Registered for the Groovefest Quarter Marathon with my son. I will just refer to it as a long 10K, I can deal with the term Half Marathon, but not Quarter. What's next, naming 5K's eighth Marathon's? Anyway, this being my first run on pavement in months and my first race in even longer, the plan was to just take it easy. Nope, I just can't control myself during races. The race started at 8:30 pm, a little odd, but they wanted to make it part of the music festival that was going on. I wanted to dress groovy, but the heat ruled out any costume wearing. My bare feet would give me plenty of attention anyway. About 40-50 people ran, with an additional 20 or so in relay teams. My son found a cute friend to run with before the race and I felt like the third wheel so I did my own thing. All of the usual pre-race comments that I have missed lately, but some extra concern because 1/2 mile of the race was through an underground drainage tunnel that was muddy, dark, and had some glass. I received some extra caution from the race director, but he had heard of my barefoot adventures and had no problems. I joked as long as there were no needles or other used items, I could handle a little glass. It turned out that stretch was ok, I just took it slow, the biggest concern was the uneven concrete joints and then a few hundred yards of a low ceiling. Bad for the form, I tell you, to run hunched over. After the tunnel, I kept a pretty good pace, even in the heat, and then last 2 miles the temperature started cooling a little with darkness and I finished strong. Ended up at approx. 52:45 for approx. 6.5 miles. Good enough for 2nd place Male Masters (ouch).
Total miles for the week - 45 in three runs. 11 of those barefoot miles, yes!