Barefoot in the Philippines + 72 Mile Barefoot Week

Happy Summer Barefooters,
I hope everyone is enjoying your Summer out there and getting in some nice long runs.  I absolutely love Summer since I'm not limited on distance by the colder weather.  I'm increasing my distance as the weather continues to warm up and making up for some of the shorter weeks back in January and February.  I'm now "almost" caught back up to my pace for a 2000 mile year.

Sunset over Lake Michigan - St. Joe

I'm publishing the blog a few days early early since I will be travelling down to Kentucky on a Mission Trip over the next week (with little or no internet)...it will be nice to be "un-plugged" for a few days.


Speaking of travel, I had three business trips this month so I got to experience barefoot running in a lot of different places...and time zones!  The first trip was up to St. Joe Michigan.  I got in a nice long run on the beach in St. Joe.  The morning meeting dictated an early morning headlamp run, but it was nice and peaceful and deserted.  I got in a nice 7.5 mile run from the hotel, down to the beachfront area and even ran out to the end of the concrete pier before turning back. 


The following week I spent some time in Livonia MI (on the other side of the state) and got in some good early morning barefoot runs on the I-275 Metro Trail which runs right behind my hotel.  I usually connect this trail with several loops around the Mahle parking lot which has some nice smooth sealed pavement.  This is a nice break from the otherwise VERY rough roads in Michigan.  A few of the days I had to deal with rain showers so my runs were shortened a couple of times.  This wet weather also affected the timing and length of several of my runs back in Indiana as well.


Then finally I had a week long business trip to the Philippines.  This was my first trip ever to the Philippines and I stayed in the Manila area in a place called Alabang which was very nice.  The hotel and business district of Alabang were relatively small, but I did manage to carve out a 0.9 mile loop and also a 1.65 mile loop which gave me a good way to get in some decent mileage.  The weather was a hot 81 degrees each morning (this was the "cool" of the day).  After getting off the plane I got in a quick 1 miler (with headlamp) just to get the "lay of the land."  Then the next morning I got in a 4 miler before going to the plant the first day.   Each day I got progressively longer and enjoyed an 8, 10, and 13 miler the next three days.  The pavement was "ok" and ranged from semi-smooth to pretty rough but after doing the loop a few times I was able to find the smoothest path possible.




Jose Rizal's Footprints

I took the Sunday off from running, as always, and got in some sight-seeing on both Saturday and Sunday.  On Saturday I took a 3-hour Manila City Tour which highlighted the cities cathedrals, the US-Manila cemetery and Ft. Santiago which housed Dr. Jose Rizal up until the time of his execution just prior to the Philippine independence from Spanish rule.  The sidewalks commemorate his final "death march" to the firing squad by tracing his foot prints (in metal) while being led from his cell to the front of the fort.  

Ahhh...Fish Spa!

Jellyfish

On Sunday I enjoyed the Manila Ocean Park tour which offered a nice aquarium walk through, a trained seal show, jellyfish exhibit and the highlight of the day, the "Fish Spa."  The fish spa consist of a pool of calf deep water with small minnows/fingerlings that massage your feet while they groom your toes and eat the dead skin off the sides and soles of your feet.  It tickled while they worked on your feet and the neatest part of the whole thing was sitting there and watching other peoples reactions as they stuck their feet in the water and got the first sensation of the nibbling on their toes.  Some people really enjoyed it for a long time while others were "in and out" rather quickly.  It was a novelty and something I'm definitely glad I got to enjoy.


On the Monday evening after walking in the plant audit all day and after running my 10-miler that same morning I decided to get a massage once again at the hotel.  As I prepared to go to dinner I rubbed the kindof sore spot on the ball of my left foot and found what I thought was a thorn or piece of glass.  I didn't have my handy-dandy Swiss army knife tweezers (left

Piece of wire pulled from left foot - 13 miles next day

at home so they didn't get the TSA toss into the garbage) so I pulled out a pair of nail clippers.  After much pushing, rubbing, praying, pinching and tweezing I was able to pull out the offending FBO (Foreign Body Object).  It wasn't a thorn at all but a piece of wire about a quarter of an inch long! Wow, that was my second truly "Foreign" FBO since I had the piece of Canary Islands glass back in January.  As soon as I pulled it out I felt immediate relief and even ran my longest Philippine run the next morning of 13 miles before yet another LONG plane ride home.


Once I got back this week, I continued with some longer distances after dodging rain/lightning to get in a 16-miler on Friday and then a 17-miler just this morning.  That 17 miler caps off a 72 mile week which started in Manila and included a "wire injury" and jetlag and rain shortened runs of 8 and 7.3 miles.  The 72 miles represents the biggest week of the year so far!  Even though I still have 2 running days left in the month of June, I will go ahead and publish the blog since I won't be able to do it from Kentucky next week.  I hope to get in some long runs in Kentucky but as I recall from 2 years ago, the pavement is pretty rough so we'll see.  We have 20 from our church going to Red Bird Mission and this will be the third time we've gone.  Our projects include building a deck, plumbing a bathroom and installing a flu-pipe.  Fun stuff!


Happy 4th of July (soon)!


Barefoot Dan


June mileage = 252 miles (not counting June 29 & 30)