The Half Way to St. Patrick's Day 5K

There are probably a lot of these around the US but this one was in Manchester, NH. I got a hankering to try to run a race barefoot a few weeks ago, found this one and signed up. Wasn't early enough to get a t-shirt or a kilt--maybe next year.

Outside the Wild Rover, a sponsor and the start/finish line

My only goal was to do it in 24 minutes or better. Since May I've been working my way up to 5 mile runs at what seems a slowish pace to me. Not really the Maff training that a lot of people talk about, just breathing only through my nose to keep my heart rate from maxxing out. I also wanted to see what running fast on a mostly flat course was like. All my runs around here have hills that take at least twice the effort to run. After signing up I worked in some faster, shorter runs.

This race had the bib chip so I didn't have to worry about getting a strap for my ankle. The weather was perfect. It had gotten down to 44 where I live in the hills. In Manchester that would've been closer to 50. Race time was 10:00, still cool and breezy, too. Waiting for the start, though, I tried to stay out of the shadows so my toes didn't get too cold. Not really necessary as the city pavement was still warmish and dry.

They were trying to get the faster people up front with announcements for the fastest, 7mm, 7 1/2mm, etc. From where I was (near the back, in the sun) I didn't see any movement so I worked my way through the 900+ people until I got to people who looked like they might run my speed. After starting, it took a quarter mile or so before people were spaced out enough for me to realize that I was with slower ones, so I was passing until about the last mile of the race.

The road surface was pretty decent to run on--pebbly pavement, but they were smooth pebbles compared to some of the roads out where I live. The course has a very slight incline until just before the halfway point where it rises about 40 feet in about 1000-1500 feet, and the second half is the same only inverted. It's basically a loop on two parallel, adjacent roads.

It was hard for me to tell how fast I was going since I was passing a lot and getting maximum air intake, two things I haven't done much of. Still, I wasn't gasping, just breathing at the same rate as usual only through the mouth. At one point it felt like I got one of those small blood blisters like the one I got a few weeks ago midfoot when I was running on a gravel/dirt road. Only here, there weren't many rocks at all on the road, so I assumed my form was slipping, that maybe I had been pushing off. That probably kept me from pushing too hard and I kept repeating my mantras--lift and place, knees bent.

With about a mile left, a woman spectator noted the barefeet and said something about me being crazy. I just smiled and waved. Then closer towards the finish there were more people along the course cheering and urging you on, so naturally I picked it up a bit--it's hard not too! In the last fifty feet we run over the starting matt before getting to the finish matts and there's someone over the intercom announcing names as the people cross--technology today, a personalized cheer. I didn't hear any of this at the time, only afterwards when I stopped to cheer people in.

Official running time 22:22

After milling about for a few minutes, I realized there was a trailer with some electronic screens, and sure enough, you could get your time right then. Pretty decent time. I might have beat 22 minutes if I had been closer to the starting line and didn't have to work my way through the crowd. The winner did it in 18-19 minutes and he was listed as 49 years old--it gives me hope for next year!

When I finally looked at my toe there was a small dark spot at the edge of the pad in the soft area under the knuckle. It looked like a deep blood blister and I didn't feel any break in the skin. By next morning though, when it had gradually increased in pain, I dug into it with tweezers and pulled out a large grain of sand.

Overall, it was a fun run and I'm glad I did it. Lessons learned: I need to get closer to the start with others my speed and always brush off the feet if there might be something stuck.