Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Is Running Barefoot Illegal During Races?

In Japan, running barefoot during running races are getting banned over the past few years. I think this is in a way good news because it means more people are trying to run barefoot.

Once I wrote about if running barefoot during track meets are legal or not.   IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) actually allows to run barefoot during the track meets. But in some cases, race organizers or the track itself do not allow to run barefoot. So in those cases, you cannot run barefoot.

The reason why these organizers are banning to compete barefoot is that it is way too dangerous because  a lot of athletes on track wear spikes.

I had an argument about this with people in the field.  I told them, what's dangerous is the spikes, not barefoot. so when both spikes and barefoot are allowed, and if you have to bann one of them because it's dangerous, why barefoot running gets banned?  It is spikes that harm people, so if anything, shouldn't spikes be banned?

the answer to that was so childish. they said, because everyone wears spikes...

so i guess the majority rule applies. nothing else to be added from them.

anyway, so outside of track meets like road races, OFFICIALLY it is allowed to run barefoot, but if race organizers ban barefoot running, then you cannot run barefoot. simple enough?

but we should all remember that sports always have restrictions on items so that people cannot cheat. and the LEAST cheating items which is barefoot is getting banned... and reality is that people cannot run without shoe support, so it means wearing shoes are cheating in a way. but should we take this as the flow of the times, so it cannot be helped?

i rarely run races and if i do, i wear vibrams if the distance is more than a half marathon so it doesn't really affect me. but for the people who wants to run barefoot, it does affect them.

i want to say that at least running barefoot is admitted by IAAF,  so all official races that are admitted by IAAF should allow people to run barefoot. this is not about barefoot running is good or bad, but it's about legal or not.

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