Time for Spring Break!!

Happy Spring Break Barefooters!

Feeling a new surface - Rubberized Track

I hope everyone is able to get away and find a nice beach to run on somewhere.  For me and the family it will be back to Myrtle Beach SC next week, one of our favorite destinations.  My sister Jill and her husband Neal live in North Myrtle Beach and we will be visiting with them for the week.  I absolutely love this location for barefoot running since we are only a quarter mile from the beach, so about 95% of my daily morning run can be on nice hard packed sand (or surf!) and not chewed up asphalt which I'm beginning to loathe about this time every year.  At the end of the week we will come back through Ohio and visit my twin brother Dave and his family in Beaver Creek, before heading back home.


Start Line of Westfield Underground RR 5K

Well March was another great month for barefoot running.  The milder temperatures allowed me to average almost 40 miles per week which has me about a hundred miles ahead of last year's total at this point.  The second week of the month was a "6 State Tour" to visit some of my customers.  I stayed in a different place each night and got in some interesting early morning headlamp runs in each off the different locations:  Jasper, IN - Brentwood, TN - Huntsville, AL - Duluth, GA and Murfreesboro, TN (also passed through IL and KY but no running in those locations).  It was a very tiring week since most of the mornings I had 6am conference calls with our Malaysia and Germany locations and then had to go meet a customer before driving to the next location.  This meant for the most part going to bed (collapsing!) at about 9 or 10pm so I could awake by 3am to get in my 4 to 10 mile run ahead of the days activity.  This is not a schedule I would like to have every week, but it was okay for these 5 days. 

Rachel (and Linda) did the 3K Walk



Yay! 22nd place and 1st in Age Group!

Once back home I began preparing (and tapering) for the next weekend's race, the Westfield IN Underground RR 5K.  This was the 4th year in a row doing this race barefoot.


Once again I also brought along some family members to enjoy it along with me.  I asked Rachel, my oldest, to come along and reminded her that all Seniors participating in the race get 5 additional chances at the $350 scholarship drawing (25 in all) after the race is over.  Trouble is, she didn't win (and neither did any of the on-site participants!) as this drawing is also open to all Westfield Seniors each year.  My wife Linda also came along and did the 3K walk along with Rachel so even if she didn't get the scholarship she did get some exercise!

Linda, Rachel and friends at start line

I was happy with the new and improved course which started and ended on the brand new track at the recently opened stadium.  The course then turned north on Union and bypassed the chipped up asphalt of Harvest Meadows (not fun for barefooters!) and onto a brand new wide section of pavement connecting to East Street where the course then turned toward the south.  The rest of the course was the same as last year - winding through Asa Bales Park - until the finish which again landed us on the new track.


The weather was cool (predicted light snow did not occur) but it was perfect racing weather.  I missed my BPR (Barefoot Personal Record) again for the second year in a row, but did manage to finish 22nd overall and 1st in my age group ("old men" 50-55!)  This once again netted me a $15 gift certificate to the Blue Mile running store so I basically ran for free, recouping my $15 entry fee.  I cashed in the gift certificate for a new arm sleeve to carry my Iphone-6 which I can use with the "MapMyRun" app instead of my Garmin. 


I'm not sure I love the sleeve yet, however, as it is almost easier to put the phone in my pocket and also the fingerprint ID doesn't work through the thick plastic window ,so stopping my run at the end takes a series of key-strokes.  Oh well, it's still a good back-up for when I forget my Garmin on a business trip or forget to charge it up.  The freebie MapMyRun app works great and almost "better" than Garmin since I don't have to wait for the annoying "Searching for Satellite" message, which is definitely the downside of the Garmin.


Anyway, my month is ending well, and I hope to continue the higher mileage daily runs into the summer...at least I will for next week on Spring Break!


Everybody, Keep on Barefooting!


Barefoot Dan


March Mileage = 167 Miles