2nd edition of the International Barefoot Trophy
By KTR
By KTR
One year ago I learnt from the news about a barefoot race that had been held somewhere not far away from my hometown, Valencia, Spain.
It turns out that a barefoot enthusiast living in the small town of Segorbe, Spain, had organized a 10 km race that was to be run exclusively barefoot, and this was something that I could not let escape a second time. There's no other race like this in Spain, and —correct me if I'm wrong— I'd dare to say there's probably anything like this elsewhere. It's a whole weekend devoted to barefootedness in a country where barefootedness is not really that popular, with talks about the benefits of barefoot walking and running, a small running gear fair, contests, etc.
The event included three different races on Sunday morning: a 500-meter, junior race for under-16s, a non-competitive 6.6 km march and a competitive 10 on a 3.3 km circuit around and across Segorbe. You can check the route here and my stats here: https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/1398596345
What can I say? It was truly exciting. We were just about 80 runners for the 10k, plus 20 more for the march. It doesn't sound like we were too many, right? BUT! We were all barefoot!
Much to my surprise, most of the runners were veterans (above 39 yo), and only 9 of us were in the "Absolute" category (this is, between 16 and 39 yo). That also means that I managed to get into the Top10 of the "Absolute" category becasue... well... I finished in the 9th place
Here you are a few pics, as well as a link to a Google Photos album another runner kindly shared.
https://goo.gl/photos/RLMdeFn7DFvSjTBw6
Did you notice something? Look at the pics in the shared album and tell me: can you spot any single runner that is not smiling?
Finally, according to the official stats, I completed the race in 59'35" @ 5:57 min/km, which for me is quite a nice time for a 10k!
Cheers!