Baring my Sole: My First Barefoot Race

A half hour with barefoot coach Lee Saxby, a 4-mile barefoot run through Salt Lake in a skirt, and an evening run with my sister-in-law, just a quick two blocks to give her some tips on barefoot running, culminated in the decision to run a weekend race in bare feet. It was sort of a last minute decision. In fact, I decided to go for it only the evening before the race, realizing I needed to put in a training run before the drive home anyhow. Without the week's previous events listed, going sans shoes never would have happened.

The morning of the race I dragged my parents-in-law through the course which, evidentially, wound through their community starting only blocks from their front door. Getting an idea of the route was only secondary to the need to determine surface textures along the way. Every time that the road seemed to change appearance, I would have my father-in-law stop the car, and I would open my door wide enough to push my foot out to place on the ground. The question constantly crowding my thoughts, "Is this road too rough to run the distance on?" I let the nerve ends in my feet do the answering.

6 miles and 20 minutes later found me pulling my running gear on in time for a quick last-minute bathroom stop before wandering out the front door without any shoes on. Needless to say, wandering over to the start line in bare feet drew a little attention. I lined up with the 300 shod runners, and, honk! The horn blared, and I was off.

I figured that if I pushed myself I would be able to pull off an 8:30 minute mile considering my slower barefoot training runs. 250 feet into the race, I peaked at my Garmin to see that I was running under a 7 min/mile pace, but I was feeling great. I kept it up and finished with a surprising 7:22 min/mile pace, my fastest race pace to date. What a great way to finish off my Utah getaway.