Barefoot Running in Kentucky

Hello Barefooters,


Petting "Kiki" and enjoying the cool tile floor, barefoot in Africa!

 It's been another busy month but I was able to squeeze in nearly 100 barefoot miles for the for the month of July.  The month started out while I was still in Liberia finishing up misson trip #1 and enjoying some great barefoot runs on the muddy trails (roads!) in Africa.  I then came back to the US and spent two weeks getting caught up on work and grass mowing before heading out for mission trip #2 to Red Bird Mission in Beverly KY.  During these two weeks in Indiana I had hoped to really ramp my miles back up and jumped in with a 5 miler on that first Monday back, only to develop my first two blisters in months!  (one on the ball of each foot)  Pretty disappointing.  I think the issue was a combination of two things, sudden decrease in mileage (only ran 21 miles in 2 weeks in Africa) and running on much softer surfaces (probably 15 of the 21 miles in Africa were on mud/dirt trail vs. asphalt roads)  Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem, but that first day back on 5 miles of asphalt, I may not have been concentrating on my form as well as I should have and didn't stop when I felt the first sign of blisters (hot spots).  This is a good (if painful) lesson to learn, that ALL barefooters should remember:  LISTEN TO YOUR FEET - they are the best coaches you have.  As soon as you feel a hot spot, STOP.  Otherwise you are just asking for blisters which take time to heal and usually decrease your ability to go long.  Another complicating factor was that it had begun to get very hot and humid in Indiana, and that means running at first light (coolest part of day) to avoid hot or even warm pavement.  
I took the next day off completely, but it was too late, the damage was done.  After months of barefoot running and good built up callouses, a couple of blisters take quite a while to resolve.  Regardless, I still got in a couple of good weeks and kept my weekly averages above 20 miles.  Then it was off to Red Bird Mission with our church group (Team Red Bird) where we had another awesome mission experience.  We were blessed to work on two different houses:  one was a kitchen renovation and the other a dining room floor replacement.  

Morning run with Jack at Red Bird Mission - Beverly, KY

I ran the short trail out to the Red Bird Christian School each morning, most times twice and later in the week had a running buddy, Jack Critser.  Jack is a high school sophomore and more of a basketball/football player than runner, but by the end of the week he was really getting into it!  We enjoyed rising early each morning to get in a 3.5 to 4.0 mile run in the misty fog in time to make it to breakfast devotions by 7:15 am.  This was Jack's first mission trip and also first time doing daily runs and I think he really enjoyed both.

Now that I'm back home, the weather cooled off nicely, and I've finished the month with a 7.5 and 10.1 miler but due to this mornings much need rain, I cut today's run short so I won't be breaking the weekly mileage record this week...but maybe next week!  (plus the blisters are still healing).

Stay safe out there barefooters!

Barefoot Dan

July Mileage = 99.71 miles