Here's my brief race report from this past Saturday's 10k race (sorry, no pics this time):
On Saturday morning, I ran the local Habitat for Humanity 10k--which also happens to be the first 10k I ever ran (3 years ago).
I'm not in 10k racing shape so my goal was just to finish it running. Conditions were the worst for any race I've run--75F with around 100% relative humidity. Warmed up for a mile--able to test the first half-mile of the course to find the smoothest road for my feet.
At the start line, another runner approached me to show me that I was not the only barefooter in the race. He was running his first barefoot race and has been barefooting a couple of months. He said there may be a couple more barefooters in the area as Christopher McDougall (author of Born to Run) had been in town the previous Sunday (which I didn't know about) and had a short barefoot session after his book-signing with a few people.
Tried to run easy the first half of the race, as it's hilly and the second half is flatter. Even running at a pace I thought was easy, I started wearing out early. Walked the two water stops, where I drank one cup and dumped another over my head. Somehow managed to run the rest of the race. Only one short stretch of road (with about a mile to go) really annoyed my feet; although, the balls of my feet were burning for most of the last half of the race.
Feet seemed to hold up well. No blisters. Balls of the feet seemed to be rubbed free of some callusing. Leg and feet muscles felt fine the day of the race, but plenty of all-around leg soreness on Sunday and Monday.
Splits (1/2/3/4/5/6.2 miles) with avg HR
9:06 (169) / 9:14 (180) / 9:57 (182) / 10:19 (186) / 10:02 (184) / 12:18 (186)
official time: 1:01:00
avg HR: 181 high HR: 192
John
Great job!
I recently ran my first half-marathon in my VFFs and can say it was a good experience for me. Although I was a lot slower going than I was used to when running fully shod. How did your times stack up against previous 10k's?
-J
How did your times stack up against previous 10k's?
My average pace for this run is the slowest average pace for any of my races, other than my two marathons. Three years ago, I ran this race in 55x.
But considering how much better running shape (endurance-wise, especially) I was in in most of my other races, I'm satisfied with my time in this 10k. Hopefully I'm going to be able to start running some longer distances barefoot and building my running endurance and stamina back up.
Vary cool - nice job. I hope to be able to run a 5K maybe by the end of the year - my transition has been slow because I am pretty much refusing to let go of my high mileage. So most of my runs are shod, with about 7 of the 50 miles per week done barefoot (maybe up to about 10 this week, we'll see how it goes).
Glad to see that your feet didnt blister too, with weather that hot, i would think the pavement would have burned up the bottom of your feet.
Congrats on completing the 10k barefoot. That's no small accomplishment.
Creator of RunForth | @robraux | shodless.com