Foster Hope For Our Kids 5K Race Report

fredvp71

Barefooters
Jun 24, 2010
51
8
8
Massillon OH
Hello all - just a brief report on my barefoot 5K run here in northeast Ohio. It was a beautiful morning, about 70 degrees and sunny. I was the only bf runner in the pack, but my friend and BF enthusiast Chris ran his first 5K in his VFF's also.

The course was road for the first 2 miles and a red walking path/tennis court material for the third mile. I took Ken Bob's SAGE advice, and started back in the pack, and this seemed to be really helpful. I took the first mile, which was pretty much all uphill, at 7:22, and the second mile in 7:07. The third mile we hit the red walking path, and I think did it in about 7:15. The track was wet, and felt like I was running on carpet. The problem is that track can give you serious blisters because it is not, in fact, a carpet, but a material treated with sharp little bits that give traction to the shod so they don't slip and slide around.

I was kind of thrilled by the lack of questions. It wasn't nearly as big a deal to everyone as when I ran a bf 5K last year. Just a few nice comments of concern, like "don't your feet hurt"?, or "you must have super tough soles!". No on both counts, but that is okay, the questions come from a good place.

So, finished in 22:30, 25th out of 129 runners. Last year I ran a race with very bad form, and was quite injured and unable to walk for a couple weeks. So, this was a slower time but a much bigger victory, finishing nice and uninjured.

Any advice for new race runners would be to start slow, and start with a warm summertime race. My race last year was 32 degrees, and the numbness made for a disaster. Thanks for reading, run softly and have fun!
 
Congrats on a great time and

Congrats on a great time and a great finish, Fred. Why did BKB say to start in the back?
 
BKB said to start in the back

BKB said to start in the back in your first couple races because of the tendency to sprint out in a poor form. Once you start with poor form in a race, it can be hard to get it back. Last year I ran a race really fast, but was so cold I couldn't feel my feet. I ran supinated, and scraped so much skin off my feet I couldn't walk until it healed almost 3 weeks later.



So, starting in the back gives you a nice little warmup period without trying to do to much. Highly recommended, as in my second race, I still finished pretty fast, but had no injuries at all, not even a blister. Thanks for the question!
 
Makes sense to me.  I always

Makes sense to me. I always start in the middle or at the back. I like to let the "serious" runners go first.
 
New Race Report - Mods -

New Race Report - Mods - maybe we should just have a generic "race report" thread, for quick reports? There must be more folks than just me throwing down 20 bills every few Saturdays!

OK - Muddy Paws 5 & 10 Mile Saturday 7/24 7:30 PM. I ran this last year in shoes, and if you saw pictures of me from last year, you would see a big knee brace as I recovered from yet another running injury. I remembered the course as being half-grass and half-gravel - no problem, right? Wrong! Over the last year either they added tons of stones to the course or I have a memory problem because it is .5 miles of grass and 4.5 miles of rocks. Not crushed limestone, not a pebble here and there, but straight up Level 8 and 9, according to Ken Bob's chart, of driveway-type stones. So, I signed up for the 10 but wimped out and did the 5, as the amount of rockage was undefeatable.

To give you an idea of how hard this course is, I did 5 miles in 54 minutes, and was 7 out of 16 in my age group. I beat over half the guys and only did 11-minute miles. Last year in shoes, I did 45 minutes and 50 minute loops. This is a tough, tough course. Should've sacked up and grabbed my vff's and done another 5, but these rocks were so crappy, I figured I would've been in pain even in Vibram's.

So, I'm glad I finished. I got a new injury - the arch bruise. I can add that to scraping the skin off the sides of my feet, and frostbite. I had good form on those rocks, I'm sure of it, otherwise I couldn't have even finished, but I did get some good bruising on the arch of my foot. I probably had my feet stretched out too wide. Feels just like my old Plantar Fasciitis, but I know this'll go away in a day or two! In good news, I have no blisters, no cuts, and I didn't fall. Last year I tripped over a root and fell down a hill, so staying vertical was an improvement. That's about it - I snuck out of there ninja-style, kind of don't want the attention anymore, just want to run.

I'm sticking to road races for awhile! Thanks for reading - sorry, no pictures, I'll work on that in the future!!
 
We would prefer everyone to

We would prefer everyone to submit their race reports to the BRS, so we can display them on the News Show on the home page, or at least add them to a blog entry under the Blog tab. Please submit all race reports to: [email protected]

I spoke with Ken Bob when he visited, and he is all for updating his terrain chart. He's lacking some surfaces that need to be added, and some of his numbering is off. We plan to work on that here at the BRS and put it up for you all to reference as needed. In fact, if there is anyone out there who would like to take on this task, please let me know: [email protected]

Congrats on finishing in one piece, Fred. At least you finished, right? And who else was out there doing it barefoot. Not bad if you ask me.
 
Thanks TJ - will do. 

Thanks TJ - will do. I always thought it would be fun to have a tracker ranking the different runners by how many miles and speed they went, etc. I should have some more race reports in the near future! - Thanks

Fred
 
Looking forward to it, Fred.

Looking forward to it, Fred.
 

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