Accidentally Barefoot

For a while now I’ve been rocking Vibram Five Finger shoes. Katie started wearing them while she was doing strength training at Dynamic Strength and Conditioning. I’d heard about them when they first came out, and didn’t pursue them.

I signed up for the HMEA 5k at the suggestion of a friend. Katie also signed up for the 5k, so we headed down on Sunday for the race. We packed a change of clothes for the post race BBQ, and headed down to meet up with Dutch for the run. The trusty GPS got us to the race site with no issues, easy trip down the highway

We went and picked up our race packets that included T-shirts, Uncle Ben’s Instant Brown rice and our race numbers. I grabbed my bag of running stuff that I keep my race belts in, and went to switch out of my Birks and into my Mizunos. Just to find that I had left my shoes at home!

Okay, I didn’t have time to go home and get my shoes… so I had two options. First option was to not run… I could walk the course in my sandals or just hang out at the finish. My second option was a little more brazen… I could run barefoot.

Truth be told I run once a week in my Vibrams, but never push the pace. I know I can do 4 miles in them, so 3.2 barefoot shouldn’t be an issue. Sure my feet have no calluses but it shouldn’t be THAT BAD?.

I decided to HTFU and just run barefoot. I knew my legs could take it, just wasn’t sure how my feet would react. We lined up at the start, and a couple people noticed my naked feet. I played it cool and said that I was used to running in Vibrams, so barefoot shouldn’t be a big deal. I hadn’t seen anyone wearing Vibrams Five Fingers at the race or any other Barefoot runners . I indulged in a little jumping around and running in place before the gun (musket) went off to keep my heart rate up over 100 bmp. The gun went off and I started running… I had to weave through a few people at the start, I have to admit that as I passed some people running I wondered what they were thinking being passed by an unshod runner. As we made the first sweeping turn out of the office park and onto the road I jumped onto the grass to get off the asphalt for a couple minutes. I kept the lead pack in view for the first mile, but after that they were just to fast. The route had a turn around on it, so I could see those in front of me (and those behind) during the run. At about mile 2 I got passed by a man pushing a stroller and within 1/2 a mile I was passed by the lead woman.

My feet didn’t bother me at all during the race. I feel like I actually ran pretty hard considering the circumstances. I ended up with blisters on a few of my toes and the balls of my feet. Luckily they didn’t rupture during the race and didn’t impeded me from running. I avoided all the glass on route and finished strong. At the finish I had a few people come up and ask about running barefoot. I simply said that I’d forgotten my shoes, but I don’t think they believed me.

I ended up with a pretty decent time, 21 minutes flat, which averages to a 6:45/minute per mile pace over the 3.2 miles. I was 13th out of 30 for my age group (Dutch was 9th in our age group) and 24th overall for the event. Awards were only given to top 3 per age group, so I was out of the running for more bling. But considering that it was my first run barefoot, I can’t complain at all.

Katie did an AWESOME job for her 5k. She set a personal record of 35:58 minutes! She finished strong, despite a killer side stitch.

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