The Epic Battle: Brains vs Bravado…

… It was a close one today. Bravado won out, again, and I think I got lucky. It was too cold to run barefoot today I think. I think I knew that too, but my enjoyment of the attention I get while running BF (I think) made me leave the 5’s in the bag today.

If it’s not at least 5 deg c warmer for the Half, I'll be in my Vff’s.

There was a point where my feet just felt weird. At about the 4k mark, it felt like my feet were swelling (I couldn’t be sure as they were completely numb).

This was taken at about 2k.

We ran pretty quick, for us, up to the turn around, and made our way back to the water station at 6k. I stopped and had a drink and carried on. It was there I felt them first. I had been warned about them in the cold and wet and was now feeling them. I ran for a while, trying to maintain light, short, easy strides to minimize them. I was thinking that this was going to jeopardize my run in the Half on Oct 2nd, and I started to think about giving up my bib entirely. They seemed to get worse as I ran, like they were growing and starting to take over the entire surface. I told Kelly about them at about the 7k mark and she was worried for me and asked if I was ok to continue and I said the damage was done, so lets go get this!! We actually picked up our pace steadily from that point, finishing the race in an all out sprint. We were pretty stoked to finish sub 57. I walked over to Traci’s vendor tent and grabbed my birks. I was afraid to look as I figure it was going to be gory.

I looked. Huh, interesting. No blisters!! SWEET! At that point it sort of hit home for me that I am really on the edge of stupid about my barefootery as winter approaches. I wonder what my feet were trying to tell me on the run, that made it feel like they were turning into goo. They are very tender right now, and the whole structure of my feet are tired. This was my single biggest week of running barefoot at a grand total of 28kms, but 20 of them were spread into 3 races and the other 8 was an interval run, so it was a pretty tough week for the musculature of my feet and I am feeling it. I might go to the gym this week and ride the bike instead of run, to let my feet rest.

Back to the Event!

It was a really good event. Urban Venus Nail Bar put on a nice day for the runners, despite the weather. The weather was absolute crap and yet probably 300 of the 400 registered runners showed up.

We arrived to a steady rain that stayed for the entire event, but the big deal was the cold. It stung, it was to the bone cold. Yuck. I can handle colder temps in the dead of winter because its normally dry and if you get yourself warm enough you can stay that way. When we finished the run, we were almost instantly cold. Traci wore about 9 layers of clothes and ended up pretty comfortable for the duration, until the end when the water finally seeped through her boots. Her booth was a huge success and her Baskets ended up being some of the top runner prizes as they looked so nice!

She had a lot of interest in the baskets and we think she’ll get some good business out of sponsoring this event!

Saw new BFF Joanne again, her and her DH Daren and their shaggy pup were there.

Daren was just going to do a long training run while Joanne runs the 1ok. I complain about my tough week but here is Joannes Week in a nutshell.

• Last Sunday: Wins 50k Lost Soles Ultra in Lethbridge
• Thursday: Wins Run for sight 5k
• Saturday: Wins 5 peaks trail 1/2 Marathon (correction: Ran it, did not win she thinks, ran with wrong bib, long story)
• Sunday: Wins Urban Venus 10k

That could be considered a good week by some standards. Here she is zooming back the other way, in 3rd overall.

 

The route for this event is really nice. All on paved pathways, cross 2 bridges, run along the river. and it is really flat with only a few rollers to contend with. I always like running across the Crowchild Trail bridge, under the road bridge. The only part that sucks is when there are 20 or so runners on the bridge, it bounces like a trampoline. See the Ped bridge underneath? We ran across at 4k and back at 6.

 

The rest of the route looked something like this!

 

We had some volunteers that went above and beyond and dressed as crazy cheerleaders! (I think they were volunteers, there really was no other reason to be out there, right?)

Here are the winners of Traci’s baskets. I guarantee they are happy with these run prizes! I would be!

 

Traci took some cool shots of Kelly and I at the start and finish. Nice shots!

Leading with the hips… nice. (actually avoiding the puddles)

 

Sprinting to the finish

 

So that’s it for today. Let’s see what tomfoolery I can get into tomorrow.

• Barefoot mileage since June 29th : 160km
• VFF mileage since July 7th : 45.2km (12 on trails)
• Shoe mileage since SOBF (start of barefoot): 5km (25:30 5k race PR on July 1st)