Curious to know your current race (running) time improvement since going barefoot/minimalist.
No improvement. I’m at pretty much PR pace for short-distance running, ran my turkey thanksgiving 5k at 18:53 which is not too far off my all-time younger of 18:30ish, adjusted for age. I didn’t run full out barefoot for that one, but used minimalist shoes with zero midsole (just a 2mm sole, and that’s it, near as close to minimalist as you can get.)
Again, you don’t go minimalist to go faster, there are no shoes or lack of shoes that make you run faster, aside from the claims of Nike’s new shoe. But I’m hoping it’ll stave off knee and hip degeneration that runs in my family - my mom is due for bilateral knee replacements and was a sedentary nonathlete, so it wasn’t overuse that caused it. Run form is MUCH better with the minimalist shoes, but it is true that I can’t just go out and hammer out an overdistance 20 miler like I used to while slogging away with ugly heel striking dragging feet - and that’s a good thing, as I suspect a lot of the arthritis comes when you’re doing exactly that - slogging away miles when you shouldn’t be because you’re not prepared enough for it.
Funny thing - I was going to run that thanksgiving 5k barefoot, but since I wasn’t sure how much debris on the course could slow me down, decided against it. The guy who finished one place ahead of me was at least 50, running totally barefoot, and the guy who finished right behind me wore the same minimalist "Tesla’ branded shoes. There were at least 5 other barefoot folks in the race, both fast and midpack, and I was afraid I’d be ‘that’ weird guy if I went barefoot! (Next year for sure barefoot, even though I def run slightly faster with some skin protection.)
Thanks for sharing your experience. From your many posts, you are obviously a current proponent of barefoot.minimalist running. As you clearly laid out, I would just caution folks to be careful and thoroughly scrutinize their own expectations before going barefoot/minimalist.