Look, Christopher McDougall knows it sounds bizarre and downright hippieish.

It looks like it, too, truth be told.

Just take a gander at the 6-foot-4-inch McDougall, padding down Peters Creek Road in rural Peach Bottom in nothing but running garb and his size-13 bare feet.

That's right. There's nothing but fresh air between his naked soles and terra firma.

That's just how nature intended it and how the human body works best, McDougall believes.

McDougall, 47, wrote a book advocating barefoot running, called "Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen."

Now he's taking his message to bookstores and local running clubs.

Like any good messiah, the Harvard-educated, former Associated Press foreign correspondent, writer and dad of two is hoping maybe, just maybe, to spark a movement and lead others to a way of running that he says erases injuries and also — dare we say it? — cultivates fun.

He dreams of a day when people run for joy, and not as a punishment for eating cheesecake.

"We could be in store for a real golden age," he said of running. "There is a perfect storm of influences."

When times get tough, people get running, he said. It happened during the Great Depression, the 1970s recession and after Sept. 11. And we are ripe for it now because of our current rough economic times.

And what if people who started running could keep running? What if they didn't develop Achilles tendon problems, Plantar fasciitis or cuboid syndrome?

What if they became like Geronimo, who said your two best friends are your legs? Or like some Kenyans, who run like antelopes without shoes until they are young adults?

It's possible, he believes, and it doesn't take expensive athletic coaching or special equipment. Just you, your feet and an open road or trail.

Steve Farrah, one of the presidents of the Lancaster Road Runners Club, got to see McDougall in action earlier this summer, when McDougall ran barefoot in the Smith's Challenge, a 10-kilometer trail race in Lancaster County Central Park.

"He's the first person I've run into who has done that," said Farrah, 63, of Lancaster, who has been running more than 30 years.

Though barefoot running goes contrary to conventional thinking, Farrah is intrigued by the idea, the mechanics of which are being promoted as the "Pose Method" of running and even by some very lightweight running shoes now being sold by major companies such as Nike.

"It changes the style of running," Farrah said. "Most people run and strike their heel. With pose and barefoot, your foot is more underneath you."

Farrah said he's been held back by "inertia" and just the oddity of running barefoot, but planned to try barefoot running at a club run.

"It sounds like a very good idea," he said. "I think it has a lot of merit."

McDougall, a freelance writer who has worked for Esquire, GQ, Runner's World and the New York Times magazine, adopted his ideas about running after he had an injury. An avid athlete who played basketball and rowed, he had taken up running and developed a problem in his foot.

He went to a sports medicine specialist in Philadelphia and had what he thought was a very unusual conversation.

"He gave me a lecture about running," he said, "like you would give a talk to someone who was a smoker or an overeater. It's not good for you, it causes problems. I was thinking, 'This is so odd. He's talking about a form of exercise like it's a bad habit.' "

McDougall wondered how something supposedly good for you could be so bad for your feet and legs.

He started doing some research and found that the human body, with a muscle that stabilizes the head, a springy heel tendon and a rear end built for balance, actually is designed to run long distances. Early humans did just that, with men and women, older people and youngsters all able to keep up with each other for long distances as they hunted in packs.

Fast-forward to the 1970s, when the modern running shoe, with its raised heel and cushioned soles, was developed. That's when people started to have injuries, McDougall said.

"I think running shoes should all be piled in a big bonfire and just be torched," he said.

The problem is that the shoes encourage people to run like they walk, striding heavily heel to toe, instead of bouncing more lightly on the balls of their feet, taking short strides and letting gravity pull them forward.

"Running is jumping and landing," he said, and done most naturally barefoot.

Barefoot running is not a new thing. It's been an underground movement in the country for years.

But physicians and academics are now starting to take a keen interest in it, with some research due out this fall.

Not everyone is an advocate of barefoot running.

Dr. Kevin Miller, a local podiatrist, says he would not recommend it for some, particularly people with diabetes or foot problems.

"I don't see the average Joe on the street going out and doing it," he said.

"I would say there are probably some people who are fortunate enough to have good mechanics to their feet that they could do that and get away with it," Millers said, "but I don't think you can make a blanket statement for everyone."

Miller wonders if running barefoot could lead to overuse injuries or stress fractures. And he raises the question that eventually comes up whenever barefoot running is discussed.

What about all that stuff on the roads and ground?

Dog poop? Glass? Gum? Stones?

McDougall says he's run in cities all over the world and never hurt his feet by stepping in something bad or harmful.

"It's one surprising testament to our modern culture," he said. "There's not as much garbage out there as you think."

And when you step in a puddle barefoot, it feels refreshing, not soggy, he said.

In the wintertime, or in areas that are very rocky, you can wear a thin shoe. McDougall said a canvas sneaker or even water shoes from Target work well.

McDougall generally runs between five and 10 miles a day on the roads around his Peach Bottom home or on trails in the area.

He really doesn't attract all that much attention, he said.

"The beauty of running out here is I'm surrounded by Amish guys who are barefoot, too," he said.

E-mail: cstauffer@lnpnews.com