Running Barefoot

The inaugural Malibu marathon was yesterday, Sunday 15th, 2009. It was relatively small, and there were two barefoot runners as far as I know: Ken Bob Saxton and me. An honorable mention is Don, who ran the last two miles of the full barefoot.

I ran the half marathon. The course started a bit inland in a city called Camarillo, went west to the coast and then down along Pacific Coast Highway, also known as, HWY 1, and PCH.

The start point for the half was on PCH. It was a great setting and indeed barefoot friendly. Smooth paved road the whole way, with almost no gravel. The half marathon course, which was also the second half of the full, was rather hilly. Running at the pace I wanted to go was very difficult on those hills, and I can only imagine what it was like like for people who had already been running for 14 miles. Don said afterward that it was more difficult than San Francisco.

I started off at about a 7 pace and told myself I was going to try to maintain 6:50-7:10 average. I paced with two guys on miles 6-10, I was secretly hoping they were working as hard as me to keep up the pace we were doing: 7:30 up the hills and 6:30 or faster going down. We were like a single unit for most of the race and none of us could manage any talking except once one of the guys said something to the effect of “barefoot is hardcore” and I said “yeah”.

Unlike Ken, I do not find downhills to be easier, and this is something I want to work on. I found that I did better going up, but downhill they would catch me and I could hear their shoes slapping and the relentless breathing right behind me.

There was a guy filming my race as part of a Running Barefoot documentary and he would swoop by on a bicycle occasionally, or be set up with his camera at the top of a hill. Sometimes he was riding behind me or along side me. We dropped one of the guys on the last up hill at around mile 11 and the next two were downhill and flat.

I decided at mile 12 I was going to try and lose the remaining guy. This was a gamble because I was already pushing pretty hard and I might risk burning out with a half mile to go. Mile 12 came and I really pushed but tried to relax into it. I ran probably a 10k pace for the last mile and it hurt. Not injury hurt, just tired body hurt. I kept feeling like I was going to give out any minute and the other guy was going to come sprinting past me but he didn’t.

Of course I would have liked faster but I’m not disappointed.

Chip time: 1:31:43.

While waiting for Ken and Don, I got into the chilly water at Zuma beach, near the finish line. A lot of runners were doing this and it felt great. All finishers received a beach towel.

There were barefoot finisher awards. I technically was the first barefoot finisher but since I did the half, Ken got the first marathon finisher award. Both of us got a chrome car accelerator pedal shaped like a foot. I also received a plaque that says 2nd male finisher but there’s nothing on it about being barefoot.

Efrem

Also take a look at Ken bob’s report