Marathon Season Approaching!

Hello Barefooters,

Pool is covered, Fall is here

The Fall marathon season is getting underway for most of us.  The leaves are "maybe" starting to turn and the days and nights are getting a little bit crisper.  The cover is on the pool (always a little sad) and the rain is getting more and more frequent.  I started off the month out in sunny California and now I'm finishing it up in rainy Michigan.

My training has been going pretty well and I've gotten in some pretty good high mileage weeks, finishing out the month with just over 200 miles.  I have three upcoming marathons:  NM, IN, and FL in the next 4 months and I'm looking forward to each one.  In two weeks Linda and I will fly to Albuquerque for the first one on Oct 16.  I will need to try to keep that one under 4 hours since it will be my 3rd attempt for NM (for my 50Sub4 quest).

Team Duff in support of GiGi's Playhouse

One of the highlights for the month was running a 5K in Forest Park in Noblesville to benefit GiGi's Playhouse in support of kid's with Downs Syndrome.  We had a larger group from our church running for "Team Duff" which support's Kevin and Tendra Duff's twin boys Kaiden and Trenin who were born earlier this year with Downs.  Kevin and Tendra have shown remarkable resilience through it all and have been models for us all on how to handle adversity.  It has been wonderful as well to see our church and community rally around this amazing family in their difficult season.   God is definitely at work in this situation.  Our team is looking forward to many more years of supporting this race and this wonderful cause.

No shoestring? use a Zip-Tie!

This was the first race for this organization so understandably it was a little rough around the edges.  The volunteers did not seem to be well informed on the layout of the course or the need to hand the water out to the runners.  We also experienced a wrong pointing arrow, which led the first three runners the wrong way out into a parking lot.  This allowed the fourth place runner to catch up with us as we started an out-and-back with about one mile to go.   I regrouped pretty quickly and was able to come in 2nd (barefoot of course) but couldn't quite catch the guy in first who was pushing a stroller!  Oh well, it still felt nice to come in 2nd even if there wasn't much competition that day!  And since I forgot my ankle chip strap (a must for barefooters) I had to do some improvising.  Did you know you could use Zip-Ties to fasten a chip to your ankle?  

I continue to praise God for all he has allow me to do with my gift of barefoot running.  I continue to be amazed at the variety of conditions and surfaces that He allows me to be able to run and look forward to the next races, adventures and people I meet as I continue this most enjoyable chapter of my life.  Good luck to all the marathoners in training out there and enjoy the cooler temps!

Also, thanks again to all who are supporting my fundraising with World Vision, I'm about halfway there! (it's not to late to donate!) 

God Bless,

Barefoot Dan

September Mileage = 203.81 miles

Barefoot Summer Is Winding Down

Hello Barefooters,




Dave, Dan Sarah and Megan - Twinsburg OH

Time to close the pool...

Well, summer is winding down although we should still have lots of good barefoot weather between now and when the snow starts flying (oh yuck..bad image...erase!)  I had a great month of August with a wide variety of barefoot running opportunities and goals.  I started off the month in Twinsburg Ohio at the annual Twins Days Celebration. 

Twinsburg 5k - 19th overall (of 200+) and
Silver Medal (2nd) in Age 50-54

After the Race

I was blessed to attend with my identical twin brother Dave and also with my twin daughters Megan and Sarah.  We went over Thursday evening and made a full 3-day weekend of it.  There was a twins golf outing on Friday and a Twins 5K Race on Sunday with lots of other fun twin activities in between.  It was really cool to be one of the "freaks" in the "freakshow" and I really appreciated the Twinsburg community, as they really get behind this event as it is their big annual festival which has been going on for over 40 years.

The rest of the month I started piling up miles for no particular reason.  I finished out the month with weeks of 70, 100 and a couple of 60 mile weeks to total up to 305 without any ill effects.  The 100 mile week was done after needing to change my normal longer routes due to Hamilton County opting to "pave," err, Chip and Seal a few of my favorite roads.  I know I've said it before but, just to remind you, I HATE FRESH CHIP AND SEAL ROADS!  This is not paving in my book although after 2 or 3 years of age, a chip and seal road can actually be a very nice barefoot road...but definitely not the fresh stuff.  The gravel they use is some of the sharpest known to mankind and the extra tar used means that everything remains sticky for the first few months.  Again, not a good combination for barefooting (sticky and sharp!)  So, I started back on one of my old favorite routes, a straight run up Anthony Road to the Tipton County Line (8.2 miles) and back + a small spur gives roughly 16.67 miles each day.  This run each day (with a Sunday off as always) gave me a total of 100 miles for the week.  The nice/unique thing about this 100-miler was that EVERY step of it was ON Anthony Road (except for my driveway).  The other nice thing was that this particular route, at least the portion above 256th Street, was another chip and seal paving project just two Summers ago (which I complained about at the time!) and now it had "recovered" to the point where I could comfortably run on it once again.  For those who've been following my blog for a while, you might also remember this Anthony Road 16-miler was what "did me in" back in Feb. 2012 when I got my stress fracture and then had to start all over.  This memory kept flooding back each day as I ran past that same spot in the road -- sometimes with a phantom PAIN in the top of my foot! -- and made it really satisfying to pile up the same 16+ miles each day, 6 days in a row.  While 100 miles is well short of my all time record it is the highest week of this year and was REALLY satisfying!

I'm now on a business trip and finishing off the month here in sunny San Diego running daily 10-milers on the Mission Bay bike trail from my hotel out to Sea Word and back.  I also have a "favorite" memory each day on this path as I pass by the spot where I stubbed my big toe and had to limp 4 miles back to my hotel...must be something about February!!!

Please help supply Clean Water to Africa

The other thing I'm putting together is my fundraising page for Africa.  So, did you know, I'm running 3 marathons in the next 4 months?!?  The middle one is for a good cause.  I've teamed up with World Vision along with 20+ others from my church to raise money and awareness for an absolute crises in Africa...CLEAN WATER.  Did you know that only $50 could supply one person with clean water for a year?  That's a bargain, and that is where YOU come in.  Please go here (Barefoot Dan at World Vision) and support my effort to raise enough money to support 40 people in Africa with clean water for a year.  Click on the "Support Me" button and give as much as you can...or please pray for me and the Christ UMC Running Team as we run the Indianapolis Monumental Marathon (and Half Marathon) to help Africa out of this desperate crisis. 

You can make a difference.

Thanks and God Bless!!


Barefoot Dan


August Mileage = 305.28 miles, monthly and weekly (100) high for 2016