Barefoot in Belize, Honduras, Mexico, oh...and Nevada too!

Hello Barefooters,

Windy Day in Costa Maya, MX

A rainy April in Indiana has come to an end...and it is still raining!  But what else should we expect for April?  Actually we have had some really good weather this month, although you wouldn't know it from looking at my mileage.  I've sort of been taking it easy and just getting in some minimal miles each day so I didn't have to post a ZERO!  (reminder to all--this is a good reason to keep a running log--it does provide daily motivation!)  Looking back over my past monthly totals, this was my lowest monthly total in over two years!  But it feels good to take it easy and not feel like I have to kill myself every day with miles...


The month started out on the 25th anniversary cruise which was fantastic.  We left out of Tampa with stops in Roatan Honduras, Belize City Belize, Costa Maya Mexico and Cozumel Mexico.  We had only been to one of these stops before so it was a big adventure.  We travelled with my brother Dave and his wife Annette who we had shared our wedding day with back in 1992.  So when we got to Belize we found a nice secluded place and renewed our wedding vows.  It was a neat experience.  Time flies when you're having fun and we're praying God blesses us with another 25 years as well.


Each day on the ship I was able to get in a run on the deck of the ship.  The track on 10th deck of Royal Carribean's "Rhapsody of the Seas" is advertised to be a quarter of a mile but my Garmin shows it to be a little short.  Each day (Monday thru Saturday at least) I would go up and get in 12 barefoot laps on the semi-rubberized surface.  Each day was quite different with the surface sometimes wet, sometimes dry and the conditions sometimes hot, sometimes cool and almost always a little windy.  Some of the days we were already "in port" and other days we were out at sea, so it was always interesting to see what my Garmin GPS watch would give me for the supposedly 3 mile total.  Based on the in-port days I believe the 12 laps gave me 2.72 actual miles but the three "days at sea" totals were 8.16, 7.72 and 3.91 miles, each of which depended on how fast the boat was moving on those days.  And on the particularly windy day coming into Costa Maya, the 3 miles also felt like a run through a mountain pass due to the pitching and rolling of the ship and the brutal "stop you in your tracks" headwind on one side of the ship followed by a "knock you off your feet" tailwind on the opposite side of the ship!  But I did appreciate being able to get in at least this minimum amount of exercise each day, since I was basically gorging myself the other 23 and half hours of the day on the excellent food which was constantly available.

Business Trip to Reno NV

The only other travelling I did this month was a trip out to Reno NV to visit a supplier mid month.  This afforded me some cooler, low humidity runs in the mornings, although I didn't get too adventurous and pretty much kept to the 1 mile loop of concrete sidewalks around the hotel.  Still, I did log a twelve miler the last day there before flying back...sadly, this was my longest run of the month!! 


The rest of the time back in Indiana I concentrated on lawn care and some outside projects including cutting down 3 trees...with probably still about 3 more trees to cut plus some other basic tree trimming activities.  My golf league also started up in April...so see, I have lots of excuses for my low monthly total!  Maybe I will pick up the pace a little in May (or maybe not!)


Enjoy the Warmer Weather!


Barefoot Dan
(April Mileage = 86 miles)

Yet ANOTHER Florida Attempt

Last Snowy Footprint?

Hello Barefooters,

First Flowers of Spring

Well Spring has sprung, and more importantly Spring Break is here and I am looking forward to a week off from work in the sun.

March was yet another busy month and I got in some good barefoot running with the milder temperatures and the buildup to my 82nd marathon.  This was my second marathon of the year, my 9th barefoot marathon and as the title indicates:  Yet ANOTHER Florida Attempt.  This was my third attempt at the State of Florida in the continuing effort to get all my marathons under 4 hours for the 50Sub4 quest.  But alas, it was not to be.

Fargo ND, so cold the trees turned blue!

The week before I was able to "temperature cycle" on a business trip to chilly Fargo, North Dakota.  Here I got in 3 colder runs of 6, 4 and 2 miles in both the afternoon sun and 18MPH winds as well as the cool dampness of the pre-dawn hours.  Here is a picture of the beautiful scenery on my last pre-dawn run in Fargo before flying back to Indiana to get ready for the marathon.

Once back in IN, I got in a ten miler at one-week-out before beginning my quick taper of a 9-mile Monday, 8-mile Tuesday and zeros for the rest of the week.  My buddy Earl Strong and I started driving down on Thursday and took two days to get to Ormond Beach, FL for the Tomoka Marathon.  Upon arrival, we spent Friday afternoon at the packet pickup and then went out to drive the course (my standard ritual).  I was pleasantly surprised at the absolute smoothness of both the pavement and the wide-striping for about 

Course Pre-drive @ Chief "Tomokie" Statue

90% of the course.  What I was most worried about was the rough 2.5 mile section through Tomoka State Park at miles 19 and 20 but felt more assured after seeing the road in person.  There were very rough gravel sections in the middle of the road but seemingly smoother edges, and tire tracks including some sections with a "soft" carpet of piled up leaves along the edge.  I purposely did not get out and barefoot walk any of these sections, since I recalled "psyching myself out" the day before the Shiprock New Mexico Marathon a couple of years ago by walking the rough stuff.  I figured, it won't change anything now...no sense in worrying about it during the first smooth 19 miles of the race!  I figured I would just maintain my conservative 8:45/mile pace throughout the race and try not to give back more than a minute per mile during the rough stuff...sounds like a good plan, right?

The other concerning factor was that the low temp for the area was now no where near the 50 degree range it had been for the past few weeks.  The low temp on race morning was 60 degrees with a predicted high of 77 and a 4-hour finish temp of around 70.  The humidity was 71%, also a little higher than 

Tomoka Starting Line

"comfortable" for Indiana winter runners like Earl and myself.  Even so, I was pleasantly surprised that I was easily able to keep my 8:45 pace going early and using the RaceJoy App for the first time ever, kept hearing predicted finish times at each of the early mile splits of 3hr:50min to 3hour:52min which was encouraging.  However, just 10 miles in I began to struggle holding the 8:45 pace.  After much prayer and digging deep, at mile 12/13 I began to get comfortable again at the 8:45 pace...still I knew that I should not be struggling this early to keep pace and this would be a bad omen for things to come.


...oh and did I mention there was a 15 minute delay for the planned 6:00am start time due to, of  all things a train accident, so add 1-2 more degrees to the already warming temps...oh boy...


While there were pace groups available at this race I purposely chose not to run with them for fear of crowding and not being able to pick my line (steps) as I needed to find the smoothest path.  Still I did try to keep myself within sight of the 3:50 pace group led by Kimmy and the 4:00 pace group led by Mike.  At mile 18.8 upon entering Tomoka State Park I was about equi-distant between these two groups...pretty much the perfect spot considering the early conditions.  Now to just hold a +1 pace (~9:45/mile) or so for the rough miles...I was eager to see what would happen.


Then disaster struck...


The "packed dirt trail" (as advertised) was literally nothing more than a gravel road and sections I thought would be somewhat smooth and do-able, were anything but do-able.  Using both my Garmin running watch and the RaceJoy App on my I-Phone, I soon realized I couldn't even hold a 14:00 average and even that was too painful to continue. 
Within 200 yards, I was reduced to walking and even though I periodically began to gingerly run/jog some sections, my average pace for

Let's Get This Party Started!!!

both miles was about 25 min/mile.  While I was extremely disappointed, I decided to keep moving forward and finish the race...and there was no easy "Hop on the Bus" option like there had been at Shiprock two years ago during my first and only DNF of my marathon career.  After exiting the park, I took pride in making the next mile in 12:11 but then to add insult to injury, mile 22 (which Earl and I drove incorrectly the day before) actually diverted into a housing subdivision along the Titus River with no sidewalk and extremely rough Florida style shell pavement which turned into another 21 minute/mile for me.  After exiting this additional rough stuff, and back to the main smooth road ,I pulled each of the last 3-4

Finished!...finally

miles down to 11 something.  This felt good to do, but...too little...too late!  The damage was done and the minutes had already piled up against me.  I finished with my 2nd slowest barefoot marathon ever...argh!


Earl was waiting for me at the end and we compared notes.  He had wanted a sub 2 hour half marathon but also succumbed to the heat and ended up at 2:10 instead, not ideal, but not as big a miss as mine had been.  I told him that I briefly toyed with the idea of taking my 50Sub4 shirt and a can of lighter fluid and starting a fire...but I calmed down and now am looking a other Florida marathons to attempt.  It won't be for a while as it is definitely warming up now.  Next attempt will have to be November or December at the earliest.


One nice sideline on the trip, we got to meet up with Earl's daughter Brittani and her husband Ron who live just down the road in Titusville.  We got to catch up with them and

Ron, Earl, Brit, Dan @ River Grille in Ormond Beach

have a pre-race carbo load meal at River Grille, a nice seafood restaurant in Ormond Beach, the night before the race.


Now its off to Spring Break, oh, back to Tampa FL of course.  Linda and I are going cruising once again, this time for our 25th wedding anniversary.  We will be departing Tampa for Honduras, Belize and Mexico on a 7-day Royal Carribean Cruise.  This will be our 4th cruise but first one with this company.  Additionally, we will be celebrating with my twin brother Dave and his wife Annette, who are also celebrating their 25th...oh yeah, did I mention we had a double wedding?  We will be renewing our vows somewhere in Belize...I'd better get to writing mine!  Hoping for some good barefoot running on the track on top of our ship "Rhapsody of the Seas!"


Happy Springtime,
Barefoot Dan


March Mileage = 131.47 miles

End of the Month Already!

💚Hello Barefooters,
Well this month certainly went fast for me, how about you?  I know it is a short month and all, but with the busy month of January now passed, this month still just flew by.  I spent most of the month recouping from the Africa mission trip and getting caught back up at work.  I only had to travel once this month and that was a short trip up to Livonia MI and back.  February is also "birthday month" at our house with Linda's on the 10th, mine on the 24th, with Valentine's Day sandwiched in between.  Needless to say, lots of chocolate around the house and lots of extra running required!


The nice thing was we had excellent weather for most of the month.  Definitely not your typical February.  Temps peaked into the 50's and 60's later in the month and I was actually able to play golf with our UMC men's golf group on Sunday, Feb. 19th.  I shot a 42 so I probably won't be playing again anytime soon and can savor that abnormally low score for a while!  I got some pretty decent running in with the good weather and kept my weekly average above 25 miles or so which is usually very hard to do in February!


This was a good thing since I need to stay in relatively decent shape for the upcoming Tomoka Marathon on March 25th.  Earl Strong and I have planned to do another marathon road trip (as we used to do so often) and make it a nice 4 day weekend.  We will start driving on Thursday, run the marathon on Saturday and get back home late Sunday.  It will be great to have Earl along to help me celebrate (God Willing!) my final completion of the 50Sub4 circuit to get all 50 States run in under 4 hours.  As you know, my "fail" at Disney Marathon of 4 hours 11 minutes last month left me looking for yet another FL marathon. 


Well, I will keep it short this month in honor of February (a short month),


God Bless and Enjoy the Warm Weather,


Barefoot Dan


February Mileage = 102.23 miles

Out of Africa

Good Morning Barefooters,

Headlamps Bobbing Down the Road in Ganta 

Thanks for your patience, my post is a little late...our team just arrived last night back in the US after a two week mission trip to Ganta Liberia (western Africa).


It was another excellent mission trip with many "God moments" and also afforded the opportunity to do some great barefoot running with some old and new-found running buddies:  Gary Adams, Brian Fulk, Kelly Kurth, Mark (our Liberian bus driver), Konah Drougbay and Zephaniah (who just joined me one morning mid-run!)  There was a different mixture of runners each of the 9 mornings we ran, and only once the whole trip did I venture out alone.  All the runs were between 1.01 to 4.26 miles and were on surfaces ranging from smooth asphalt to VERY rough, rocky footpaths and backroads.  The morning temps were always hovering around 80 degrees F and it really didn't rain the whole time we were there, so dust & smoke were always a factor on these pre-dawn headlamp runs.

Black Mamba - uh, dead!

One morning we even came across a black mamba snake (don't worry, it had already been killed) but had to walk back to it with Travis to get a picture.  It's head had been crushed and Trav was surprised that no one had picked it up yet to make a meal of it (it did disappear later in the day).  We never saw any live critters on the run other the spiders, large ants and the occasional dog (tame) and chickens.  I was always a little leary running the edges of the paths hoping not to find any live snakes...although the edges often times afforded the only relief from the sharp rock.  I escaped with no major injuries and had only a few arch bruises and a deep heel blood blister the second day up in Ganta.

"Brave" runners - Brian, Dan, Gary

The activities on the mission trip included 4 different vision clinics, networking of the school's computer lab, hanging signs in the "zoo" and some small construction projects like hanging a light and a porch swing.  For those of you who've been there before, please come back and see the amazing progress on this project.  The building of the ARC (Agriculture Research Center) has taken 5 years to complete but has been an amazing labor of love by many different teams and was the God-given vision of Travis Sheets (founder, Hope in the Harvest Missions Intl.)


Earlier in the month of January I had attempted to run the Disney Marathon barefoot in under 4 hours to complete my quest to run all 50 US States in under 4 hours (50Sub4 Marathon Club).  Had I completed this goal, I would have been the 92nd finisher in the club and the first of the year...BUT I guess God had other plans!  My epic fail at the race was disappointing overall but I still enjoyed the trip and would recommend the Disney marathon to others...it just wasn't my day.  The weather was a cold 37 degrees at the start (RARE for Florida!) with a 17MPH wind.  Additionally, the races from the previous day had been cancelled due to lightning so many of those runners gained entry into the marathon the next day.  While they were all in corrals behind my "C" corral, it did add to the congestion getting from the baggage drop to the start line and I ended up having to RUN/JOG to the start line so I was anything BUT relaxed as I started the race.  It was a 5:30AM start and after standing around shivering for 2 hours prior, I was really not in optimal fast racing condition. 

With Lecia at Disney
 4-hour Pace Leader and fellow 50Sub4 Wannabe

I did keep the requisite sub-nine pace for the first 16 miles or so but then the wind, the winding turns, and the rough surfaces all combined to slow me down.  I still had about 3 minutes "in the bank" as we entered the ESPN sport complex at mile 16 but the roughness turned more severe, as the runners were directed onto the gravel baseball diamond infields and various other weird surfaces...so I slowly, and painfully, gave back my banked minutes and watched the 4-hour pace group swallow me up and spit me out as they marched onto the finish in the last 2 miles.  The pace group let by Lecia Williams Holley (new friend I met just after the race), ended up not quite hitting their required pace either and besides, I knew they had started a couple corrals behind me and that I would need to be a couple minutes ahead of them at the finish to have a chance at the four hour mark.  Also, of all things, my Garmin watch locked up halfway through the race so I wasn't able to get accurate paces from about 15 miles on which only further distracted me as it all slipped out of reach...arrgh!  Still it was beautiful to experience the pre-dawn LED lit Disney Castle in the Magic Kingdom and the other Disney parks as well as the Disney character photo-ops...I only stopped at one but I can't blame that for my 11minute "miss" of 4:11.


Oh well, now I just need to go back to Florida again to secure the 50th state.  Earl Strong and I have a plan to go back in late March to try again.  Earl and I ran many of the 50 states together the first time around so it will be fun to do another road trip with Earl to finish this circuit as well.  More to follow on that one as I continue to recover from the very busy month of January.


God Bless You All,


Barefoot Dan


January Mileage = 95.4 miles

Five Years of Barefoot Running...almost (and 2,264 miles this year)

Happy New Year Barefooters!

Late December snowy run in Howe, IN

As 2016 comes to a close, I look back at this unlikely journey and think "Wow, this has been fun!"  Almost five years ago, I hung up my running shoes for good. (Feb 11 is the actual anniversary of my last "shod" run).  At the time, it didn't feel like a big milestone, actually quite the opposite.  Two days later, I thought my running career was over!  You see, at the time, I was really getting into the barefoot thing, but still relied on the Vibram 5-Finger shoes from time to time...usually when the weather wouldn't cooperate and I still felt like getting in some miles.  This back and forth between shoes and barefoot, is what I believe caused my stress fracture on Feb 13th of 2012.  While I know some minimalists believe this is a good approach, I believe that the shoes allowed me to do more than my feet were actually ready for at the time, and thus the injury....if you like, please go back and look at my blog posts in early 2012 if you want to relive my injury and subsequent recovery.  I think about it often and it has shaped me into the barefoot runner I am today.  I wouldn't put shoes back on now if you paid me!


This has been another big, high mileage year for me:  2264 miles for the year!  Although, this will be the first year in the last 5 I didn't break the previous year's record.  Actually, as I look over the past year, it was rather uneventful by comparison and I don't really even have enough to publish a "Top 10 List" as I did the last couple of years.  Still, there was much to celebrate in 2016.
--- I ran barefoot in 9 different states:  IN, MI, CA, TN, AL, GA, VA, SC, NM
--- I ran barefoot in 3 different countries:  USA, Malaysia, Singapore
--- I ran 2 barefoot marathons:  Albuquerque (Duke City) and Indianapolis (Monumental)


I also ran a couple of 5K races (one in the Spring and one in the Fall) and even placed 2nd overall in the Fall race.  The Albuquerque Marathon was a nice getaway vacation for Linda and I and it set me up to finish off the "50Sub4" quest next month, finally!  The Indy marathon was a fun group event and served as both my 80th marathon and my 8th barefoot marathon.  It also spurred me on to raise $2000 for clean water in Africa through World Vision (my heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed and prayed for our team!)


This time of year, I like to "crunch the numbers" and the 2016 annual total of 2264 gives me a new lifetime percentage of 28% barefoot (9,226 barefoot miles vs. 32,800 total lifetime miles)  Looking at the chart I also note that the last three years have been my highest annual totals ever, in the entire last 26 years (since I began running).  I've also now run around the earth 1.3 times!

OUCH...sliding on icy concrete - not recommended!

The month of December was pretty uneventful actually since the weather finally decided to get cold for real.  The second week of the month was particularly cold and my weekly total was less than 4 miles!  I ran one day when it was only 18 degrees and yes, that was the high for the day, but no, that is not a barefoot record for me!  This week also included the only day this month I missed due to weather, -2 degrees...brrr!  And, to top it off, on Saturday Dec. 17th we had a pretty bad ice storm, but, of course, I went running anyway!  On the first two steps out of the garage, my feet flew out from under me and I went down...HARD.  I scraped the top of my foot in the process and landed on both my left hip and left elbow.  I just laid there for quite a while in the freezing puddle of water and didn't move while I tried to figure out what I had broken...luckily nothing.  But it hurt, bad.  Still, I said a little prayer, walked back in the house, put on a fresh pair of gloves, looked at my bleeding foot, and then, of course, went back out to "carefully" get in my run!  The landing on the left elbow was the worst part...I wrenched my shoulder and upper body pretty bad and had trouble moving that shoulder without pain for the next few days.  It is still hard to put on a shirt even now, two weeks later, but it is slowly but surely getting better.  

I thank God that I didn't break anything or get more seriously hurt, because that would have really messed up all the plans for next month.  God provides!  Can I get an Amen!  I am learning to lean on HIM more and more everyday! 


Speaking of plans, it will be a very busy month of January.  On January 8th, God Willing, I will run the Disney Marathon under 4 hours and will finally complete the 50Sub4 quest to run all 50 states in under 4 hours (the last 5 barefoot).  Next, I have a business trip to California and Mexico scheduled for the following week.  And then, on Jan. 21, again God Willing, I will leave for a 2 week mission trip to Ganta, Liberia in western Africa.  We have a team of 8 people going and this will be my 3rd trip to this same location within the last 5 years, travelling with our organization known as Hope In The Harvest.  We are celebrating the completion of the ARC (Agriculture Research Center) at LICC (Liberia International Christian College) which 5 years ago was literally a dirt hill on the edge of a swamp!  As Jesus' hands and feet, we celebrate the lives changed through the Agriculture Program at LICC as this "seemingly" agricultural community begins literally to "learn how to farm" and its families learn to depend upon God for their daily provisions.


I will still be in Africa on the 1st of Feb, so, apologies, my blog next month will be a little late, but don't worry, I will get it done...hopefully with much good news to report from Ganta.

Blessings & Have a Prosperous 2017,


Barefoot Dan


December Total = 90.02 miles
2016 Total = 2264.33 miles













 

Enjoying Some Rest

Hello Barefooters,




Team World Vision (partial) at the Starting Line

November has been a good "resting" month after my two recent marathons.  I definitely needed the rest since the two marathons were only about 3 weeks apart and both banged me up pretty good.  The Indy Monumental Marathon was on Nov. 5 and was run along with my World Vision Team from Christ UMC Westfield.  I was blessed to raised $2000 for this event which will help to provide clean water to 40 people in Africa next year.  A big "THANK YOU" to all of my donors and those who prayed for our team during this event.  Our team celebrated the event afterwards, with food of course!  And we are so energized we've already signed up to do it again next year as a team!

 

 

The weather for race day was perfect with temps in the upper 30's and lower 40's at the start.   As you know, it's best to be a little cold at the start so that once you get going and the blood start flowing, it turns out to be just right.  The first few miles I maintained my 8:30 (or so) pace and kept it up until we split off from the half marathoners.  This, in hindsight, turned out to be WAY too fast.  Once the course got north of the Indy fairgrounds the pavement turned rougher and my pace began to slow.  It was at this point I suddenly remembered what I said when I ran this 4 years ago:  "I'll never run this barefoot again!...Indy doesn't know how to pave streets!" and yet I must have forgotten this!

The last half of the race I slowed considerably and was actually glad I didn't need a "Sub 4" for this race because I don't think I could have done it.  The pavement leading up to Burdsal Parkway hadn't been touched in 4 years and was absolutely crumbling...I kept running (in my mind) but I'm sure any bystanders might have thought I was walking! 

I did pick up the pace at the end and got back to a reasonable looking gait.  During the last mile of the race WRTV reporter Mary Milz came running along side and sort of "interviewed" me about running barefoot.  I gave her some basic info about barefoot marathoning and she said to send her an email and we would talk more (I sent her the email, but no response yet!)  Once I rounded the last corner and could see the finish line I went blowing by Mary and about 50 other runners in that last quarter mile...it felt so good to go from an 11:00 min/mile pace to a 7:18 min/mile pace knowing the end was near!

Yay!  Finish Line!

I staggered across the line and went immediately to the baggage area where I knew my checked bag (with Flip Flops) would be waiting...ahhhh, relief!  After a few minutes recovering I made my way back to the Team World Vision tent where our regional team leader Alyssa welcomed me in to the smell of pizza.  Even better, I got a hug and kiss from our local team leader (my wife Linda) who had just completed her half marathon and was waiting along with the rest of our team.  Then of course, after finishing the pizza, we went out for breakfast at Lincoln Square!  ---Eat to run or run to eat...your choice!

This was my 80th marathon and my 8th barefoot marathon so all in all, a pretty good milestone.  I came in 2177th overall at 4:15 even (again, happy to not need the sub 4).  The rest of the month I have pretty much taken it easy, although the middle week I did get in almost 40 miles and enjoyed the first slightly snowy run on Nov. 19th.   Since then I've been nursing a bit of TOFP (Top Of Foot Pain), which you barefooters know is usually very bad news.  However, this seems to sort of be a phantom pain which is moving around a little so I am not overly alarmed at this point.  Still, it is good to be able to just run "a little bit" each day and not overdo the miles, as I continue to recover from these two relatively rough marathons.


I'm getting psyched for my upcoming Disney Marathon in about 5 weeks and will really enjoy finally finishing off the 50 Sub 4 quest if successful.  This will mean that the last 5 states (some of the hardest) were repeated to not only get the times under 4 hours, but also to do them barefoot.  I'll be ready for a good long rest after that!


Enjoy the holidays!


Barefoot Dan


November Mileage = 108.5 miles 

Something Scary for Halloween!

Happy Halloween Barefooters,


So since it's Halloween, let me show you something scary and gross! 


This morning during my 10 miler, at about 8 miles, I turned to look for traffic behind, took my eyes off the road in front of me for half a second and stepped on something (maybe a rock?!) very hard with my left forefoot.  It hurt like you wouldn't believe!  I limped the last two miles home, hoping to sort of shake it off.  I said a quick prayer that I wouldn't hit anything else in the exact same spot, which would have taken me to my knees.  Sometimes after hitting something hard like that it can take a few strides, or sometimes up to half a mile, to get everything feeling all right again.  But not this time!  I stopped to look at it a couple of times with my headlamp and it seem to just be a blood blister, but each step was increasingly uncomfortable and I began to actually change my stride to find a better landing zone (never a good thing!)  When I got back to the house I was not encouraged.  What I saw was about a dime size blister forming and starting to throb.

Halloween Injury...ouch!

 
Now it's mid morning as I write this and it is still throbbing inside my shoe.  Not only that, I'm now walking with a slight limp!  Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but what makes this such a "scary Halloween surprise" is that I'm supposed to run the Indy Monumental Marathon in 5 days with Team World Vision on Saturday.  I was planning to only run 3 days this week (Mon 10mile, Tues 8mile and Wed 6mile) and then take off Thurs and Fri completely to be ready for Saturday...but now it looks like I will be taking the WHOLE week off and then just hope and pray to be ready to go on Saturday.  Don't get me wrong, it's not the end of the world, but definitely not the way I wanted to taper for this race!  Oh well, up until now it had been a great October for barefoot running...how fitting that this happened on Halloween!


I started off the month with a nice high mileage week of 77miles followed by a week of tapering to get ready for the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque.  This would be my 3rd (and hopefully final) attempt to get the ever elusive New Mexico Marathon under 4 hours for my 50Sub4 quest.  Linda and I flew out on Thursday afternoon and made a nice 4-day weekend out of it.  We explored Santa Fe NM on Friday which was a short 90 minute drive from our hotel in Old Town Albuquerque.  We enjoyed the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe as well as some other museums, shopping and excellent restaurants.  Santa Fe is quite an eclectic mix of arts and entertainment so my artsy wife Linda was right at home, and I didn't mind it either!

Chillin' at the start

El Pinto Restaurant

 On Saturday we took it easy and went to the race expo at the Isleta Resort and Casino...but I should have stayed away from the blackjack tables! The expo itself was nice and Linda did a little shopping for her upcoming race.  For whatever reason, I forgot to buy energy gels at the expo which I would live to regret at the race the next day.  After the expo we explored Albuquerque a little more and found a really nice restaurant, El Pinto...if you are ever there, I highly recommend this place!  We then drove the course to get a feel for the surfaces and I was not impressed, but felt that anything had to be better than the horrible surfaces during last year's "fail" at the Shiprock Marathon in northern New Mexico.

4 Hour Pacer - Group was a "little" fast

Sunday was race day and we got an early start and arrived downtown with a good parking spot so I could relax in the couple of hours leading up to the 7am start.  I was glad the start was at 7 since the predicted high that day was 80.  Morning lows were in the lower 50s and once the sun came up it would be getting hot fast.  The first two miles were on city streets out to the Bosque Trail, a bike path along the Rio Grande.  The streets were pretty chewed up but I was able to find some decent sidewalk sections alongside.  The problem was that even when I found some otherwise smooth sidewalks, they always seemed to be littered with debris and pebbles.  Not so bad on the trip out, but I knew it wouldn't be fun after 20+ miles coming back.  At mile two we got onto the actual bike path which again was pretty smooth but always seemed to be littered with pebbles.  I got lots of the usual barefoot comments but no sympathy (and I didn't expect any!) for the rougher surfaces.  Most shod runners just sort of look at me and probably rightly think "Put on some shoes you dummy!"  For the most part during the first half of the race I was able to keep pace and actually put some "minutes in the bank" which I would definitely need in the second half.  For the first half I maintained a very respectable pace, somewhere around 8:35/mile or so, but then I started paying it back slowly.  It became a little tedious in the second half doing the math to know how much I could slow down knowing that it would get really slow toward the end.  As it turned out, I didn't slow too quickly and my first mile over the dreaded 10:00/mile pace was not until mile 23 and even then, I kept them all under 10:30.  I knew I was slowing when the 3:45 pace group caught up to me at around mile 15.  The scariest moment was when the 4:00 pace group caught me, and then passed me, in the last mile, but they were actually a little ahead of their predicted pace.  Also, I knew I had a couple of extra minutes to spare as I had delayed my start at the beginning to let traffic clear and hadn't run through the first timing station (chip reader) until 2 minutes after the start gun sounded.  All in all, I still cut it pretty close with only 3 and 1/2 minutes to spare, finishing in 3:56:29.  Plenty of time!  Whew!  Linda was happy that we didn't have to come back a 4th time to New Mexico, although we really do like it here.



Yay!!  Duke City Complete!

So now I have only one more state to go (Florida) in the 50sub4 quest to get all the states under 4 hours.  Again, the plan is to run the Disney Marathon in January to complete the circuit, but this is God Willing, of course, and barring any injuries like the one I have throbbed on my left foot right now!  Still as I look back over this 5 year odyssey and the number of minor injuries and subsequent gross pictures I've posted on this blog, I still must say they've all been "skin injuries" and I have not had one significant structural injury (tendon, ligament, bone) since the stress fracture in the 2nd metatarsal as a result of barefoot running (and again, I attribute that stress fracture to the switch back and forth to Vibram 5-Finger shoes) in the beginning. 


So yes, I am still a strong proponent of Barefoot Running, even though this week I'm limping!


Best of luck to all my World Vision Team-mates in your races this weekend.
(still not too late to donate, click here!)


God Bless,


Barefoot Dan




October Mileage = 196.31 Miles