Last fall I ran a 10K totally barefoot and had a really enjoyable experience. So, this AM I ran a 5K also here in north Florida. I was a little worried about getting there on time since it was in a different time zone (only 50 miles away, but still - I'm not used to having to compensate for time differences).  At least I got to "sleep in" an extra hour. 

It was a small race, about 100 or so and I warmed up on the course - a small town paved bike trail mostly in the woods, but paralleling the center of town about 3-4 blocks away..  Anyway, after about a half mile of warming up, I stopped before I would've stepped on a small (14-16"?) copperhead snake lying in the middle of the trail - he had beautiful coloration: goldish-light brown body with a dark chocolate sort of hourglass pattern.  Anyway, I found a couple of longish sticks and tossed him into the bushes by the creek and away from the trail.  The race should've been called the "Copperhead Crawl", not the "Catfish Crawl"!  (Didn't see any catfish and there wasn't a fish fry after the race - oh, well.)  The race was bunched up on the trail at the beginning so finally I ran around a group onto the gravel side for a few steps, thinking at first  "this could be a mistake", but it was fine and I continued on with no problem.  There was a boardwalk about 50 yards long over the creek that we had to cover out and back, but it just felt a little weird, nothing more - oh, and I didn't notice any splinters (for the benefit of the nails and glass people).     

Didn't see any others barefoot except for a family of four that ran in Vibram FFs, and a girl who ran the one mile kids fun run barefooted.  Got a lot of questions and positive comments (along with some of the usual stuff like "aren't you worried about stepping on a nail or glass?), and the PA announcer gave a shout-out along with my AG award. Have you ever won a bobble-head doll for an award? The "swag bag" was better than most - a decent reflective backpack with padded straps, a nice technical tee, bicycle strobe light in a midsize tie-on bag, wristband, nice sports drink bottle, coupons, ads, pens...plus there were a lot of bib number drawings for prizes (missed winning a new pair of running shoes by one number - hey, wasn't it obvious to everyone that I needed shoes?). 

I had a good time and I met my goal time - an enjoyable morning, and I'm anxious to do another one!