FRunning is proud to announce that the first Dutch National Championship Barefoot-style running will be held on the 8th of may 2011 in the city of Tilburg, The Netherlands.

FRunning is a new website trying to promote barefoot running in the Netherlands. Like in many other countries, barefoot-style running is becoming more popular by the day. Frunning decided to hold a nice 10K race just for the more minimalistic shoe wearers or of course on your barefeet.

I think I will have a look and perhaps even sign up. Not sure if I will sign up for the barefoot 10K though. I just don't have the right shoes yet and my Adizero Rockets just aren't minimal enough. So instead I might just join the normal 10K.

They are very strict in what kind of shoes you are allowed to wear. From the list that I've seen they dont allow some innov-8 models and the Nike Free isn't allowed either (rightfully so). They decided on the following rules for shoes:

• zero drop,
• no suspension
• no control/guidance

A list on what exact shoes are allowed or not can be found here.

Besides the race itself there will small clinics and I can finally try on some different barefoot running shoes since they will be displaying some. No shops near me seem to carry any of the barefoot shoes so I will definately go and check it out. Also I'm curious what they mean with the specific barefoot running style. I wonder how thats different from lets say POSE or Chi running or other methods.

If you are dutch or happen to be in The Netherlands for some odd reason you can sign up here and more info can be found here.