#2867
Anybody running at Pineland Farms this year, more specifically, the barefoot 5k?
Pineland Farms Trail Challenge is always the Sunday of memorial day weekend in Southern Maine, and has traditionally been 25k and 50k (and for the past few years 50 miles) plus a 4k-5k canicross race.
But this year they are going to have some shorter races on Saturday, a 5k, 10k and barefoot 5k, most notably.
http://www.pinelandfarms.com/
I'm considering running the barefoot 5k and then either the 25k or 50k (I did the 50k last year.)
If you are looking for a good area to spend a holiday weekend, Vacationland is great. There are plenty of hotels within a half hour of Pineland, and camping is available just down the road at Bradbury Mountain.
Pineland's trails are big grassy roads - Bradbury's, not so much. Heheh.
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Interesting. It would be cool to see how many barefooters we could get there.
Just one thing though - it doesnt mention whether the barefoot 5K is a trail race. I can see that the regular 5K is.
I might consider it, but 2 hours to drive for a 5K is a bit much. I'd probably be more likely run in a 5K down here in MA and just go barefoot.
Interesting. It would be cool to see how many barefooters we could get there. Just one thing though - it doesnt mention whether the barefoot 5K is a trail race. I can see that the regular 5K is. I might consider it, but 2 hours to drive for a 5K is a bit much. I'd probably be more likely run in a 5K down here in MA and just go barefoot.
It's a trail race - everything is trails there other than 3 or 4 road crossings (only one of which is off the farm's campus although you cross in both directions.)
I'm not 100% sure but I think that all of the Saturday races are on the same course (10k is probably 2 loops.) That's how the Sunday races work...the 50 mile has a short loop of it's own and then 3 loops on the 25k course, the 50k is 2 loops of the 25k course, and the 25k is one loop (obviously.)
More details:
The 5k and 10k are different courses, but there's only a 5k barefoot option (well, you can run barefoot in the other races, but why not run in the barefoot and minimal shoe only race?)
At the end of yesterday's run I went out with the race director to record the type of terrain people can expect. I was waiting for my wife to finish running so I only ran the first mile+ or so, which is why in the video below you only see the actual barefoot guy for the first minute. The guy in vibrams is the race director.
So, if you want to see what the course is like:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHTEdTyoUtY&feature=player_embedded#!
As long as it doesn't pour during the race I think that I'll stand a good chance even against the shod people in minimal shoes, there's some really good footing for a lot of the race. A couple of the hills might be tough if it gets slick, though; not that vibrams work that great but I've found it's tough to run barefoot when you don't have traction in wet conditions.
Yesterday was ideal, though. Very dry, very easily runnable.
Less than a week to race day. The registration list hasn't been updated for a little over a week, but there's already at least 41 people registered. I expect there'll be 50-60 people in the race, probably half of whom will be completely barefoot and the other half wearing vibrams or huaraches or something similar.
The entry list shows about 40% in each category with 20% not listing which they'll be.
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Ex runner
Are there separate categories for BF and shod (VFF) runners? Just curious.
There's 2 races...
A trail 5k, where you can wear (or not wear) anything you want.
10 minutes later is the "barefoot" 5k, which has 2 categories, barefoot and shod.
Barefoot runners must be completely barefoot.
Shod runners are allowed to wear minimalist shoes such as Vibrams, huaraches, water shoes, or socks. They can not wear racing flats, trail shoes, or trainers.
The entry list was updated yesterday, and right now there are 48 people registered, 17 shod and 22 barefoot. The other 9 haven't specified which division they'll be racing in.
The two divisions are in the same race but are scored separately.
First race of the weekend is done...I ran the barefoot 5k in 18:56 or 18:58 I think, which was 3rd place.
The great part, though, was that I ran faster than every single person wearing shoes...the winners of the normal 5k and the canicross 5k (running tied to a dog) were both mid-19s, obviously the 10k was on a more difficult and longer course, and in the barefoot 5k there was only 1 person in the top 5 wearing Vibrams (he got 4th.)
I found that racing barefoot is much easier than running the course easily barefoot. With the faster leg turnover, the rocks weren't an issue at all; there was only 1 point when I was trying to get around a bunch of the normal 5k runners (who had a 10 minute head start) where I had to go through a very rocky patch that I was even uncomfortable.
One of the trail monsters was at a few points on the course with a video camera so I imagine he'll have a cool video of the race in the not too distant future. Lots of fun, looking forward to the 25k tomorrow.