Barefoot Running: How to Run Light and Free by Getting in Touch with the Earth

Michael Sandler is a best-selling author, and an internationally recognized barefoot running and walking coach, teaching thousands of runners, walkers, and hikers of all abilities. He has coached athletes professionally for nearly 20 years. After a near-death accident in 2006, he was told he was lucky to keep his leg and that he would never run again. With a titanium femur and hip, it was only through barefoot running and the lessons learned on the trails that he was able to heal and run again. With co-author Jessica Lee, they teach people how to rediscover the bliss of pain-free running. Together, they are cofounders of RunBare Company (www.RunBare.com), a barefoot running school based out of Boulder, Colorado.In 2006, while training for a cross-country inline skating trip, Michael suffered a near-death accident, which left him with a shattered femur, hip, and arm. Two months after the accident, he set the fastest record for the Bolder Boulder and Denver Half-Marathon by completing these popular races on crutches. He now runs barefoot 10 to 20 miles daily on rocky trails, hot asphalt, and even snow and ice, and sub-five minute miles barefoot all with his titanium femur and hip. Among Michael’s personal athletic achievements are training for the 1992 and 1996 Olympics in both cycling and speed skating at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. While racing in Europe aiming for the Tour de France, an unexpected vehicle collision on a closed race-course dashed his chances for both international competitions. Michael completed the California Ironman, and has a personal record for the 10K of 30:30 during the finishing leg of The Harvest Moon half-ironman. He went on to win a 2002 cycling state championship in Olympic sprints, beating the national team, and placed seventh in the master’s national championships. In 2005, he garnered a sponsorship from Rollerblade for ultra-endurance inline speedskating. In 2009 he paced Barefoot Ted—a well-known, colorful figure in ultra-running—for the last leg of the Leadville 100, in which Ted shattered his own personal record by over an hour. In 2004, Michael rode his bike in an entirely different direction. He completed a monumental bicycle trip across the U.S. by riding 5,000 miles in 40 days, solo and unsupported to raise awareness for children and adults with attention deficit disorder (ADD). He ended the ride in Washington, D.C., where he was invited to speak before the U.S. House and Senate on the Mental Health Parity Act, urging equal health coverage for psychological as well as physical health. National and international media have interviewed him, including NPR, BBC, and America in the Morning. Michael has been featured on CNN, the CBS Early Morning Show in Chicago and New York for his athletic efforts to raise awareness of ADD. He is also author of the best-selling book College Confidence with ADD and founder of The Creative Learning Institute, a national center for coaching students with ADD and learning disabilities. RunBare Company, based out of Boulder, holds clinics for barefoot running nationwide, and in Canada. Michael also conducts similar clinics for destination travel adventurists worldwide.Jessica Lee holds a bachelor’s degree in Learning and Organizational Change from Northwestern University’s School of Education & Social Policy. Following graduation, she served two years with the U.S. Peace Corps as a Youth & Community Development volunteer in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Back in the U.S., she spent a summer as a bicycle tour guide in Alaska before settling in Colorado where she became a jack of all trades, working as an REI Sales Specialist, managing a coffee shop, baking Italian artisan bread, and volunteering with Leave No Trace, a nonprofit that promotes environmental education and responsibility. Eventually, Jessica settled into a focused career as a marketing professional in the renewable energy industry. In 2007, she ran the Bolder Boulder 10K and felt crippled with knee pain after the first 3K. After this unpleasant experience, she decided to give up the sport and focus her athletic efforts into cycling. This lasted until she met Michael and became inspired to run again, finding a pain-free joyous experience in barefoot running. She went on to found the nation’s first barefoot running club in Boulder, followed by the co-founding of RunBare Company. Today she can be found running light and free again, and kicking Michael’s butt in a sprint. Together, Michael and Jessica enjoy starting each day with a barefoot sunrise hike and meditation before launching into the joyful work that lies ahead.