Barefoot Quarter Marathon

Hello Barefooters,

Hope your summer is starting off well.  I have been enjoying getting back into it slowly.  Trying my best to keep the feet fit while not overdoing it.  My key to the month of May has been to never run two days in a row and always have a good rest day (or 2 or 3) afterward.  The highlight of the month had to be my Quarter Marathon for Relay For Life on the track at Westfield HS. 

The Relay was run on May 18th and brought together teams from all over Hamilton County (Indiana) to raise money for the American Cancer Society.  A couple of my girls and I decided to take the "UP ALL NIGHT" Challenge so I was able to wait until 2am to run my self imposed Quarter Marathon (6.55 Miles) on the track.  I was blessed to have my 11 old daughter Megan run with me for the first 2 miles.  She then alternated running/resting each quarter mile lap.  Oh, and did I forget to mention, Megan also did it barefoot!  Using this method, I was able to get in my 6.55 miles and Megan got in 4.25 miles.  This was a full 26+ laps on the rubberized track.  Time was just over one hour, so this was a good first test of the foot since the injury in February.  The cool part was the reaction we got from other walkers and runners on the track that night, very uplifting and encouraging.  We even inspired Nick, a shod runner, to kick off his shoes and run the last couple laps of his 4 miler with us.  I warned him to take it easy since the first barefoot run can be painful afterward.  He seemed to do fine, but I'm sure his calves were screaming the next day. 

I had a small blister on the ball of each foot (I think from the rubberized surface of the track) and Megan had some extremely sore calves for about a week after.  Here is a picture of my foot afterwards, hard to see the blister due to all the dirt from the track.  To get our legs back we did a couple hikes on the trail in MacGregor Park as recovery.  I continued taking it easy the rest of the month and won't begin increasing my mileage until mid summer, God willing.

Oh, and the Relay did raise over $100K and our individual team, Christ UMC Holy Rollers, raised over $10K for Cancer Research.  It was a good fund raising year overall despite the shaky economy.  And, it's never to late to donate:  Here is the link to Barefoot Dan's Fundraising Page.

Well, enjoy the summer and watch out for hot pavement!

Barefoot Dan

May Mileage = 42 Miles
Week 1= 5, Week 2= 9, Week 3= 12, Week 4= 7, Week 5= 9