By Ryan Scott
It’s Thursday afternoon and I get the call to meet some mates come Sunday on Tafelberg Road, for a session up to the top of Table Mountain via Platteklip Gorge.
My hamstring has been tweaking though, so I am skeptical of committing, luckily, in Cape Town, commitment levels max out at something like: ‘ya cool, I think I might join you for that braai, but if I am not there by 6pm then I’ll drop that book I borrowed another time. Maybe on Tuesday if you come to touch rugby, but I know you were thinking of starting yoga, so then I’ll just see you next weekend sometime’
So it’s not like I even have to rock up for the gig, even if I show interest four days before.
Sunday arrived with a blistering heat though, and after letting another group of friends I was ‘supposed’ to be meeting up with for a surprise birthday know that I would be a few hours late, I did in fact make it to the meeting point for the Platteklip adventure.
Todays trip was a little spicier than just a gentle Sunday afternoons exercise to wind down the weekend. The crew I was joining was in fact in training. The target was Kilimanjaro, and the point of differentiation from any other trip up to the highest mountain in Africa, was that these guys were going to do it barefoot.
That’s right, no shoes and no socks, just naked feet and toes, exposed to more minus degrees than is good for any flesh that is not being kept on ice to be enjoyed as dinner at a later stage.
I packed a pair of minimalist shoes anyway, just in case. A couple of others that joined also thought they would safely take on the gratuitous anti gravity mission with a pair of shoes on, while curiously watching the 5 Kilimanjaro guys do the crazy barefoot thing. The vibe was very interactive and communal though, and as we set off, every one of the team was sans any form of covering or protection for the feet. This was novel.
I was asked to take the lead and just as I was about to start running up the first rocks laid out as steps from the tarred road and heading directly skyward, I noticed the fellow runner’s were in fact not starting off at a run, but in fact this was to be a hiking session. Now I had it in my head that we were there for a run, and having run up Platteklip Gorge a few times in the last couple of months, I was curious to see how doing it barefoot compared, in all aspects – including time, to previous trips.
For about 6 seconds I reconciled myself with the fact that I would have to amicably join the group in the hike format of the ascent, but then a strange thing happened. The large, smooth rocks and boulders felt so incredibly good when in contact with my feet. The sensitive tactile ignition of over 200 000 nerve endings and receptors began firing up with such a fantastically energised feeling; I mumbled something about just trying out a couple of strides as I took off like rock rabbit, hopping from boulder to boulder. Instantly the playfulness of childhood years were surreally recalled through the physical connection and the innocent honest activity of running barefoot in contact with the earth.
The trip up was as exhilarating a run as I can remember. At that gradient it’s not so much running as just moving as fast as you can at a pace and rhythm that is sustainable. Barefoot means you have to pick your lines a whole lot more concertedly, as foot placement just a little off the intended spot and you could be in for some nasty repercussions. The comfort levels though, were so much better than most expect and it felt more and more natural after every step, even the one where I stood on a sharp rock and had to quickly take the weight off the foot by tumbling a little to the side and steadying myself on a fortuitously placed boulder.
Platteklip is the most popular of routes up and down the mountain (besides the cableway), and I was greeted by so many enthusiastic tourists and locals alike, all of which bust out huge smiles when they saw the barefoot dude running up the mountain. The glint in their eyes though, was not so much one of: “what is this crazy loon trying to prove?” and more like “now that’s the way it should be, I wish I could do that too” And some of them mentioned it.
One group coming down broke into spontaneous applause worthy of the curtain call for the Phantom of the Opera as I weaved through them deftly. It’s amazing how much more precise with your footfall you can be when your toes are set free. The whole foot works incredibly efficiently and there is no doubt that the whole body just loves the biomechanics it can produce, totally unimpeded by any additions to the wonderful creation of the foot.
For this surface, terrain and type of run, I think barefoot running is the best option by far. A 32 minute hard push to the top vindicated my thoughts that I can go as fast, or faster, barefoot and in the future that is what I will certainly attempt to do. The time remains a secondary concern though I can assure you. Nothing can top the feeling of … well, the feeling.
My feet felt nothing more than invigorated at the top and today they are just tingly with no pain nor damage. The exhilaration continues.
For more information, visit http://barefootimpi.org/the-challenges/kilimanjaro/
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