1 Year Bare

1 Year Bare!

I turned 61 this year, but more importantly, today is my 1 year anniversary of birthday suit running... well, on my feet at least! I celebrated with a 5k this evening -- 3.2 miles, 50:38, just at 16 min/mile, 1 mile bare... barely running indeed!

Actually, most of the miles have been in huaraches or VFFs, but about 1/4 have been barefoot for the last 3 months - Cool! Mostly I have been on smooth concrete sidewalks and short chip seal sections. It feels good most of the time!

I have had no injuries. I got close once when I was not paying attention (can you believe it! just floatin' along bare...) and I hit a raised joint between 2 sections of sidewalk. Ones reflexes get very good, so my foot just sort of popped up from the impact and I landed a little harder on the other foot. I was very happy when I did not fall and got right back into stride with no pain! I figured I would pay for it later, but there were no affects I could notice. I was lucky that my toes were up and spread, so the impact was spread along the bony metatarsal ridge. Very cool. Lucky toes! Other than that I have had a couple of small blisters, but they were from the shoes/sandals.

My weight has gone down a little, but more importantly, my belts were on a middle hole and now are loose on the smallest hole... the doc is delighted!

OK, here are some stats...  Total miles -- 269.4

............................Beginning   Average    Recent 20 runs
Pace Length          48                49.8           51.6
Pace/Minute          62                78.6           77.0
min/mile                18.7              16.4          16.0
Marathon Pace     8:18              7:08          6:58
Weight lbs            265                                 255
Waste "                 48                                   43

Now that is Barely Running!