I was not ready for 8 miles on paved surfaces. However, my body's built-in gait analysis shows that I had some asymmetry in my stride.

http://media.dailymile.com/photos/109156/8bb2a0b70ad95ca44a9dcfbf2491b687.jpg

The Ol' TMTS rears it's ugly head again...

Ouch! That looks painful!

My little blisters were not nearly as painful as Todd Ragsdale's frozen feet:

http://barefootrunninguniversity.com/2011/02/10/todd-ragsdale-barefoot-in-20%C2%B0-weather-for-20-miles/

I live in a cold climate (-3F yesterday) and can't go barefoot at work (for professional and protection reasons.) Minimal just made sense from the get-go. If I get serious about running I should practice some barefoot to work on my form, but it's not my starting place.

Both your pic and Todd's video have given me a SERIOUS case of testicular retraction syndrome.

YOWCH!

Those pics sure do make a person cringe and it makes one realize we can take things to far. It would be an interesting study to see which cultures tended to be barefoot and which adopted something to cover the feet. There are reasons our ancestors shod themselves and we really don't have to reinvent the wheel here. No offense to anyone wanting to mess around in the cold or what have you but I bet one would find the peoples that lived in hard rock areas and cold areas developed foot coverings while those who lived in the soft sand grass plains areas with no cold never covered up.

Most of the peoples of North America wore shoes, and that's a wide variety of environments, forest, mountain, dessert, plains... Shoe wearing may be somewhat cultural. You will note though on the map that the density of patterns is tighter in the colder north and the rocky southwest dessert.

http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/moccasin/mocmap.html

The shoes or no shoes museum seems to indicate that shoes were worn in almost all cultures. That doesn't mean they were worn all the time, but it appears that in no place were people completely shoe-less.