💚Hello Barefooters,
Well this month certainly went fast for me, how about you? I know it is a short month and all, but with the busy month of January now passed, this month still just flew by. I spent most of the month recouping from the Africa mission trip and getting caught back up at work. I only had to travel once this month and that was a short trip up to Livonia MI and back. February is also "birthday month" at our house with Linda's on the 10th, mine on the 24th, with Valentine's Day sandwiched in between. Needless to say, lots of chocolate around the house and lots of extra running required!
The nice thing was we had excellent weather for most of the month. Definitely not your typical February. Temps peaked into the 50's and 60's later in the month and I was actually able to play golf with our UMC men's golf group on Sunday, Feb. 19th. I shot a 42 so I probably won't be playing again anytime soon and can savor that abnormally low score for a while! I got some pretty decent running in with the good weather and kept my weekly average above 25 miles or so which is usually very hard to do in February!
This was a good thing since I need to stay in relatively decent shape for the upcoming Tomoka Marathon on March 25th. Earl Strong and I have planned to do another marathon road trip (as we used to do so often) and make it a nice 4 day weekend. We will start driving on Thursday, run the marathon on Saturday and get back home late Sunday. It will be great to have Earl along to help me celebrate (God Willing!) my final completion of the 50Sub4 circuit to get all 50 States run in under 4 hours. As you know, my "fail" at Disney Marathon of 4 hours 11 minutes last month left me looking for yet another FL marathon.
Well, I will keep it short this month in honor of February (a short month),
God Bless and Enjoy the Warm Weather,
Barefoot Dan
February Mileage = 102.23 miles
Favorite Pastime - Resting!
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Sunday, February 5, 2017
Out of Africa
Good Morning Barefooters,
Thanks for your patience, my post is a little late...our team just arrived last night back in the US after a two week mission trip to Ganta Liberia (western Africa).
It was another excellent mission trip with many "God moments" and also afforded the opportunity to do some great barefoot running with some old and new-found running buddies: Gary Adams, Brian Fulk, Kelly Kurth, Mark (our Liberian bus driver), Konah Drougbay and Zephaniah (who just joined me one morning mid-run!) There was a different mixture of runners each of the 9 mornings we ran, and only once the whole trip did I venture out alone. All the runs were between 1.01 to 4.26 miles and were on surfaces ranging from smooth asphalt to VERY rough, rocky footpaths and backroads. The morning temps were always hovering around 80 degrees F and it really didn't rain the whole time we were there, so dust & smoke were always a factor on these pre-dawn headlamp runs.
One morning we even came across a black mamba snake (don't worry, it had already been killed) but had to walk back to it with Travis to get a picture. It's head had been crushed and Trav was surprised that no one had picked it up yet to make a meal of it (it did disappear later in the day). We never saw any live critters on the run other the spiders, large ants and the occasional dog (tame) and chickens. I was always a little leary running the edges of the paths hoping not to find any live snakes...although the edges often times afforded the only relief from the sharp rock. I escaped with no major injuries and had only a few arch bruises and a deep heel blood blister the second day up in Ganta.
The activities on the mission trip included 4 different vision clinics, networking of the school's computer lab, hanging signs in the "zoo" and some small construction projects like hanging a light and a porch swing. For those of you who've been there before, please come back and see the amazing progress on this project. The building of the ARC (Agriculture Research Center) has taken 5 years to complete but has been an amazing labor of love by many different teams and was the God-given vision of Travis Sheets (founder, Hope in the Harvest Missions Intl.)
Earlier in the month of January I had attempted to run the Disney Marathon barefoot in under 4 hours to complete my quest to run all 50 US States in under 4 hours (50Sub4 Marathon Club). Had I completed this goal, I would have been the 92nd finisher in the club and the first of the year...BUT I guess God had other plans! My epic fail at the race was disappointing overall but I still enjoyed the trip and would recommend the Disney marathon to others...it just wasn't my day. The weather was a cold 37 degrees at the start (RARE for Florida!) with a 17MPH wind. Additionally, the races from the previous day had been cancelled due to lightning so many of those runners gained entry into the marathon the next day. While they were all in corrals behind my "C" corral, it did add to the congestion getting from the baggage drop to the start line and I ended up having to RUN/JOG to the start line so I was anything BUT relaxed as I started the race. It was a 5:30AM start and after standing around shivering for 2 hours prior, I was really not in optimal fast racing condition.
I did keep the requisite sub-nine pace for the first 16 miles or so but then the wind, the winding turns, and the rough surfaces all combined to slow me down. I still had about 3 minutes "in the bank" as we entered the ESPN sport complex at mile 16 but the roughness turned more severe, as the runners were directed onto the gravel baseball diamond infields and various other weird surfaces...so I slowly, and painfully, gave back my banked minutes and watched the 4-hour pace group swallow me up and spit me out as they marched onto the finish in the last 2 miles. The pace group let by Lecia Williams Holley (new friend I met just after the race), ended up not quite hitting their required pace either and besides, I knew they had started a couple corrals behind me and that I would need to be a couple minutes ahead of them at the finish to have a chance at the four hour mark. Also, of all things, my Garmin watch locked up halfway through the race so I wasn't able to get accurate paces from about 15 miles on which only further distracted me as it all slipped out of reach...arrgh! Still it was beautiful to experience the pre-dawn LED lit Disney Castle in the Magic Kingdom and the other Disney parks as well as the Disney character photo-ops...I only stopped at one but I can't blame that for my 11minute "miss" of 4:11.
Oh well, now I just need to go back to Florida again to secure the 50th state. Earl Strong and I have a plan to go back in late March to try again. Earl and I ran many of the 50 states together the first time around so it will be fun to do another road trip with Earl to finish this circuit as well. More to follow on that one as I continue to recover from the very busy month of January.
God Bless You All,
Barefoot Dan
January Mileage = 95.4 miles
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| Headlamps Bobbing Down the Road in Ganta |
It was another excellent mission trip with many "God moments" and also afforded the opportunity to do some great barefoot running with some old and new-found running buddies: Gary Adams, Brian Fulk, Kelly Kurth, Mark (our Liberian bus driver), Konah Drougbay and Zephaniah (who just joined me one morning mid-run!) There was a different mixture of runners each of the 9 mornings we ran, and only once the whole trip did I venture out alone. All the runs were between 1.01 to 4.26 miles and were on surfaces ranging from smooth asphalt to VERY rough, rocky footpaths and backroads. The morning temps were always hovering around 80 degrees F and it really didn't rain the whole time we were there, so dust & smoke were always a factor on these pre-dawn headlamp runs.
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| Black Mamba - uh, dead! |
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| "Brave" runners - Brian, Dan, Gary |
The activities on the mission trip included 4 different vision clinics, networking of the school's computer lab, hanging signs in the "zoo" and some small construction projects like hanging a light and a porch swing. For those of you who've been there before, please come back and see the amazing progress on this project. The building of the ARC (Agriculture Research Center) has taken 5 years to complete but has been an amazing labor of love by many different teams and was the God-given vision of Travis Sheets (founder, Hope in the Harvest Missions Intl.)
Earlier in the month of January I had attempted to run the Disney Marathon barefoot in under 4 hours to complete my quest to run all 50 US States in under 4 hours (50Sub4 Marathon Club). Had I completed this goal, I would have been the 92nd finisher in the club and the first of the year...BUT I guess God had other plans! My epic fail at the race was disappointing overall but I still enjoyed the trip and would recommend the Disney marathon to others...it just wasn't my day. The weather was a cold 37 degrees at the start (RARE for Florida!) with a 17MPH wind. Additionally, the races from the previous day had been cancelled due to lightning so many of those runners gained entry into the marathon the next day. While they were all in corrals behind my "C" corral, it did add to the congestion getting from the baggage drop to the start line and I ended up having to RUN/JOG to the start line so I was anything BUT relaxed as I started the race. It was a 5:30AM start and after standing around shivering for 2 hours prior, I was really not in optimal fast racing condition.
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| With Lecia at Disney 4-hour Pace Leader and fellow 50Sub4 Wannabe |
Oh well, now I just need to go back to Florida again to secure the 50th state. Earl Strong and I have a plan to go back in late March to try again. Earl and I ran many of the 50 states together the first time around so it will be fun to do another road trip with Earl to finish this circuit as well. More to follow on that one as I continue to recover from the very busy month of January.
God Bless You All,
Barefoot Dan
January Mileage = 95.4 miles
Saturday, December 31, 2016
Five Years of Barefoot Running...almost (and 2,264 miles this year)
Happy New Year Barefooters!
As 2016 comes to a close, I look back at this unlikely journey and think "Wow, this has been fun!" Almost five years ago, I hung up my running shoes for good. (Feb 11 is the actual anniversary of my last "shod" run). At the time, it didn't feel like a big milestone, actually quite the opposite. Two days later, I thought my running career was over! You see, at the time, I was really getting into the barefoot thing, but still relied on the Vibram 5-Finger shoes from time to time...usually when the weather wouldn't cooperate and I still felt like getting in some miles. This back and forth between shoes and barefoot, is what I believe caused my stress fracture on Feb 13th of 2012. While I know some minimalists believe this is a good approach, I believe that the shoes allowed me to do more than my feet were actually ready for at the time, and thus the injury....if you like, please go back and look at my blog posts in early 2012 if you want to relive my injury and subsequent recovery. I think about it often and it has shaped me into the barefoot runner I am today. I wouldn't put shoes back on now if you paid me!
This has been another big, high mileage year for me: 2264 miles for the year! Although, this will be the first year in the last 5 I didn't break the previous year's record. Actually, as I look over the past year, it was rather uneventful by comparison and I don't really even have enough to publish a "Top 10 List" as I did the last couple of years. Still, there was much to celebrate in 2016.
--- I ran barefoot in 9 different states: IN, MI, CA, TN, AL, GA, VA, SC, NM
--- I ran barefoot in 3 different countries: USA, Malaysia, Singapore
--- I ran 2 barefoot marathons: Albuquerque (Duke City) and Indianapolis (Monumental)
I also ran a couple of 5K races (one in the Spring and one in the Fall) and even placed 2nd overall in the Fall race. The Albuquerque Marathon was a nice getaway vacation for Linda and I and it set me up to finish off the "50Sub4" quest next month, finally! The Indy marathon was a fun group event and served as both my 80th marathon and my 8th barefoot marathon. It also spurred me on to raise $2000 for clean water in Africa through World Vision (my heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed and prayed for our team!)
This time of year, I like to "crunch the numbers" and the 2016 annual total of 2264 gives me a new lifetime percentage of 28% barefoot (9,226 barefoot miles vs. 32,800 total lifetime miles) Looking at the chart I also note that the last three years have been my highest annual totals ever, in the entire last 26 years (since I began running). I've also now run around the earth 1.3 times!
I thank God that I didn't break anything or get more seriously hurt, because that would have really messed up all the plans for next month. God provides! Can I get an Amen! I am learning to lean on HIM more and more everyday!
Speaking of plans, it will be a very busy month of January. On January 8th, God Willing, I will run the Disney Marathon under 4 hours and will finally complete the 50Sub4 quest to run all 50 states in under 4 hours (the last 5 barefoot). Next, I have a business trip to California and Mexico scheduled for the following week. And then, on Jan. 21, again God Willing, I will leave for a 2 week mission trip to Ganta, Liberia in western Africa. We have a team of 8 people going and this will be my 3rd trip to this same location within the last 5 years, travelling with our organization known as Hope In The Harvest. We are celebrating the completion of the ARC (Agriculture Research Center) at LICC (Liberia International Christian College) which 5 years ago was literally a dirt hill on the edge of a swamp! As Jesus' hands and feet, we celebrate the lives changed through the Agriculture Program at LICC as this "seemingly" agricultural community begins literally to "learn how to farm" and its families learn to depend upon God for their daily provisions.
I will still be in Africa on the 1st of Feb, so, apologies, my blog next month will be a little late, but don't worry, I will get it done...hopefully with much good news to report from Ganta.
Blessings & Have a Prosperous 2017,
Barefoot Dan
December Total = 90.02 miles
2016 Total = 2264.33 miles
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| Late December snowy run in Howe, IN |
This has been another big, high mileage year for me: 2264 miles for the year! Although, this will be the first year in the last 5 I didn't break the previous year's record. Actually, as I look over the past year, it was rather uneventful by comparison and I don't really even have enough to publish a "Top 10 List" as I did the last couple of years. Still, there was much to celebrate in 2016.
--- I ran barefoot in 9 different states: IN, MI, CA, TN, AL, GA, VA, SC, NM
--- I ran barefoot in 3 different countries: USA, Malaysia, Singapore
--- I ran 2 barefoot marathons: Albuquerque (Duke City) and Indianapolis (Monumental)
I also ran a couple of 5K races (one in the Spring and one in the Fall) and even placed 2nd overall in the Fall race. The Albuquerque Marathon was a nice getaway vacation for Linda and I and it set me up to finish off the "50Sub4" quest next month, finally! The Indy marathon was a fun group event and served as both my 80th marathon and my 8th barefoot marathon. It also spurred me on to raise $2000 for clean water in Africa through World Vision (my heartfelt thanks to all of you who contributed and prayed for our team!)
This time of year, I like to "crunch the numbers" and the 2016 annual total of 2264 gives me a new lifetime percentage of 28% barefoot (9,226 barefoot miles vs. 32,800 total lifetime miles) Looking at the chart I also note that the last three years have been my highest annual totals ever, in the entire last 26 years (since I began running). I've also now run around the earth 1.3 times!
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| OUCH...sliding on icy concrete - not recommended! |
The month of December was pretty uneventful actually since the weather finally decided to get cold for real. The second week of the month was particularly cold and my weekly total was less than 4 miles! I ran one day when it was only 18 degrees and yes, that was the high for the day, but no, that is not a barefoot record for me! This week also included the only day this month I missed due to weather, -2 degrees...brrr! And, to top it off, on Saturday Dec. 17th we had a pretty bad ice storm, but, of course, I went running anyway! On the first two steps out of the garage, my feet flew out from under me and I went down...HARD. I scraped the top of my foot in the process and landed on both my left hip and left elbow. I just laid there for quite a while in the freezing puddle of water and didn't move while I tried to figure out what I had broken...luckily nothing. But it hurt, bad. Still, I said a little prayer, walked back in the house, put on a fresh pair of gloves, looked at my bleeding foot, and then, of course, went back out to "carefully" get in my run! The landing on the left elbow was the worst part...I wrenched my shoulder and upper body pretty bad and had trouble moving that shoulder without pain for the next few days. It is still hard to put on a shirt even now, two weeks later, but it is slowly but surely getting better.
I thank God that I didn't break anything or get more seriously hurt, because that would have really messed up all the plans for next month. God provides! Can I get an Amen! I am learning to lean on HIM more and more everyday!
Speaking of plans, it will be a very busy month of January. On January 8th, God Willing, I will run the Disney Marathon under 4 hours and will finally complete the 50Sub4 quest to run all 50 states in under 4 hours (the last 5 barefoot). Next, I have a business trip to California and Mexico scheduled for the following week. And then, on Jan. 21, again God Willing, I will leave for a 2 week mission trip to Ganta, Liberia in western Africa. We have a team of 8 people going and this will be my 3rd trip to this same location within the last 5 years, travelling with our organization known as Hope In The Harvest. We are celebrating the completion of the ARC (Agriculture Research Center) at LICC (Liberia International Christian College) which 5 years ago was literally a dirt hill on the edge of a swamp! As Jesus' hands and feet, we celebrate the lives changed through the Agriculture Program at LICC as this "seemingly" agricultural community begins literally to "learn how to farm" and its families learn to depend upon God for their daily provisions.
I will still be in Africa on the 1st of Feb, so, apologies, my blog next month will be a little late, but don't worry, I will get it done...hopefully with much good news to report from Ganta.
Blessings & Have a Prosperous 2017,
Barefoot Dan
December Total = 90.02 miles
2016 Total = 2264.33 miles
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Enjoying Some Rest
Hello Barefooters,
The weather for race day was perfect with temps in the upper 30's and lower 40's at the start. As you know, it's best to be a little cold at the start so that once you get going and the blood start flowing, it turns out to be just right. The first few miles I maintained my 8:30 (or so) pace and kept it up until we split off from the half marathoners. This, in hindsight, turned out to be WAY too fast. Once the course got north of the Indy fairgrounds the pavement turned rougher and my pace began to slow. It was at this point I suddenly remembered what I said when I ran this 4 years ago: "I'll never run this barefoot again!...Indy doesn't know how to pave streets!" and yet I must have forgotten this!
The last half of the race I slowed considerably and was actually glad I didn't need a "Sub 4" for this race because I don't think I could have done it. The pavement leading up to Burdsal Parkway hadn't been touched in 4 years and was absolutely crumbling...I kept running (in my mind) but I'm sure any bystanders might have thought I was walking!
I did pick up the pace at the end and got back to a reasonable looking gait. During the last mile of the race WRTV reporter Mary Milz came running along side and sort of "interviewed" me about running barefoot. I gave her some basic info about barefoot marathoning and she said to send her an email and we would talk more (I sent her the email, but no response yet!) Once I rounded the last corner and could see the finish line I went blowing by Mary and about 50 other runners in that last quarter mile...it felt so good to go from an 11:00 min/mile pace to a 7:18 min/mile pace knowing the end was near!
This was my 80th marathon and my 8th barefoot marathon so all in all, a pretty good milestone. I came in 2177th overall at 4:15 even (again, happy to not need the sub 4). The rest of the month I have pretty much taken it easy, although the middle week I did get in almost 40 miles and enjoyed the first slightly snowy run on Nov. 19th. Since then I've been nursing a bit of TOFP (Top Of Foot Pain), which you barefooters know is usually very bad news. However, this seems to sort of be a phantom pain which is moving around a little so I am not overly alarmed at this point. Still, it is good to be able to just run "a little bit" each day and not overdo the miles, as I continue to recover from these two relatively rough marathons.
I'm getting psyched for my upcoming Disney Marathon in about 5 weeks and will really enjoy finally finishing off the 50 Sub 4 quest if successful. This will mean that the last 5 states (some of the hardest) were repeated to not only get the times under 4 hours, but also to do them barefoot. I'll be ready for a good long rest after that!
Enjoy the holidays!
Barefoot Dan
November Mileage = 108.5 miles
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| Team World Vision (partial) at the Starting Line |
November has been a good "resting" month after my two recent marathons. I definitely needed the rest since the two marathons were only about 3 weeks apart and both banged me up pretty good. The Indy Monumental Marathon was on Nov. 5 and was run along with my World Vision Team from Christ UMC Westfield. I was blessed to raised $2000 for this event which will help to provide clean water to 40 people in Africa next year. A big "THANK YOU" to all of my donors and those who prayed for our team during this event. Our team celebrated the event afterwards, with food of course! And we are so energized we've already signed up to do it again next year as a team!
The weather for race day was perfect with temps in the upper 30's and lower 40's at the start. As you know, it's best to be a little cold at the start so that once you get going and the blood start flowing, it turns out to be just right. The first few miles I maintained my 8:30 (or so) pace and kept it up until we split off from the half marathoners. This, in hindsight, turned out to be WAY too fast. Once the course got north of the Indy fairgrounds the pavement turned rougher and my pace began to slow. It was at this point I suddenly remembered what I said when I ran this 4 years ago: "I'll never run this barefoot again!...Indy doesn't know how to pave streets!" and yet I must have forgotten this!
The last half of the race I slowed considerably and was actually glad I didn't need a "Sub 4" for this race because I don't think I could have done it. The pavement leading up to Burdsal Parkway hadn't been touched in 4 years and was absolutely crumbling...I kept running (in my mind) but I'm sure any bystanders might have thought I was walking! 
I did pick up the pace at the end and got back to a reasonable looking gait. During the last mile of the race WRTV reporter Mary Milz came running along side and sort of "interviewed" me about running barefoot. I gave her some basic info about barefoot marathoning and she said to send her an email and we would talk more (I sent her the email, but no response yet!) Once I rounded the last corner and could see the finish line I went blowing by Mary and about 50 other runners in that last quarter mile...it felt so good to go from an 11:00 min/mile pace to a 7:18 min/mile pace knowing the end was near! |
| Yay! Finish Line! |
I staggered across the line and went immediately to the baggage area where I knew my checked bag (with Flip Flops) would be waiting...ahhhh, relief! After a few minutes recovering I made my way back to the Team World Vision tent where our regional team leader Alyssa welcomed me in to the smell of pizza. Even better, I got a hug and kiss from our local team leader (my wife Linda) who had just completed her half marathon and was waiting along with the rest of our team. Then of course, after finishing the pizza, we went out for breakfast at Lincoln Square! ---Eat to run or run to eat...your choice!
This was my 80th marathon and my 8th barefoot marathon so all in all, a pretty good milestone. I came in 2177th overall at 4:15 even (again, happy to not need the sub 4). The rest of the month I have pretty much taken it easy, although the middle week I did get in almost 40 miles and enjoyed the first slightly snowy run on Nov. 19th. Since then I've been nursing a bit of TOFP (Top Of Foot Pain), which you barefooters know is usually very bad news. However, this seems to sort of be a phantom pain which is moving around a little so I am not overly alarmed at this point. Still, it is good to be able to just run "a little bit" each day and not overdo the miles, as I continue to recover from these two relatively rough marathons.
I'm getting psyched for my upcoming Disney Marathon in about 5 weeks and will really enjoy finally finishing off the 50 Sub 4 quest if successful. This will mean that the last 5 states (some of the hardest) were repeated to not only get the times under 4 hours, but also to do them barefoot. I'll be ready for a good long rest after that!
Enjoy the holidays!
Barefoot Dan
November Mileage = 108.5 miles
Monday, October 31, 2016
Something Scary for Halloween!
Happy Halloween Barefooters,
So since it's Halloween, let me show you something scary and gross!
This morning during my 10 miler, at about 8 miles, I turned to look for traffic behind, took my eyes off the road in front of me for half a second and stepped on something (maybe a rock?!) very hard with my left forefoot. It hurt like you wouldn't believe! I limped the last two miles home, hoping to sort of shake it off. I said a quick prayer that I wouldn't hit anything else in the exact same spot, which would have taken me to my knees. Sometimes after hitting something hard like that it can take a few strides, or sometimes up to half a mile, to get everything feeling all right again. But not this time! I stopped to look at it a couple of times with my headlamp and it seem to just be a blood blister, but each step was increasingly uncomfortable and I began to actually change my stride to find a better landing zone (never a good thing!) When I got back to the house I was not encouraged. What I saw was about a dime size blister forming and starting to throb.
Now it's mid morning as I write this and it is still throbbing inside my shoe. Not only that, I'm now walking with a slight limp! Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but what makes this such a "scary Halloween surprise" is that I'm supposed to run the Indy Monumental Marathon in 5 days with Team World Vision on Saturday. I was planning to only run 3 days this week (Mon 10mile, Tues 8mile and Wed 6mile) and then take off Thurs and Fri completely to be ready for Saturday...but now it looks like I will be taking the WHOLE week off and then just hope and pray to be ready to go on Saturday. Don't get me wrong, it's not the end of the world, but definitely not the way I wanted to taper for this race! Oh well, up until now it had been a great October for barefoot running...how fitting that this happened on Halloween!
I started off the month with a nice high mileage week of 77miles followed by a week of tapering to get ready for the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque. This would be my 3rd (and hopefully final) attempt to get the ever elusive New Mexico Marathon under 4 hours for my 50Sub4 quest. Linda and I flew out on Thursday afternoon and made a nice 4-day weekend out of it. We explored Santa Fe NM on Friday which was a short 90 minute drive from our hotel in Old Town Albuquerque. We enjoyed the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe as well as some other museums, shopping and excellent restaurants. Santa Fe is quite an eclectic mix of arts and entertainment so my artsy wife Linda was right at home, and I didn't mind it either!
So now I have only one more state to go (Florida) in the 50sub4 quest to get all the states under 4 hours. Again, the plan is to run the Disney Marathon in January to complete the circuit, but this is God Willing, of course, and barring any injuries like the one I have throbbed on my left foot right now! Still as I look back over this 5 year odyssey and the number of minor injuries and subsequent gross pictures I've posted on this blog, I still must say they've all been "skin injuries" and I have not had one significant structural injury (tendon, ligament, bone) since the stress fracture in the 2nd metatarsal as a result of barefoot running (and again, I attribute that stress fracture to the switch back and forth to Vibram 5-Finger shoes) in the beginning.
So yes, I am still a strong proponent of Barefoot Running, even though this week I'm limping!
Best of luck to all my World Vision Team-mates in your races this weekend.
(still not too late to donate, click here!)
God Bless,
Barefoot Dan
October Mileage = 196.31 Miles
So since it's Halloween, let me show you something scary and gross!
This morning during my 10 miler, at about 8 miles, I turned to look for traffic behind, took my eyes off the road in front of me for half a second and stepped on something (maybe a rock?!) very hard with my left forefoot. It hurt like you wouldn't believe! I limped the last two miles home, hoping to sort of shake it off. I said a quick prayer that I wouldn't hit anything else in the exact same spot, which would have taken me to my knees. Sometimes after hitting something hard like that it can take a few strides, or sometimes up to half a mile, to get everything feeling all right again. But not this time! I stopped to look at it a couple of times with my headlamp and it seem to just be a blood blister, but each step was increasingly uncomfortable and I began to actually change my stride to find a better landing zone (never a good thing!) When I got back to the house I was not encouraged. What I saw was about a dime size blister forming and starting to throb.
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| Halloween Injury...ouch! |
Now it's mid morning as I write this and it is still throbbing inside my shoe. Not only that, I'm now walking with a slight limp! Normally this wouldn't be so bad, but what makes this such a "scary Halloween surprise" is that I'm supposed to run the Indy Monumental Marathon in 5 days with Team World Vision on Saturday. I was planning to only run 3 days this week (Mon 10mile, Tues 8mile and Wed 6mile) and then take off Thurs and Fri completely to be ready for Saturday...but now it looks like I will be taking the WHOLE week off and then just hope and pray to be ready to go on Saturday. Don't get me wrong, it's not the end of the world, but definitely not the way I wanted to taper for this race! Oh well, up until now it had been a great October for barefoot running...how fitting that this happened on Halloween!
I started off the month with a nice high mileage week of 77miles followed by a week of tapering to get ready for the Duke City Marathon in Albuquerque. This would be my 3rd (and hopefully final) attempt to get the ever elusive New Mexico Marathon under 4 hours for my 50Sub4 quest. Linda and I flew out on Thursday afternoon and made a nice 4-day weekend out of it. We explored Santa Fe NM on Friday which was a short 90 minute drive from our hotel in Old Town Albuquerque. We enjoyed the Georgia O'Keefe museum in Santa Fe as well as some other museums, shopping and excellent restaurants. Santa Fe is quite an eclectic mix of arts and entertainment so my artsy wife Linda was right at home, and I didn't mind it either!
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| Chillin' at the start |
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| El Pinto Restaurant |
On Saturday we took it easy and went to the race expo at the Isleta Resort and Casino...but I should have stayed away from the blackjack tables! The expo itself was nice and Linda did a little shopping for her upcoming race. For whatever reason, I forgot to buy energy gels at the expo which I would live to regret at the race the next day. After the expo we explored Albuquerque a little more and found a really nice restaurant, El Pinto...if you are ever there, I highly recommend this place! We then drove the course to get a feel for the surfaces and I was not impressed, but felt that anything had to be better than the horrible surfaces during last year's "fail" at the Shiprock Marathon in northern New Mexico.
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| 4 Hour Pacer - Group was a "little" fast |
Sunday was race day and we got an early start and arrived downtown with a good parking spot so I could relax in the couple of hours leading up to the 7am start. I was glad the start was at 7 since the predicted high that day was 80. Morning lows were in the lower 50s and once the sun came up it would be getting hot fast. The first two miles were on city streets out to the Bosque Trail, a bike path along the Rio Grande. The streets were pretty chewed up but I was able to find some decent sidewalk sections alongside. The problem was that even when I found some otherwise smooth sidewalks, they always seemed to be littered with debris and pebbles. Not so bad on the trip out, but I knew it wouldn't be fun after 20+ miles coming back. At mile two we got onto the actual bike path which again was pretty smooth but always seemed to be littered with pebbles. I got lots of the usual barefoot comments but no sympathy (and I didn't expect any!) for the rougher surfaces. Most shod runners just sort of look at me and probably rightly think "Put on some shoes you dummy!" For the most part during the first half of the race I was able to keep pace and actually put some "minutes in the bank" which I would definitely need in the second half. For the first half I maintained a very respectable pace, somewhere around 8:35/mile or so, but then I started paying it back slowly. It became a little tedious in the second half doing the math to know how much I could slow down knowing that it would get really slow toward the end. As it turned out, I didn't slow too quickly and my first mile over the dreaded 10:00/mile pace was not until mile 23 and even then, I kept them all under 10:30. I knew I was slowing when the 3:45 pace group caught up to me at around mile 15. The scariest moment was when the 4:00 pace group caught me, and then passed me, in the last mile, but they were actually a little ahead of their predicted pace. Also, I knew I had a couple of extra minutes to spare as I had delayed my start at the beginning to let traffic clear and hadn't run through the first timing station (chip reader) until 2 minutes after the start gun sounded. All in all, I still cut it pretty close with only 3 and 1/2 minutes to spare, finishing in 3:56:29. Plenty of time! Whew! Linda was happy that we didn't have to come back a 4th time to New Mexico, although we really do like it here.
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| Yay!! Duke City Complete! |
So yes, I am still a strong proponent of Barefoot Running, even though this week I'm limping!
Best of luck to all my World Vision Team-mates in your races this weekend.
(still not too late to donate, click here!)
God Bless,
Barefoot Dan
October Mileage = 196.31 Miles
Friday, September 30, 2016
Marathon Season Approaching!
Hello Barefooters,
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).
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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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
Thursday, September 1, 2016
Barefoot Summer Is Winding Down
Hello Barefooters,
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!!!
Thanks and God Bless!!
Barefoot Dan
August Mileage = 305.28 miles, monthly and weekly (100) high for 2016
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| Dave, Dan Sarah and Megan - Twinsburg OH |
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| 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.
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| Twinsburg 5k - 19th overall (of 200+) and Silver Medal (2nd) in Age 50-54 |
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| 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!
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| 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
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