18.06.12 In the Emergency Room

I wake up this morning at 6am and my foot is killing me.  I call work and let them know that I will not be in this morning as I am heading to the hospital hopefully to try and get an x-ray to see if there is something broken in my foot as that is what it feels like.  I get up and try to put pressure on my foot and it feels just like it did when I first took off my shoe...absolute agony!  I get showered (on one foot) and dressed before having something to eat and jumping in the car to the Emergency room.  On Sunday night I have managed to find my old crutches that I inherited when I did my knee in Melbourne.  I went to take them back to the hospital after my operation and because I had rented them for so long I apparently had purchased them.  I check in at the desk and tell my story to the receptionist.  She takes gives me a form to start filling out and I take a seat.  Before I know it the nurse wants to do an assessment on me.  Before he says anything he looks at my crutches.  "Where did you get those crutches from," he says?  "I have not seen crutches like that for ages".  I tell him the story above and he is impressed that I have kept them for so long.  He does a quick examination before telling me to go back outside and wait.

Vic has dropped off Lachlan by now and has gone to get me a coffee when I am called back up to reception.  I now have a problem.  I can't walk and have a baby with me.  A lady who is there with her father quickly realise my predicament and she offers to look after him.  I quickly head back to reception and another lady hands me another form.  "You need to fill this out as you are not a resident of NZ".  "But I live here", I say.  "It doesn't matter you have to be born in NZ".  "But I have an Australian passport so it is the same thing".  "I don't know," she says.  I take the form and head back to my seat.

1 hour goes by, two hours goes by and even three hours goes by.  I am really getting into the book that Brad lent me, Born to Run.  I am in an interesting section of the book where a race that is being organized with the Tarahumara people is about to take place.  There is a guy who is in the race called Barefoot Ted and it talks about his transition to Barefoot Running.  He had a heap of injuries and bought every pair of shoes under the sun to try and find comfort in running.  He paid US$300 for a pair of bouncy shoes that had no impact but ran down the street with them and took them off almost immediately.  As he had no shoes he walked home barefoot and realised he had no pain.  Why not just wear no shoes he thought and the rest is history.  Of course when he was running some rough trails or asphalt, he slipped on a pair of Vibram Five Fingers.  

At the start of the 4th hour I am called into see the Doctor.  "Where did you get those crutches from," he asks?  I tell him the same story.  I tell him about what has happened and he gets me up on the bed to have a look.  He touches my toes, the top of my foot, wiggles my toes and asks me if there is any major pain or discomfort.  He then presses under my big toe and asks if this hurts.  "No," I say.  He presses under the next toe and I am waiting for him to press under the middle toe.  "How about here?", as he presses my foot under my middle toe and I nearly fall of the bench.  He consults with his boss and they send me off for an x-ray.  I get this done and am back on the bench waiting for the decision.  The doctor comes over and tells me that there are no breaks.  "Let me guess" I say.  "It is a stress fracture and it doesn't show up on the x-ray?".  "We don't know what it is" he says.  "We will have to wait for a couple of weeks to see if it gets better".  "If it doesn't get better then you will need to see your GP and get another x-ray".  He wants me to start putting weight on it which is bearable and basically to have a nice day.

I guess I am glad that nothing is broken as that could possible mean surgery, but I am also angry as I don't know what has caused it in the first place.  I think it is a culmination of incidents that has lead to this injury stemming from standing on my feet for a long time on Thursday, a late night on the dance floor at Danny Doolan's and a run in my old shoes that my feet were not used to.  Could it also be due to the Vibram's, probably.  Stress fractures in the foot and mainly due to overuse.  Maybe I have been going a little too hard with my barefoot running especially absolute barefoot running.  I make a decision that there is no more absolute barefoot running until my feet are well and truly used to the Vibram's.  The only problem now is, when will that next run be?

17.06.12 Brookfield Bog Challenge and the injury!

After a long week I wanted to chill out on the weekend but Vic and I had a course we were attending and I had a race to run.  The course Vic and I were attending was a sleep course to try and sort out how to make Lachlan a better sleeper.  Waking up 3-6 times a night is no longer fun so thank you to the Sleep Store for their awesome seminar.  I had my Vibram's on and attended the 2 hour session before walking around to do the shopping before chilling out before my 12km run the following day.

It is not often that I wake up for an event/race and can't be bothered doing it but catching up from my early morning on Friday coupled with a long week, I was exhausted.  Today was the Broofield Bog Challenge which is 12km of running through bush, up a big hill and a whole lot of obstacles along the way including...plenty of mud!!!

I get dressed and head to the race and feel like I need to stretch out my middle toe for some reason.  I put on my second oldest trail shoes (that's right shoes!!!) for the first time in a long time and head onto the course.  It is 3 laps of a 4km course and involves a run through bush, tyre run followed by a creek run (water temp was at 2 degrees), plank walk, wall climb, tunnel crawl, second wall climb, followed by a huge hill climb.  Once the hill is done you complete a fast decent down the hill through a pine forest, into the streams (also 2 degrees) followed by a rope crossing, more running through streams followed by a wade through a chest height river for 100 metres and then into a mud pool followed by an army crawl under a cargo net that is filled with mud.  The course is shown below and no my heart did not stop before the second hill, my heart rate monitor nearly fell off and lucky enough it stayed on until the end of the race when I realised.

I am into lap 1 and can really feel some bad discomfort in my left shoe as I make my way up the big hill.  As I am running down the hill the pain seems to subside a little and then I am into the water where my feet quickly become numb from the cold and there is no more pain.

I head off on lap 2 and realize quickly that there is a major problem with my left foot.  Although a lot of the running around down the bottom of the hill is flat and there is a fair bit of water, there is a severe pain.  I don't realise how bad it is until I am going through the tunnel crawl and using my feet to push me along and as I stand up from the tunnel crawl, I nearly pass out in pain.  Do I keep going? Of course I do, not going to let a little pain stop me.  It feels pretty bad and as I finish lap 2 and I contemplate stopping.  I decide that I only have 4km to go and so might as well keep going.  I again have my feet numbed by the cold water but even on this lap know my foot is getting worse.  As I am running through the tyre run I fall over and twist my left ankle.  A volunteer asks if I have twisted it and say, "A little bit," knowing full well that I have well and truly twisted it.  I get back up and keep going.  I go through the tunnel crawl again knowing that it will hurt when I get up.  I am right, it is agony.  I limp off to do the climb of the hill and make my decent finally finishing in 1 hour 44 minutes.

I walk around for a little bit and the foot is painful but not limiting me walking properly.  I find Victoria and head back to the car where I begin to take off my freezing and muddy clothes.  First things off is my muddy shoes.  I take my foot out of the shoe and take my sock off and there is no visible bruising or  swelling so not sure what is going on.  I put my foot down and put weight on it ready to take my right shoe off and nearly pass out with pain.  The bottom of my foot between my middle toes is so sore that I almost vomit when pressure is put on it.  I hobble around the car and get dressed all whilst trying not to put any pressure on my foot.  I eventually get changed and start warming up whilst Vic drives me home. Once at home I have a hot shower and my foot feels better but I know there is something not right.  I am tempted to go to the hospital tonight but the pain is not excruciating so decide to see the night through with a couple of Panadol and wait and see how it feels in the morning.

16.06.12 Big Night Out

I had to write this now as normally I would proof a run and then write about it but today is important...I am injured!!!

It all started on Thursday night when I flew up for my big bosses farewell in Auckland.  He has done a lot for me over the years so there was not way I was going to miss saying thank you and farewell.  What made it even better was that there was no agenda, it was just all of the GM's around the country and Head Office enjoying each others company.  Dannny Doolans at the Viaduct in Auckland thinks we should do it more often anyway...

So we had some speeches and they were awesome but I knew it may be a long night on the feet so wore my comfortable work shoes.  Unfortunately, I have never found a comfortable work shoe so wore my my most comfortable that would allow me to stand for a couple of hours.  They were not that comfortable...

I was standing up for around 5 hours when we finally left.  All I could think of was going back to the hotel in Auckland and get changed into my Adidas shoes and out of my suit into a nice pair of jeans an comfortable shirt.  I finally left at around 9:15pm and went back to the hotel and changed into the above before heading out with the boss to celebrate his awesome management over the last 5 years.  I had a good night and danced the night away care of an awesome band at Danny Doolans before heading home in the wee hours of the morning...

Woke up on Friday and felt okay (surprising) but headed to breakfast before working through the emails and then flying back to Wellington.  I noticed that my feet were killing me but were made much better from the shoe swap the night before.  I had a little niggle in my pad on both of the bottom of my feet but nothing to worry about.  Flew home and got back to work finalizing the emails before heading home.  Too much dancing I think, will see how my feet feel tomorrow.

10.06.12 Sunday Session.

I have a relative sleep in (8am) and wouldn't you know it Lachlan is awake.  Lucky Nana is here and looks after him while I cook her some breakfast and Victoria has a much needed sleep in.  After a bit of a relax I decide at 11am that it is time to go for a run.  I log onto Google Maps and devise a run that is relatively flat but will also allow me to reach around 10km.  I start the run and the first part of it is downhill.  Whilst I wish that it wasn't, unfortunately when you live on top of a hill it is very hard to find a slight decline down to the bottom.  I go on a bit of an adventure through some old streets that I have not been down before and eventually make it down to Johnsonville.

I begin my flat run and notice that I am not feeling sore from yesterday which is good.  I am running along and keep looking at my watch and realize that I am doing around 12.3km an hour on the flats, around 11km an hour on the hills and 10km on the downhills.  I find that is really strange that I am slowing down when I am going down hill and think back to the youtube video that I watched that said Vibram's are not fast.  I can now see how this can be the case but I also don't think I have ever run this fast on the hills and the flats so that makes up for my slow downhill running that I know I can improve when I am truly used to the shoes.  I hit some flat sections and run onto the grass that is parallel to the pavement and for some reason it feels like I am running on pillows.  The grass feels very soft today, it actually feels amazing.  I run back onto the pavement and can feel the difference of the hard surface but it is not painful in any way.  I run to a turnaround point about 5km and do a long turnaround through some streets before heading back onto the course I was just on.  As I am about to start the climb of a hill I notice another run in the distance.  He had been coming the other way prior to me reaching the turnaround and I decide that I am going to try and catch him.

The course is undulating and I know there are several hills to come so I aim to push on the hills and maintain on the flats and really concentrate on increasing my speed on the downhills.  I want to take my shoes off and experience true barefoot running but realize that this may not be a good idea so soon after yesterday and plus, I don't have time if I want to catch the runner in front of me!  I am getting closer and closer to him and eventually as I am about to pass him whilst crossing a street he stops and turns around, he must have hit his turnaround point also.  I now relax a little and really concentrate on landing in the centre of my foot with my toes stretched out to maximize the cushioning.  I am stretching out my toes in my Vibram's before the strike on the ground and whilst it feels a little weird, it also feels comfortable.  I am coming home now and have the "Hill of Death" to run up.

The Hill of Death

I am feeling a little tired by this stage and start to notice an almost rubbing sensation on the outside of my right foot.  It feels like the shoe is rubbing below my little toe and it is starting to hurt a little.  I keep running up the hill and fitness wise feel fine but along with my foot, my calves are starting to now hurt also as they begin to tire.  I finally make it home and go for a warm down walk.  I take off my shoe and although there is not blister, there was definitely something rubbing in my Vibram on my right foot.  This is the first rubbing of any kind and I wonder if it is due to me trying to stretch my toes out and landing in an odd way.  I will have to test the theory on my next run. Below is the tracked run with the 'Hill of Death' at the end.

09.06.12 Beach running.

As I leave for work on Friday on the motorbike, I see that the rear tyre of the car is virtually flat.  The same tyre that we inflated only a couple of days ago!!  After much ringing around and utilizing the weird looking space saving tyre that looks like something from Noddy's car, we finally find replacement tyre's (yes had to get two of them) at the local Bridgestone dealer in Thorndon.  I am not normally a name dropper but this shop's customer service was over and above and they deserve the mention, especially Paul who served us.  It was all arranged for us to take the car in around 11:15 on Saturday morning.  I decided to take the opportunity due to the location of the shop that I would take my running gear and the Vibram's and go for a run virtually along the same path I will take for the 10km race in two weeks time.

I dropped the car off and started my run.  Again I cannot stress how upright I am feeling at present, it is quite bizarre and also feels unnatural but strangely is becoming very comfortable.  I ran through the city and finally made it to the waterfront which I would follow around until a turnaround about 4-5km into the run.  The actual turnaround for the race is around 1km further along but I had limited time and did not want to do a full 10km run for two reasons. Firstly I was not sure if my feet would be ready for it and secondly, I want to do a run on Sunday so don't want to be too sore.  I am running along and feeling really good and quickly realize that I have the wind behind me hence why all the other runners coming towards me look like they are in so much pain!  Based on the time and the distance I realize I can make it to a Fish restaurant on the water and then I will have to turn around and head back to the tyre shop.  As the Fish restaurant is coming into view I see that there is an access to the beach so decide that at the turnaround I will take off the Vibram's and run barefoot on the sand and then do some barefoot running back to the shop.

I hit the turnaround and go down the ramp as shown above and hit the soft sand.  I feel really good and quickly realize why Surf lifesavers are such good runners as they are taught to run on their toes in the sand, similar to the barefoot running technique.  I run the length of the beach and come up to the concrete.  This concrete on my bare feet is a lot more forgiving than the pavement near my house and feels really good to run on.  I still have a slight cut under my right hand big toe and don't want that to open up again so know that I will not be running all the way back to the car but will stop when I am 'over it'.  I start to pass other runners and again wonder what they think when a runner comes past them in bare feet with a set of Vibram's on each hand.  I don't really care what they think, I am feeling really good and run all the way back to the city.  As I near the centre of town I reluctantly stop and put back on the Vibram's.  I start running again and it feels like I have just put shoes on.  The difference to the bare feet is really noticeable today and I wish that I could keep running barefoot but don't want to injure my toe.  I eventually make it back to the tyre shop and look down at my watch to see that again the GPS has stopped at some point during my run but I have done around 7km.  I am slowly creeping up to my 10km goal and should be on track to have a good race on the 24th June.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to get in a longer run!  The run is shown below:

08.06.12 Weather bomb!!!

The weather bomb that hit Wellington this week has limited a lot of the training that I have been able to do this week.  I did manage to make it to two mornings of swimming this week though. Tuesday's session was focussed on technique which was good as it was nice to go back to the basics and re calibrate your stroke.  Thursday's session was focused on endurance and started with a long warm up with the main set focussed on 400m.  The aim of the session was to complete as many 400m sets as possible before it was time to go home.  All of the sets had to be completed at 8 pace.  As mentioned before our swim coach rates effort from 1-10.  10 being flat out and anything at 7 or under at a casual pace.  I led out the first one and we then swapped them around until we had time for one more.  I led off the sixth one and with 100 to go started to lift the pace to around a 9 with the last 50 completed at 10 pace.  I was shattered by the end of it all but was glad to be doing some sort of exercise knowing that runs were going to be out of the question.  Hopefully the weekend weather was going to allow for some runs especially some longer runs so that I can increase the distances I have been running ready for the 10km run in 2 weeks time.  What I have not told you about is that I am doing the Brookfield Bog Challenge next weekend.  It is basically 4 laps of a 4km course that involves obstacles and lots of mud and obstacle courses along the way.  I have completed two in the last year.  The first one was exactly a year ago and the it was absolutely freezing cold.  In fact the weather was exactly 4 degrees and we were running through streams and mud pits.  I remember my ankles and feet getting so cold running through the stream that I thought they were going to fall off.  Then you run up a massive hill and your feet quickly warm up again before heading back into the stream...

I do not see it as a serious hit out as it is a bit of fun even though you are stuffed at the end of it all.  The bad thing will be that I will not be doing it in my Vibram's as they will get trashed so will have to wear a very old pair of trail shoes as you basically need to put everything in the shower when you get home including your shoes so I don't want to trash my newest pair, even though I may never wear them again...

Attached are some pictures to give you and idea of what is all about.  The pain on my face is due to me being in a man made lake of water that was about 4 degrees and then going into the mud pit to cool off a little more.

04.06.12 Running barefoot...literally!l!

Lachlan has had a terrible sleep during the night and I am shattered so when the alarm goes off this morning, there is no way I am getting up to go for a run.  I have a little sleep in and see that Wellington has turned on a cracker of a day.  The sun is shining and there is no wind, it is a sensational day.  I get up and do some work around the house and play with Lachlan and decide to take him with me to get a couple of things from the shops.  I park the car and decide that I will walk to the other two shops, one of which is around 800m down the road.  I put Lachlan in the pram and we walk to the first shop get what we need and head to the second shop.  There was a sale on at the pet shop and I go a little crazy so head back to the car to drop off our purchases before making our way to the hardware shop.  As mentioned it is around 800m away and Lachlan is in the pram so decide that I will run to the shop.  I am very conscious of my ankle though and what happened yesterday.  I must point out that when I first got my Vibram shoes, before you even put them on, Vibram being responsible shoe producers adivse you to do warm up exercises to prepare your feet for their shoes.  Vibram suggests that you do these exercises prior to each run also.  I am a person who is impatient so that is just not going to happen.  I will however especially after yesterday now make sure that I am careful launching into my runs and give my feet a chance to warm up.  I start running with Lachlan and it feels good.  It is nice to be on the flat and it is relatively comfortable to run with the pram.  I make it to the hardware store, buy what we need to buy and then start the run back to the car.  As I am putting away the pram, I decide that when I get home it is time to go for a run, I have just done my warm up.

We get home and the lack of sleep has caught up with me and I am shattered.  I make the mistake of sitting on the bed to check my emails and quickly change my mind about the run, it is nap time.  NO!!  It is run time, so I chuck on my clothes and again devise a route that will this time take me around to around 7-8km.  This is a bit of a step up from my 4km runs I was doing last week but I am feeling good from yesterday and do not want to waste the afternoon.  I put on the Vibram's and start the run.  I am planning to run to the base of the Mt Kaukau run that I so desperately want to do.  There is a street that loops beneath the start of the run, runs parallel to the mountain and then back into town.  The loop back into town is the way I normally come when running home from Mt Kaukau and consists of some nice flat sections followed by a steep hill with a long downhill before the famous hill back home.  I end up going the wrong way and start running on part of a dirt track that leads to another entrance of the Mt Kaukau run and get my first real feeling of what it is like to run on the dirt rocky tracks that I used to love...it feels good!  I finally get back on track and begin my run to the first hill as mentioned above.  I am climbing up the hill and just feel amazing.  These are the runs that I have been doing for years and this is the first time that I am getting a feel of what it is like to run them in a pair of Vibram's.  You need to understand that when I was doing this section of the run in the past, I had been running for 2 hours or more and am wearing a full pack that weighs around 10kg so anything is going to feel better.  Regardless of the above, I definitely feel light on my feet.  I reach the top of the hill before the long decline and have hit 5.3km.  I think to myself I have around 2km to go to get home and do something that I never thought I would do.  At the top of the hill, I take off my Vibrams.  Not because they are hurting, just because I feel like it.  I am going to run at least 1km in bare feet!!!  This should take me to the bottom of the hill and then I will put the shoes on again and run the last 1km home.  I begin the run down the hill and it feels weird.  It is not hurting as my technique has definitely changed since wearing the Vibram's.  I am not striking me heel anymore and am not concerned about this as I run.  I am landing perfectly on the front and middle of my foot and it feels very comfortable.

As I am running  down the hill, I pass another runner who is running up the hill.  What a sight I must have been running full pace down the hill with no shoes on and my Vibram's being carried in each hand.  She gives me a weird look as she draws closer to me, as she passes I don't turn around to see if she is having a second look at the weirdo running barefoot with Freaky shoes on his feet!!  I hit the bottom of the hill and think to myself it is time to put the shoes back on, but this thought crosses my mind only for a second.  I decide to continue running with no shoes.  I hit a crossing and cars give way to me, I put up my hand to say thanks for stopping as I normally would do, forgetting I still have shoes on my hands and nothing on my feet...

I begin the run to the bottom of the hill and decide that I will put the shoes before I start the climb.  I reach the bottom of the hill and still feel good so keep running.  I hit a problem though.  I have a thing in my head that once I start this hill near home, I cannot stop until I reach the top.  The reason for this is that I know if I ever stop going up this hill, that when I am feeling really bad in the future, I will walk up it as I have stopped for some reason in the past.  Due to this 'rule',   I am now committed to running up this hill and home barefoot.  It is at least a 1km home and I have already completed 1km to this point.  My feet are feeling really good.  They are not hurting as such but are now becoming quite sensitive especially under both of my big toes.  I am beginning to think that I might be getting a cut or a blister under both big toes but know that I cannot stop to have a look.  It is starting to become reasonably uncomfortable and I can feel my technique change as I am cautious about my feet hurting, maybe this was not a good idea.  I am nearing the top and a guy is waking towards me and heads into his driveway.  He looks at me and my bare feet and yells "Awesome". "Get those knees up".  I think to myself, who is the freak giving coaching advice and then quickly realise that I am the one running up a hill in barefeet with a pair of Vibrams on my hands like gloves.  I immediately start lifting my knees higher.  I am thinking to myself as I pass him, who comments on another runner these days?  Someone who is impressed with barefoot running, that is who.  I hit the slight incline as I head home.  My toes are sore but I keep going, running on grass where possible to give myself a softer landing.  I make it home and have completed 7.4km, the last 2km have been done in bare feet.  As soon as I stop I lift up my feet and see a tiny cut on my right hand big toe but the other toe is fine.

I tell my wife about my barefoot experience who looks at me as that first runner did when I had just taken off my shoes.  She is impressed though I think and states that I now resemble her as she used to run with no shoes on...on grass that is.  I have to go to the supermarket to pick up a couple of things for dinner and decide that as I am not wearing shoes, I might as well keep it going.  I get out of the car at the supermarket and walk into the supermarket.  My toes are starting to hurt a little now as I walk in the entrance.  Not much I can do about it though, I have no shoes with me.  I am walking around the supermarket and feel totally feral!  I learn very quickly that you should not wear shoes whilst going to the chiller section of the supermarket, especially the freezer section.  I pay for the shopping and head home for a much deserved shower.  As I type this my feet are fine except for my big toes that almost feel bruised.  There is a little cut on one but hopefully in the morning they will feel fine.  I have enjoyed the barefoot experience today apart from feeling like a homeless person at the supermarket and the sore toes, however I am sure both of these feelings will pass especially when I decide to go feral more often in the future...

Below is today's run with the vertical dotted line 3/4 along the graph just before the large down hill, the point that I took my shoes off and ran barefoot for the first time.  Also

03.06.12 That snapping sound didn't sound good!!!

I wake up on Sunday and want to go for a run.  These Vibram shoes must be working as I normally would not want to go for a flat run but it was a reasonably good day in Wellington and I thought I would take advantage of it with a huge 6km run!!  I have been doing around 4km in my previous runs and I felt that it was time to increase it slightly so wanted to do around 6km.  After a light breakfast and a coffee, I got changed and slipped on my Vibram's.  Probably not the best nutritional start before a run but it was only a short one so was not too concerned.  I devised a course in my head that would probably be around 6km.  I ran from the house and as I started down the road I heard a snap of some kind come from my right ankle.  This is the same snap that I sometimes hear when I wake up from bed.  I have sprained this ankle on numerous times running through the bush and when it is cold it is really stiff and sometimes creaks whilst it gets warmed up.  I was a little concerned this time though as I was running with little protection and thinking to myself, what if it's not my ankle, what if something else had snapped?  I ran down the slight decline and after a while it felt better but also felt like it could giveaway at any moment.  I decided to keep going and if it got worse would walk back home.  I hit a slight hill before running down to the main road and my ankle was feeling good.  I saw a path that I had not noticed before and ran up it to find a school oval.  I ran onto the grass which was a welcome change to the concrete I had been pounding.  Whilst I could feel the soft grass through my Vibram shoes, it was not a sense of relief I was feeling.  I was not grateful to finally have soft ground under my feet, it just felt nice.

I made it back onto the main road and as I was running on the footpath, I noticed another runner on the other side of the road who had just gone past me.  I decided that I would see how my pace was going compared to her and frustratingly, she was pulling away from me with ease.  I felt disheartened but quickly realised that it was not my Vibram shoes that was stopping me from catching her, even in normal shoes I stood no chance.  I hit the flat section of road and was running through town.  I was still feeling good and had no further pain in my ankle.  I looked at my watch and saw that I had done just over 4km so  by the time I reached home I should hit the 6km mark.  I began my climb home up the steep gradient I again noticed how upright my running style was.  I finally made it home and had completed 5.9km.  A little less than what I wanted to do but after the initial scare with my ankle, I was glad that I had not pushed it too much.  I had a stretch and started my day with a deep inside feeling hoping my ankle was going to be okay tomorrow.  Below is the graph of today's run.  Notice the constant heart rate today and the constant speed.

02.06.12 The Tarahumara people

On Friday evening whilst sipping on a beer after a hard week, Lachlan was in bed and Vic and I were chilling on the couch.  Vic was checking emails and saw that the Wellington Marathon was going to be on later in the month.  Now I have never completed a half marathon in the past and know I have to do it for my half ironman in January so am anxious to knock one out fairly soon, however with the transition to barefoot running it was not going to be possible for this race at the end of June.  I ask if there is a smaller distance and there is.  There is a 10km race.  Just like my runs I am doing at the moment I think to myself that is a waste of time but realize it would be a good goal to get to by the end of the month.  It is three weeks away and if I am doing around 5-6km at the moment, I will need to increase my runs by around 1km a week and I will be ready for this race.  I would prefer that I was doing a bit longer than 10km in my Vibram's before the race but it is not going to be possible on this occasion.  I am glad that I have a goal though, my first race in the Vibram's!!

There is extra motivation this weekend as a mate of mine (thanks Brad), has given me a copy of the book 'Born to Run'.  Basically it is a book based on the Tarahumara people and their extraordinary ability to run long distances in handmade sandals and on little nutrition.  Attached also is a link here that shows a video of the Tarahumara people and the supposed advantages of barefoot running.  I am only just starting the book at present so can't give you a full description of the details but lets just say it is inspiring and will certainly lead me to doing some runs on the weekend.