Before you ask, the Barefoot Marathoner wears shoes when he’s singing.
The past few weeks, he’s been more concerned with his arms than his legs, anyway. Holding the microphone while he dances has proven problematic.
“I need to get a headset,” he said.
For as long as he can remember, Bassirima Soro has felt music fighting to escape out of him, like a sneeze.
When he was a child, he held the beat and played shakers while his father, a medicine man and musician, and his mother, a singer, played in their native Ivory Coast.
When he joined the country’s army at 18, a fantastic excuse for Ivory Coast to put him on the national team, he was the singer of his section.
And when, after setting Ivory Coast records in the 15,000 meters and the marathon, he moved to the United States to pursue distance running, music didn’t leave him.
He settled to Southern Arizona, won six Tucson Marathons — many of them barefoot — and even joined the Pima College team, despite being 10 years older than his contemporaries.
Read more in Monday's Arizona Daily Star.
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