Rainy Cross Country Run

Hellow Barefooters!  This morning I had a beautiful run with my daughter Megan on the Westfield cross country course.  We arrived early for my oldest daughter Rachel's invitational meet with 10 other schools.  It started pouring as soon as we showed up, so we got to help the coach set up the team tent in the rain.  Afterward, Megan and I took off slowly across the wet field, me barefoot and Megan shod.  Megan changed her mind about wearing shoes about 50 feet into the run and she kicked hers off and ran just in her socks!  It felt great to do a barefoot run in the pouring rain, although it began to let up almost immediately, just enough to soak everything and get the ground nice and squishy.  The temp was about 52 so the feet were sort of getting numb, but Megan kept saying she was fine, so we pushed on.  Into the woods on the pea gravel trail which felt great except for the occasional larger rock or cracked walnut shell to add to the challenge.  After crossing the wet slippery bridge, it was around the combination asphalt/gravel loop which slowed us considerably, and we stopped to check our feet for damage.  I was a little worried since I had just done a 3 miler the day before (my first "back to back" barefooter) but the feet were holding up fine even though they were cold and soaked.  To my surprise, these harder surfaces now felt really hard (and sort of uncomfortable) since earlier we had been enjoying the mud and grass.  But soon it was back across the bridge, onto a nice grassy stretch, and back through the woods to the finish.  A nice little 1.86 mile run, albeit at a pretty slow pace.  A great intro to the brand new world of barefoot cross country running!  Sarah (Megan's twin) and I did a cool down run back to the van and then all three of us made a donut run to White's Donut Shop for some well deserved carbs!  We made it back in time to cheer on big sister Rachel in her JV race where she set her new PR for the year!...so a great day for us all.  Happy running everyone, and keep enjoying that barefoot stimulation.  BF Dan  (Weekly barefoot mileage:  9.36 miles)