AMERICANALMANAC (Sadie Smith) - Long Island dance instructor has run six marathons barefoot — and now he wants Boston
John Mazzei, a 57-year-old ballroom-dance instructor from Lindenhurst, New York, has completed six marathons without shoes or socks, drawing stares from cops, cheers from strangers, and a good-luck autograph on his foot from a champion runner. Mazzei didn't start running until he was about 43. Within three months, conventional sneakers had wrecked his knees badly […] The post Long Island dance instructor has run six marathons barefoot — and now he wants Boston appeared first on American Almanac .
John Mazzei, a 57-year-old ballroom-dance instructor from Lindenhurst, New York, has completed six marathons without shoes or socks, drawing stares from cops, cheers from strangers, and a good-luck autograph on his foot from a champion runner. Mazzei didn't start running until he was about 43. Within three months, conventional sneakers had wrecked his knees badly enough to sideline him. He quit, and stayed away for years, until he picked up Christopher McDougall's Born to Run, a book that examines the sports science behind shoeless running. That changed everything. Mazzei ditched the sneakers for good, started conditioning his bare feet on the streets of his Long Island neighborhood, and worked his way up from short distances to a 5K and…Open