a bunch of folks together before it gets too cold out and I know people are busy the first few weeks of the month, so I was thinking of something like this:
October 23rd (a sunday)
Hawk Island Park, Lansing
maybe 10AMish?
what do you all think? Sound like something you might be able to attend? Is there a better weekend?
Chapter Member Map!
OK everybody! I have started up a Michigan Chapter Member Map over at Google Maps!
I have tried to embed the map on the Chapter Page, but it's not working yet. You can see the link for it just above "Upcoming Events..." Hopefully I can figure out what I'm doing wrong and get the map to show up soon.
My races for the Fall
Hey all. Here's a list of races I'm registered for this Fall. Let me know if you know of others. The two 50Ks at the end I've been too lazy to get the dates on. Hope to see some of you at some of these!
Races Fall 2011
August Chapter Meet-Up!!!
OK people, so this is way late in the game, being as the event is this coming Sunday in Grand Rapids, but after seeing that we have several members who will be attending I am going to unilaterally declare the Naked Foot 5k as our August Meet-Up. Gather somewhere close to the registration table so we can find each other!
Kers5280 has been kind enough to get us a discount code good for $10 off the entry fee: NFdiscount2011
Blog, event reviews, videos
Hi folks,
My brother and I just ran the Tough Mudder in WI last weekend, it was ridiculously fun. Because I've run a couple of events now and am having a great time, and because he's got a fancy HD camera, we've decided to blog and video blog a bit about events we're participating in.
We've got some videos up of the mudder that are pretty hilarious:
http://www.youtube.com/user/KnuckleDraggers2?feature=mhsn#p/a/u/0/PTwp_P...
http://www.youtube.com/user/KnuckleDraggers2?feature=mhsn#p/a/u/1/VdpcMs...
Steve's Run, Dowagiac, this Saturday, July 30
Is anyone running Steve's Run in Dowagiac this weekend?
I'm registered for the 10K (my first!) and the course appears to be barefoot-friendly. Has anyone here done it before? Can you confirm or deny its barefoot-friendliness?
http://www.active.com/running/dowagiac-mi/steves-run-2011
Scooter
Chapter Group Run Planning!
Had a great run today at Hawk Island County Park with Colleen, John and Tim! We had a staggering 3% of our membership show up for what was a great morning of running and bagels!
Now we just need to raise the bar for attendance, so I will continue my efforts to get feedback from the membership for locations, events and dates for group runs. Hawk Island was a great park for a run, so we will probably revist the location in the future, but there are a couple events coming up in August and September I thought I would toss out there as Ideas:
