I hope everyone is staying safe and warm out there!
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| Makin' Tracks! - in a Snowy January |
It has been a brutally cold end to January with the nasty visit of the Polar Vortex over the last few days. Thankfully this was a short visit which will be over soon. The first couple weeks of January were actually "mild" by comparison with above normal temps in the 30's and even 40's which allowed me so get a couple of 35+ mile weeks without even switching over to afternoon running. But alas, the more normal January temperatures returned along with snow in the 3rd and 4th weeks of January so I started doing the majority of my running in the afternoons after work. The short days this time of year make this an additional challenge in order to still run in the daylight. As you know, my preference (weather permitting) is actually to run in the dark early pre-dawn hours with a headlamp. And even with these chilly January temps I was still able to run 6 of my 21 days with the headlamp in the morning when the traffic is lightest.
My two longest runs of the month were on the first two weekends with a 12 and then a 15 miler. Many of my weekday runs were shortened due to cold or snow where I recorded 5 runs of less than 1 mile. You might ask why even record something less than a mile, but for us barefooters, it is essential to "take what you can get!" And for me I always try to avoid logging a ZERO unless I absolutely have to. All things considered, I was very happy to have only 6 ZERO days this month.
Those cold days off gave me some extra time to think and plan some races for the first half of the year. After running NO marathons in all of 2018, I went ahead and signed up for 2 full marathons already this year, both races I have been itching to do for some time. First will be the Carmel Marathon on March 30 in Carmel IN, right next door. I have wanted to do this since it's inaugural race some years back but never did, either because I didn't want to have an "Indiana repeat" for the 50 States thing, or because the schedule already conflicted with something else, usually Spring Break. It still falls on the weekend before Spring Break but this year we have decided to stay halfway local in Indiana for that week.
The second marathon I'm signed up for is the Flying Pig Marathon in Cincinnati OH on May 5th with my running buddy Earl Strong from Kokomo. As most of you know, Earl and I have run dozens of marathons together over the years, including the Boston Marathon and the Space Coast Marathon to finish up my 50Sub4 challenge, so I think we were sort of overdue. Earl has done the Flying Pig several times but for me it always conflicted with the Indy Mini (always first weekend in May) so I'm glad to finally get to experience this nearby race.
If any of you runners out there want to do either the Carmel or Flying Pig race with me please let me know.
I'm hoping the months of February and March will allow for some good training runs since this is kind of early in the year to be in peak training shape for a marathon...especially barefoot. One month later, my family and I will be travelling to the Holy Land with a group of 18 "pilgrims" from our church. Looking forward to possibly getting some barefoot runs in the "footsteps of Jesus!" My inspirational barefoot running mentor Barefoot Rick from Missouri has run the Jerusalem Marathon several times so that has always been in the back of my mind as a future challenge...maybe someday!
Stay Warm!
Barefoot Dan
January Mileage = 111 miles...all outside and all barefoot, of course!
