Chilli 5k -- 19:43 (I'm happy)

Being barefoot only cost me about 15 total seconds. Mile 2 was a 6:30 (had a gravel stretch that I danced around) but I finished my last 1+ at 6:15. It's a great course for barefoot running. Smooth. In addition to the 5k completely au natural, my warmup and cool down were done in the sandals. My age group was wicked fast. It's not often that a guy like Pat can go sub 17 and get 3rd in his age group and 5th overall. That was pretty cool for me to see all those fast over 40 guys go at it.

It was fun watching my daughter run her 5k. She was a very nervous 10 years old. She had the goal of not stopping to walk and ended up winner her age group. She's a great kid. These are pretty long distances for young kids. She doesn't train and I think that's best. At her age it can be damaging for her to run too many miles plus you want her to develop a love for the sport.  Her goal was 30 minutes and she came in about 15 seconds short.  The great thing was that she won $125 gift certificate to Running Central.  Thanks Adam & Marie!!!!!  She's stoked to get some new gear.  Running Central did a great job of supporting this race as they do all things running in town.  We are so lucky to have a store of this caliber in town.  Not having to go to a big box retailer to find some crappy gear in a store that mostly caters to golfers, camping and basketball is really nice.  Running Central focuses on running and track and field and they get the right gear with the knowledge to use it correctly.  I highly recommend them.


Race conditions were warm. The upside is these early warmer races and test runs will be helpful for Grandma's if it turns out to be warm. The heat wont be a surprise.

Sunday I ran my 16 on the East Peoria trail at about 9am. It was pretty warm, about 85 F. I thought it would be good to get some more hot weather running in. I developed a couple of hot spots on both feet during the run. It's the second time these darn Huaraches have done this too me. It could have been the cumulative of running fast barefooted yesterday or it could be what sweaty rubber does to feet. My feet are not fully conditioned/toughened to the point where I can handle this much back to back volume and intensity in these shoes. I tend to have bad judgment of what I should be wearing on my feet. In hind site, I probably should have worn shoes and gotten the distance at pace in. I wanted to push the limits of my minimalist shoes to ensure I was ready both physically and also from a foot toughness standpoint for my marathon. The two goals sometimes work against one another. Because of my choice, I'm nursing sore pigs. Nothing serious. I had to walk an aweful lot of the last 6 this morning. I was so disgusted I turned off my GPS watch and cursed the path back to the car. This walking bugs me more than the sore feet. I was on a 7:50 pace till mile 10.

Having a 20 miler scheduled for next week makes me VERY happy. I feel it will give me much needed confidence that I have gotten enough cardio base running in. I'm not so concerned about having a perfect taper because I am looking at Grandma's as a building up for the fall marathon(s). If I do Huntsville, I'll evaluate after Chicago, it will be in shoes. I think I'll run this marathon more conservatively than some of my previous attempts. I'm just fit enough to think I can run faster than I am really capable and then be upset with a poor showing.

I don't think I'm believe yet I am as fast as I can be. I've been making lots of progress but I had lost a bunch of fitness from where I was trying the barefoot experiments. Although I enjoy this part of running, I am not ready yet to concede the seconds to father time. The great thing is that my knees and IT bands are in excellent shape. I know it's very odd but it's fun for me and that's what it's all about in the end for a guy with my mid level running ability. I'm never gonna get paid for this so I'd better be having fun or why bother :-)!