Why I ran a barefoot marathon By PBarker

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Why I ran a barefoot marathonBy PBarker
I did not wake up one morning and decide to run a marathon barefoot. It was a slow and gradual change in my thinking, a slow change that lead me to do something most people consider impossible, dangerous, and crazy.

The day Simon Whitfield won the Olympic silver for triathlon was the day I told my wife I was going to do an Ironman, a 4k swim, 180k bike followed by a full 42k marathon. I had already done several half marathons, a full marathon, and a half ironman. Two years training on top of my fitness at the time seemed reasonable, so I planned to do Ironman Canada in 2010. The training consisted of highly technical swim instruction, well laid out bike training with focus of cadence, peddle stroke mechanics …, but when it came to running I had no instruction. Three years subscription to Runner’s World mag did very little for me in terms of running form.

So I began studying the best runners in the world, the people winning elite races, marathons, Ironman, Olympic medals, elite running coaches. Very quickly the words barefoot running started showing up. Mostly, I was reading how to run in shoes while emulating the running form of people who ran barefoot. So I started to focus on form, placing my forefoot on the ground first as opposed to heel striking, posture, cadence.

During a noon run I saw this guy running barefoot and asked him if his feet were ok, was he running with a forefoot landing? We became friends and often ran together. Still in shoes I attempted to learn the barefoot running form.

A triathlon friend told me of a book that he had just read. How the author was just like him, a Clydesdale, a big runner plagued with injures. My TRI friend was fast in the water, screaming on the bike, but completely fell apart on the run and often walked to the finish. The book was available in audio, so I began listening to it on runs. What I was learning from the book was completely fascinating. On October 30, 2009, while on a noon run, listening to the book, I had had enough. It was like I was standing on a fence. I could continue to run with shoes and maybe do ok or take a leap to the other side with faith in the knowledge I had accumulated. Compelled I took off my shoes and finished the run in my socks. It was amazing, my feet do not fly apart like an over cranked windup toy, nothing broke. I could feel my stride change to light quick steps. When I put my shoes back on, minus the now blackened socks, I noticed how soft the shoes were and how I lost the feel of the ground. It was crazy, some guy called me crazy. It was amazing. Like seeing with focused eyes again after years of blurred vision.

Over the winter,I ran barefoot on a treadmill and in minimal shoes outside, strengthening my feet, and learning correct form. In April 2010, I did my first 5k barefoot. At the end of April, I ran a half marathon in water shoes.

I finished the Ironman in August 2010, running the marathon in minimal shoes. Check that one off the bucket list.

After the Ironman, I became focused on barefoot running and set my next goal, to run the Calgary Marathon barefoot. By the end ofsummer 2010, I was running 35k a week, all barefoot. In November 2010, I ran a half marathon barefoot. In February 2011, I ran a 52K ultra marathon in water shoes, socks, and barefoot.

In spring 2011, I put in the final training for the marathon. Some of the key barefoot runs were a 24k run in the rain, 3.5 hrs run on asphalt, and 2 – 4k runs on gravel to condition my feet for the 42k marathon on the horizon.

May 29, 2011, marathon day wasone day I will never forget. It was the day I did something seemingly impossible, dangerous, crazy, but for me, it had become something completely possible, healthy, fun, normal. The day after the marathon I got up and biked 10k into work using minimal shoes, and on Tuesday, I ran 5k barefoot.

I had a goal and did the things I needed to do to achieve it.

Why do I run barefoot now and to me this is the most surprising thing,

because I like it.

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