Well, this last Sunday found me at the America’s Run Half-Marathon in Arlington, TX. IT was the Innagural half with the run starting outside of the new Cowboy Stadium and finishing on the 50 yard line with your image being projected on the jumbotron (or whatever they call it). Since I’m not up to that kind of mileage in my bare feet just yet, I decided to run the race in my trusty VFF Sprints. I’ve run one other half-marathon before in them (about a month prior) so I knew I could get through it, although the last half really killed my lower leg muscles. It took me about a week to recover from that run.
I was searching for other minimalist or bare foot runners at the race, but saw none. I did see Troy Aikman running. I passed him within the first mile and I saw him finish a good 5-10 minutes behind me. I did have one person ask me about my Vibrams during the race, but surprisingly I really did not hear many other comments. I guess I was too focused on my mantra ‘Relax, Lift your Feet, Relax, Lean, Relax, Lift your Feet’. It’s amazing how many things you need to focus on when you are trying to improve your form. Kind of like a golf swing.
This time, I focused on my form based on the improvements I had made with my barefoot running, and I managed to finish the race in 1:46:56 with just a little soreness on the bootom of my feet. The next day (Monday) I did not have any major issues and was able to actually go out and run 5 miles barefoot. Since then I have treated this as a recovering week and I’ve been doing a solid 3-4 miles each day barefoot. I’m writing this week’s post early, because this weekend I’m taking my son on a camping trip so I won’t be getting in any running until next week.
No major issues, none of the knee pain I used to get. My feet still remain a little tender on the bottoms, but not enough to stop me from running.
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