Yes, that person is wearing shoes. For a few months now, I’ve been intrigued by the concept of barefoot running. When I lived in the downtown area, I ran 4-5 miles nearly every day. It was fun and challenging, with endless stop lights to race against (and timed so well that you can just go faster and faster until you’re nearly all-out for half a mile). Since I was running so much I started to develop shin splints on a fairly regular basis. After a little research, I found that heelstriking was the likely culprit, and changed my style to land on the balls of my feet. Almost immediately, I could run every day completely pain-free.

Sadly, I’m no longer able to run my course through downtown anymore (unless I want to ride my bike in 6+ miles first), although I still am running in a better style. I saw these shoes sometime last year, and figured it as the next (if a bit “extreme”) logical step. I grew up running around barefoot half the time, so I couldn’t imagine it’d be a difficult transition. Though I grabbed a pair of Vibram FiveFingers KSOs at REI on Monday evening, I haven’t been able to take them out running yet. Lounging around is plenty comfortable and easy though, and I hope to get out for a couple miles after work today. With any luck, I’ll be running the half marathon in them. I’ll report back as soon as I get a chance to run in them.