This past Sunday (March 25th) I ran the Valley of Gold Half Marathon in Oro Valley, AZ. While my time wasn't anything to write home about, I was actually surprised that there weren't many people running in minimalist shoes and I was the only one (out of about 1500 people) that I saw running barefoot. I thought this was starting to catch on? hahaha. Anyway, a quick rundown of my run.
First, I was totally misled by the elevation map on their website. It showed an elevation change of only about 100 feet from top to bottom. So I was not prepared for 961/951 foot gain/loss (according to my Garmin). My legs are still sore from that. The first 0.25 - 0.3 miles were on pretty rough asphalt. Once on the main road, it was a bit smoother and there was a sidewalk along the road in most places so if it got too rough for me, I could always have moved over. I did for a short while around mile 10, but I'll get to that later.
For the first two miles it was pretty much all up hill. Between mile 1 and mile 2 there was a 250 foot elevation gain! Yeah, I was cussing out the person that thought posting that elevation map was funny. I was still managing about a 9:15/mile pace. I was feeling pretty good and thought that breaking 2:00 would be reasonable.
Miles 3, 4, and 5 went by fairly uneventfully. Around 5.5 miles my right knee started to hurt right in the front of the knee cap. There was another hill at this point and after climbing it, I just felt like all my energy was gone. My knee hurt, I was tired, and my left calf was starting to give me problems. I continued on as I was still maintaining a pace to finish at 2 hours.
After hitting the turn around point, I noticed that the second toe on my left foot started screaming. Falling apart on the course! I really wanted to just stop, but I had decided that no matter how slow I had to go, I was going to keep running. No walking. Well, no walking except for water. My sinuses get really crazy when I run and I cannot drink water while running...something about water not supposed to be in the lungs?
So mile 7 was spent fighting the urge to quit. Mile 8 and 9 were back up a gradual hill that really sucked. Around mile 10 I attempted to run on the sidewalk for a bit to see if I could change up my gait a little bit and reduce the impact making my knee, calf, and toe hurt. Not much luck. The good news was that the last 2 miles were coming up and I knew that was mostly downhill. I actually started to have less pain as I got to this point. Maybe because I knew the end was close. I kept looking at my watch counting down the distance and time I had left. By this point I knew my goal of 2 hours was gone and it was more just getting to the finish.
I finished in 2:16. Not quite my goal, but this has been my longest distance barefoot. Prior to this I had run 12.9 miles. My time then was 2:31 and I had stopped a few times for water and was really sore for a while. I think I injured my right calf then. That is one of the reasons I hadn't run for a few weeks.
I had a lot of people asking if I train barefoot. What kind of question is that? No, I actually train in running shoes and just come out here to run barefoot! Duh! My typical response was, "You mean I'm supposed to train?" One of my friends made a comment, "You're one of those people that I hate. You can just wake up and decide to run a half marathon." Well, I don't know about just deciding to run one. While I hadn't done any running in the four weeks prior to this, she was only about 20 seconds behind me. Granted, it was her first half marathon and my first one barefoot. So I don't think we did too terribly.
First, I was totally misled by the elevation map on their website. It showed an elevation change of only about 100 feet from top to bottom. So I was not prepared for 961/951 foot gain/loss (according to my Garmin). My legs are still sore from that. The first 0.25 - 0.3 miles were on pretty rough asphalt. Once on the main road, it was a bit smoother and there was a sidewalk along the road in most places so if it got too rough for me, I could always have moved over. I did for a short while around mile 10, but I'll get to that later.
For the first two miles it was pretty much all up hill. Between mile 1 and mile 2 there was a 250 foot elevation gain! Yeah, I was cussing out the person that thought posting that elevation map was funny. I was still managing about a 9:15/mile pace. I was feeling pretty good and thought that breaking 2:00 would be reasonable.
Miles 3, 4, and 5 went by fairly uneventfully. Around 5.5 miles my right knee started to hurt right in the front of the knee cap. There was another hill at this point and after climbing it, I just felt like all my energy was gone. My knee hurt, I was tired, and my left calf was starting to give me problems. I continued on as I was still maintaining a pace to finish at 2 hours.
After hitting the turn around point, I noticed that the second toe on my left foot started screaming. Falling apart on the course! I really wanted to just stop, but I had decided that no matter how slow I had to go, I was going to keep running. No walking. Well, no walking except for water. My sinuses get really crazy when I run and I cannot drink water while running...something about water not supposed to be in the lungs?
So mile 7 was spent fighting the urge to quit. Mile 8 and 9 were back up a gradual hill that really sucked. Around mile 10 I attempted to run on the sidewalk for a bit to see if I could change up my gait a little bit and reduce the impact making my knee, calf, and toe hurt. Not much luck. The good news was that the last 2 miles were coming up and I knew that was mostly downhill. I actually started to have less pain as I got to this point. Maybe because I knew the end was close. I kept looking at my watch counting down the distance and time I had left. By this point I knew my goal of 2 hours was gone and it was more just getting to the finish.
I finished in 2:16. Not quite my goal, but this has been my longest distance barefoot. Prior to this I had run 12.9 miles. My time then was 2:31 and I had stopped a few times for water and was really sore for a while. I think I injured my right calf then. That is one of the reasons I hadn't run for a few weeks.
I had a lot of people asking if I train barefoot. What kind of question is that? No, I actually train in running shoes and just come out here to run barefoot! Duh! My typical response was, "You mean I'm supposed to train?" One of my friends made a comment, "You're one of those people that I hate. You can just wake up and decide to run a half marathon." Well, I don't know about just deciding to run one. While I hadn't done any running in the four weeks prior to this, she was only about 20 seconds behind me. Granted, it was her first half marathon and my first one barefoot. So I don't think we did too terribly.
