The Boilermaker road race was a success. I woke up around 6:30, quickly got ready, and was out the door with Brendan my brother, Meghan my sister (who ran 6 Boilermakers in the past) and her boyfriend Danny, who strikes me as very fast. Dad dropped us off on the side of the Arterial, and we walked up the closed exit ramp to the start. I was in good spirits, calm, and relaxed. Meghan and Danny moved ahead to their correct seeding time, Brendan and I found a spot to start, and waited for the masses to shuffle on, so we could squeeze in. The Boilermaker 15K has around 10,000 runners. The 5K 2000. We were finally running, and it felt good. Brendan shot off and did his own race soon after the start. I guess I am in good shape, as the entire race I felt great and people around me were huffing in pain. Or they are in awful shape and I'm just average. The race felt short, and I didn't try really hard, I just ran to run, and I loved it. Reactions from my barefootedness ranged from disbelief to support to sippin on h8erade. The train tracks leading to the FX Matt Brewery were covered in fresh asphalt, I'm sure only I and the other barefoot runners noticed this. Fresh asphalt sticks to your feet like glue, so the final 100 meters I ran with chunks on my feet. Took some scraping to clean em, too.
After the race, I met up with Meg Bren and Danny, and we went back to watch the 15K and cheer on the rest of Team Dunn. (And be ridiculous goofus', as usual.) Whenever we saw Team Beef (the beef council sponsored 70 people to run as advertising) we cheered for pork and chicken. We kept track of the top bearded runners up to 8, upon which scandal DSQ'd one gentleman for having a goatee. Oh, I also saw another BF runner, and ran with him to chat for a bit. At the after-party, I enjoyed the fruits of my labor, 2 ice cold Saranac beers, straight from the brewery. Yes, it tasted like Utica and it was glorious.
Impressive! I ran it in Vibrams, and had another runner come up to before hand that was wearing VFFs. He was thinking of going barefoot, but was trying to find someone that knew the course to find out what the conditions were. I never did get to find out if he did it or not.
ReplyDeleteHow long did it take you to get your feet in good enough condition to do it?
I think of getting my feet in shape in two ways. The structure, as in the ligaments, tendons and muscles is one way. The other is the skin. Since you ran in Vibrams, I'm guessing your feet are in pretty good shape structurally. I began the Barefoot way in February, and started running in March. Its not so bad. Within a 2 or 3 months I could run on most surfaces with no problems. Gravel, brick, etc. I'm thinking of getting huaraches as I'm tired of bruising my feet on stones that gnomes throw on the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the race. If you'd like a pair of laces write me a message via the 'ask me' widget on the right side of my page. =)
ReplyDelete