Barefoot Ken Bob

Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton, in addition to being an Information Technology Consultant (computer technician) at CSULB, is also the founder, maintainer, president, webmaster, and driving force behind the Running Barefoot website, and, to a large extent, the growing movement towards Running Barefoot in general.

First of all, let’s clear up a few things…

There is a tendency, at least for some journalists and publicists, some of the time, to romanticize, to idolize, certain individuals – to make them seem somehow far above the rest of us mere mortals, as if what they do and say are things that nobody else could possibly do – using extreme terms, like always, never, ultimate, untiring, enduring, bullet-proof, tough, etc., to describe the things we do and say.

So, right now, let me clear up some misconceptions based on media reports, and what even some of my close friends believe I do…

1. I do NOT and never have run to and from work EVERY day.
2. I do NOT run 26 mile (or longer) EVERY day.
3. I do NOT run EVERY day.
4. I am NOT ALWAYS running.
5. I am NOT the fastest runner in the world, country, state, county, city, on my block, or even in my home. (Herman, our dog, can easily out-sprint me)!
6. I did NOT invent, or discover Running Barefoot (although I did start the Running Barefoot website)
7. I do not run a marathon EVERY month (though I did in 2004)
8. I was not an athlete in school or college (I was often the last picked to be on a team in physical education class).
9. My feet are not special, other than that they developed naturally strong and healthy through natural use.
10. I am not impervious to pain. If anything, I am more sensitive than average, which is why I choose not to wear uncomfortable shoes.

History

Barefoot Ken Bob was born Kenneth Robert Saxton, to Don and Mavis Saxton on 1955 July 28, at the Munson Medical Center, in Traverse City, Michigan. Even though his parents thought nothing of it at the time, Ken Bob was, oddly enough, born without shoes on his feet!

Ken Bob often went barefoot during his childhood, and perhaps even more, into his adulthood. Ken Bob was often Running Barefoot around the forests, swamps, fields, and lakes near his family home in Grawn, Michigan (just outside Traverse City).

But, in the winter, Ken Bob wasn’t opposed to keeping his feet warm, even if it meant wearing shoes, though nice roomy boots were much more comfortable, and even warmer, than restrictive shoes.

When Ken Bob did wear shoes, for school or work, within a few weeks, his outer toes, in a futile attempt to make the shoes conform to the natural shape of a human foot, would rip holes in the sides of his shoes.

Throughout grade school, when dress shoes were still required attire, the backs of Ken Bobs ankles were often blistered, just above the heel, from the shoes constant digging into the ankle. Who designed these things, anyway!

In grade school and junior high school (middle school), Ken Bob didn’t think he liked running, because during those years, he was taught that running was running really hard, for a very short distance, so that you felt like vomiting. Later he discovered that this was sprinting, and would wonder why schools didn’t put a little more attention on the much healthier distance running.

From age 12 through age 15, Ken Bob delivered the Traverse City Record Eagle newspaper to the front doors of 50-75 customers over a 5-7 mile route, 6 days a week (except holidays). He usually used a bicycle, sometimes, depending on the weather, had to walk part of the route, or be driven by parents or older siblings. Ken Bob was rarely one to be tied to conventional ways of thinking or doing things. He occassionally delivered the newspapers on horseback.

In senior high school, physical education classes began to emphasize distance running – less than a mile – for all the students. However, many of the students were so out of shape by this age, they could barely finish a quarter mile walking!

The first time the class ran a mile, Ken went out at what he figured was an easy enough pace, but some of the athletes looked at him and warned him he should go out slower, because it was a full mile. But, Ken continued at his steady pace and finished his first full mile of running in under 7 minutes. The last day in physical education class, those who finished a mile in under 6 minutes got to go to the showers and leave early. Finishing in 5:42, Ken Bob was a bit disappointed that he didn’t get to run another mile!

It was these experience that started Ken Bob on the path (literally) to distance running.

When Ken Bob graduated high school in 1973, he was running up to 2-miles at a time, a few times a week. Which may not seem like much nowadays, but back then, back in rural northern lower Michigan, his friends were impressed. Still, it hadn’t occurred to Ken Bob to run barefoot, except on trails, through the fields, and on beaches. Which was only about half of his running.

One evening, in a moment remniscent of the legendary Ethiopean runner, Abebe Bikila’s story, Ken Bob was listening to the radio and heard the results from the local marathon, a 26.2 mile route out and back on the Old Mission pennisula. Ken Bob was amazed, and inspired that the winner had averaged about 6 minutes per mile, about as fast as Ken Bob could finish one mile!

So, Ken Bob, was realistic enough to not swear to run that far that fast, but he did decide that he would complete a full marathon… sometime… before his life was over.

At about this same time, Ken Bob was beginning to notice he was different than most of his friends. They seemed, almost obsessed with wearing shoes, while Ken Bob was more inclined to remove his shoes whenever he could get away with it.

Four years after graduating high school, Ken Bob went to Northwestern Michigan College, and even worked in a shoe store part-time to help pay his way. One of his favorite poems is Cruel Shoes, by Steve Martin, which reminds Ken Bob of his experiences selling shoes.

After graduating from NMC, with a bachelors of science degree in electronics technology, Ken Bob realized he would need to leave the great white north, either to continue his education, and/or to begin a career. So in January 1980, Ken Bob, and Jim, his friend from college, loaded up Ken Bob’s 1972 Honda Coupe (which Ken Bob had rebuilt and painted himself), and headed south, towards Florida. Then they made a right turn, and headed to California.

Ken Bob settled in Huntington Beach, California, and still lives there today.

Since 1985, Ken Bob has worked at the California State University, in Long Beach. In 1987, a graduate student at the university, who Ken Bob had been running with occassionally, suggested they both run the Long Beach Marathon.

So the training began. Ken Bob would often run up and down the beach 15-16 miles, and he had a 20+ mile course mapped out, which took him down the Santa Ana River trail, to the beach, and back up Warner to his home at the time. But, at the beach, Ken Bob would usually remove his shoes and run barefoot along the water’s edge for the 8-mile stretch of beach in Huntington. Then at Warner Avenue, he would put his shoes on again, and finish running home.

This training program was good conditioning for completing a 26.2-mile event, but it didn’t condition Ken Bob’s feet for 26.2 miles inside shoes!

By mile 20, Ken Bob’s feet hurt so much from blistering, that he painfully walked most of the last 6 or 7 miles of the marathon, finishing in 5 hours and 5 minutes. When he peeled off the shoes, every single toenail was black (and would fall off during the next few days), and there was no skin left anywhere on his feet, except the soles, which looked just fine. Too bad it hadn’t occurred to Ken Bob to remove the shoes before he finished the marahton!

From that day on, Ken Bob realized that shoes are not necessary for protecting our feet, but also that they actually do nothing to protect our feet, except from becoming strong and healthy! Instead shoes actually deform our feet, as well as allowing them to become weak, and block feedback that would teach us to run more gently. Try it. When Running Barefoot, we naturally run more gently, because we can feel, immediately, how our feet are landing on the ground.

But, at least Ken Bob had completed his goal of finishing a marathon. He was happy that he would never do that again…

Ken Bob continued running, mostly barefoot, mostly on the beach or trails. Sometimes with shoes, but not for much longer than 10-15 miles at a time.

By 1990, when Ken Bob married his neighbor, Cathy Lee, Ken Bob had gained 20-30 pounds. He sold his car to help with the downpayment on a home, and began commuting more frequently to and from work by bicycling, and running. But this time, Ken Bob was running almost exclusively barefoot!

At first Ken Bob would bicycle, or take the bus to work, then run part way home, and walk part way home, and often catch the bus part way home. At first, Ken Bob ran with a back pack, which he kept a pair of running shoes in, just in case.

Soon he was running and walking the entire distance barefoot. And shortly after that he was able to run the entire distance home. Barefoot Ken Bob never did use the running shoes during his run home.

Once Ken Bob was able to run the entire distance, about 11 miles, home from work, it was time to run to work. Now he had couldn’t putter along walking, or stopping to relax and swim at the beach on the way to work, like he could on his previous trips home. Now he had to run the whole way to the university, and still have time for a shower, before starting work at 8:00 AM.

Now, Ken Bob was truely a “runner”, or more precisely, a “Barefoot Runner!”

During his commutes running and bicycling, Ken Bob would often see some of the same people running, walking, and bicycling on the San Gabriel River path, which made up about a third of his commute route. One day, Ken Bob was bicycling to work, and it was begining to get fairly warm, so Ken Bob stopped to remove his sweat shirt, when another runner stopped and introduced himself, and invited Ken Bob to run some hills with a group of other runners on Sundays.

The group turned out to be Buffallo Bill’s Wild West Trail Runner’s. At the time, I had never heard of Bill McDermott before this. Turns out Bill had run all 20 of the Catalina Island Marathon, and won 13 of those!

So, in 1997 I got to running with Bill’s group nearly every Sunday, which also encouraged me to start running with our local A Snail’s Pace Running Club, which I had informally run with back in the late 1980s, back when it was still called Loeshorn’s Running Club.

In 1998, Ken Bob was regularly Running Barefoot 20+ miles in the hills with Bill’s group, and realized, that he could probably complete a marathon without the blisters caused by the shoes he wore in his first marathon back in 1987, because in his next marathon, Ken Bob would be Running Barefoot!

Napa Valley Trail Marathon (1998 April 4) Saxton

A couple months later, Barefoot Ken Bob ran his first Ultra-Marathon

Shadow of the Giants 50K (1998 June 6) Saxton

It has been nearly ten years since Barefoot Ken Bob’s first barefoot marathon, and since then, Ken Bob has completed a total of 63 Marathons Barefoot!

However, like any individual marathon, Barefoot Ken Bob recommends starting short, starting slow, and building gradually. “Half of those 63 marathons were completed in the past 4 years”, says Ken Bob, “I ran almost exclusively barefoot for 11 years, before my first barefoot marathon. And even before that, I had been running barefoot, about 30-50% of my total running milage!”

But Barefoot Ken Bob plans to cut down on the quantity of marathons (he has only completed 7 full marathons in 2007), because he wants more time to run!

-more to come…