This is the farthest behind I've gotten this year on my blog to race ratio.  I've only got one race to go, yet this was my tenth race in 2011.  The Oktober Lauf Fest took place in North Philadelphia.  It seemed a bit late in October for an Oktoberfest themed race, but I'd never turn down beers and brats any time of the year!  The trail races appear to be fading out in favor of the cold dark streets.  This race was on a paved path in Pennypack Park with a mile of trail towards the end.  The cool weather and smooth flat pavement allowed me to run my fastest time to date, a personal record, if you're into that.  The crowed was friendly and the post race food was amazing!  I only noticed one other person wearing five fingers, Philly must be lagging behind in the movement :)  I don't know what else to say really.  This race was an out and back with 2ish lollipops.  I ended up finishing around 1:44, which, like I said before was my fastest time to date.  I guess the cool weather and flat surfaces are allowing me to run a bit faster.

Me and Leeanne stayed in Elizabethtown at our parents for the night and brought both dogs into the city for the race and ended up at Dalessandro's for cheese steaks of course!  All in all, it was a beautiful weekend and everything went without a hitch.

LeeAnnes first 5k was October 10th of this year, she chose a modest trail race named the Blue Ridge Burn, hah.  It ended up being a package deal with The Festy, a bluegrass music festival right in the middle of the Blue Ridge.  I boogied pretty good Friday night at the main stage so I wasn't exactly all smiles in the morning.  Before I knew it we were shuttling over some mountains in Nelson County in a bright red school bus.  We arrived early at the race, a little too early for my taste.  LeeAnne was excited about her first race so I had to contain my negativity about the situation.  I'm such a whiner.  We stood around chatting with a friend that had come to the festival and race with us.  Finally we were herded to the starting line and off we went!  The first 1/2 mile was on the road we had just driven in on gradually going up hill.  Eventually we broke left across the road and headed into the woods.  It appeared to be someones mountain home driveway.  The fire road/driveway went up until we peaked out at a house.  Running past the house we all waved at the woman who was so graciously letting us run around her property like a bunch of lunatics.  After the house it broke into singlish track and went up into the mountain.  There was a pretty fun switch back with a stream crossing and back up we went.  Towards the end of the race we were gradually coming back towards the road where the starting line was, but we were still heading up.  The last 1/8 mile of the race was all but straight down.  I mean heels in, zig zagging, grabbing trees or whatever else you can to keep from falling.  At the bottom we burst out into a clearing and the finish line was right there.  5k done.  I looked at LeeAnne and she said "What race can we do next?"  This put a huge grin on my face.

I was contemplating doing the race barefoot, but it ended up being a pretty rocky trail and I'm just not up for all those rocks yet.  I'll have to stick to the street barefoot for now.  LeeAnne ran it in her New Balance Minimus.  Our results can be found here.

The Injury: Hematoma.
Sunday morning after the Trail Running Rampage I said to Lee Anne, "lets go pedal!"  So we went for a quick bike ride down the street.  Currently my bike is not technically ride worthy, I am between handlebar setups and my brakes were slightly rigged.  I mean, the bike is totally usable just not for extreme stuff.  So what's wrong with a simple ride down the street right?

About half way into our ride we hit a fast paced down hill into a cul-de-sac and I got a little nervous about my speed and what's at the end of the cul-de-sac.  A 50 foot cliff that ends in a deep ravine.  I tapped the front brake and because of my 'new' handlebar setup I have a lot more weight over my front tire which caused the suspension to compress pretty far.  This threw off my balance and the bike steered to the left I fell to the right and laid the bike over at around 15mph.  The aluminum scraping on the asphalt made the most horrific noise ever.  I bounced right up and began assessing the damages.  My handlebars were tweaked to the left and I had some scrapes on my ankle, elbow and shoulder.  Also my hip had a slight twinge feeling and I could tell I landed mainly on that area, but I could walk no problem.

Later that day at the grocery store I reached my hand into my pocket and thought "what the hell is that!?"  My hip had definitely started to swell.  Once I got home I put some ice on it and took 1200 mg of Ibuprofen.  About an hour later it had gotten larger, so I decided I would go to the doctor in the AM.  I also had a 3 week old sprained wrist and a lump on the bottom of my foot I wanted to get checked out.  I need to queue up the injuries before I spend my time at the docs.

The doc checked it out and told me it was a hematoma, she explained that it was a huge bruise with excessive internal bleeding, but nothing to worry about.  I asked how long it would persist and how long I had to wait before running on it.  She told me it could last up to 3 months and running shouldn't be a problem as long as it doesn't hurt.  So at this point I should tell you that my doctor isn't the most personable person and I had to practically pry this info from her frigid hands.  It's fairly clear that she hates her job.  This, among my other personality traits leads me into my own research of the subject.

My goal: Heal as fast as possible.
Most things I read said not to massage the area, because you could disturb the clot and cause it to start bleeding again.  That's the main thing I wanted to avoid, more blood in the huge sac that had formed.  What I determined was that running was probably not a good idea, until the blood had clotted, which is the really hard, "swollen" area are the initial trauma/impact site.  In the meantime I was taking a lot of vitamin C to help speed up the healing process.

After about 4 days of trying not to disturb the area as much as possible I started heating it.  I was told and read a lot of good things about heat to...un-coagulate the blood.  I really wanted this thing gone, I had tried running with it and  the large mass just felt so weird moving with my leg.  I had looked into draining it but remembered the doc had told me it looks like it's in my muscle, which would be almost impossible to drain.  So heat it was!  I tried to heat it as often as possible, which turned out to be up to 5 times a day.  There wasn't much progress the first couple of days, but after about a week it started to recede dramatically.

Eventually the sac of jelly-blood was flush with my muscle again and an even bigger bruise started to form on the back of my leg closer to my knee.  I assume this was the blood escaping my muscle and spreading down my leg, due to gravity.  Time to run!  I took it easy the first couple days, doing some light running with my buddy Ray.  We did a couple crossfit routines that had some really short running distances included.  Luckily I was able to do this on the track at Quantico, so I could easily go barefoot and work on my form at the same time.

All in all, it healed up sufficiently in about 3 weeks, but I was running again within 2 weeks.

Last weekend was the Odyssey Adventure Racing Trail Running Rampage at Douthat State Park.  Lee Anne, the dogs and I camped at the White Oak camping area the night before.  The camp area was almost full and it was a little different from what Lee Anne and I prefer.  It was pretty neat though, I was able to make the camping reservations online, which probably should have been a tip off towards the camping style.  We'll keep our eye out for a lonelier site next time. 

I ran this race in my five fingers when I probably should have used my Lunas.  The trail was considerably rocky and my feet took a beating.  My Lunas provide a little more rock bashing protection at 6mm vice whatever the vibrams are, 4mm?  This race definitely made me think more about footwear choice.  Something I've been trying to avoid since finding the joys of the VFFs.  Only if they made a wide version of the MT101 with that lovely rock guard.  I guess the only solution is to run more often and get my feet used to it!  And there I sit, teetering on the barefoot and minimalist fence.

Within the first 2 miles of the race I thought to myself, "now this is the first real trail race I've done."  After I completed the thought I realized each trail race I've done in the past has incurred the same thought.  It happened as we climbed to the highest overlook in the park, each switchback gave me an even better view of the Blue Ridge.  It was about 10:30 in the morning and the blue hazed mountains were absolutely stunning as the sun was cresting them.  Jesus, the trail just kept going up, eventually I stopped wondering about the top and just trotted along like a zombie, enjoying the scenery.  Almost 70% of this races elevation gain came within the first 3 miles.  You can can checkout those details here thanks to the Garmin 405 Lee Anne got me for my birthday.  This was also the first race I remembered to bring or wear my heart rate monitor.  It was pretty cool to see that I averaged 90% for the duration, I would have guessed much less than that.

I wasn't as trained as I wanted to be for this race to do some dabbling with a week of barefoot two weeks prior to the race.  I did, however, get through the finish line in a reasonable amount of time.  I came in 22/100 and even did a full out sprint for a 1/4 mile with Ozzie (our pitbull) as he chased Lee Anne in our car on the way back to our camp site.  I honestly didn't think he had it in him!  Thanks to everyone that Ran and Volunteered at the race and a huge thanks to Lee Anne for watching the dogs while I was out in the woods!

When I first read about this race early in 2011 I got excited by the sarcastic description on Pretzel City Sports website.  I also noted their Bouncing Buns trail race, held at the Sunny Rest Nudist Resort in Palmerton, PA.  I'll have to work my way up to that one, but I wouldn't say it is totally out of the question.  At any rate, there is a great deal of witty humor and sarcasm placed on their race descriptions, so I assumed the race had to be just as ridiculous.  It turns out, I was right.

Twas the day of the Half Wit Half, as we pulled into the town of Reading the sky got several shades darker, as if we had entered a tunnel.  No rain yet, but it had rained pretty good the evening before, so I expected the trails to be wet.  Packet pickup and also the finish line was at the Reading Liederkranz.  It was a pretty cool building and they had plenty of parking, the race start was located conveniently right down the street at a local park.  

I started near the back like I usually do and regretted it about a mile into the race as normal.  Luckily the second mile was a pretty good incline the whole way into the third mile, so the pack thinned out dramatically.  Eventually we hit a road surface and I heard someone stomping up behind me, I thought man that's gotta be wrecking their knees.  Low and behold it was a guy wearing moccasins!  He pulled past me pretty quickly so I didn't have time to chat.  Once we entered the trail again I started reeling in all the people that had overtaken me on the road.  I caught up to moccasin man and started up a conversation.  I was most curious as to why he was wearing socks.  He explained it adds a little extra grip so his feet don't get rubbed raw by the shoe.

As the trail wound on I came upon an extremely steep downhill, there were people sitting on their butts sliding down the mountain while others held onto trees to keep them from tumbling head over heels.  I dug in with my heels and skipped on down to the baseball field at the bottom.  Digging my heels in caused all sorts of dirt to flood into the backs of my VFFs.  Once we got around the baseball field we traveled back up the same mountain, but this time it was on ancient granite stairs.  The first third of the stairs were dislodged and scattered among the forest due to erosion.  Towards the top they began to look like proper stairs, somewhere around the 120th step my calves started to feel the burn.  I ended up talking with a guy that had ran the race four or five other times and was currently running with friends and family.  We talked for several miles which all seem to blur together when you're chatting away.  I think we ended up splitting ways at the beer and water point around mile 9.

"Free beer for all the haaaashers!"  At this particular water point, there were two tables.  The first being 6oz cups of Yuengling Lager and the latter being the water.  I wasn't very interested in the water since I had brought my own.  I downed two cups and off I went, Yuengling never tasted so good!  There was actually a contest going on to see who could drink the most beer AND finish the race in under three hours!  I think the record was somewhere around 26 or 28 cups!

My vision had already been blurred from the rain that started to filter through the trees above, the fog that had rolled in miles back and now maybe the beer.  Visibility was low and my right hamstring started cramping at downed tree and large boulder crossings.  At this point I realized, once again, how important training is.  I was ready for the race to be over, the boulder fields were starting to tenderize my feet on the down hills and I longed for some slow paced up hill again.  Just when i thought I'd had enough and could sense the finish line the up hill turned steep and I spotted people climbing over a guard rail at the top of the hill.  Jesus, who'd have thought those things were that tall!  I even got some 'assistance' by a runner in front of me that bashed his legs of the rail as he flailed his body over it.  I ended up leaning on him to balance my return to paved surface.  It was only brief because we were crossing a road, and back uphill into the woods.  I'm pretty sure we weren't on a trail at this point.  But the finish line was near, I could hear all the commotion from it.  A quick scramble over some almost vertical rocks and a 30 meter sprint across the finish line and it was all over.


2:23:27 with 2000 feet elevation gain.  The most hill climbing I've done to date!

So last night was it, my first barefoot 5k.  It went swimmingly.  I arrived a couple hours early with Lee Anne, since she was working the event.  I brought my bike and did a couple miles on the trails at Quantico.  I got back to Butler Stadium with about 50 minutes to race time.  It was perfect timing, my friends were all showing up within a couple minutes.

I wondered around chatting with all the familiar MCM faces while I cooled down from the biking.  About 30 minutes till I linked up with everyone I was supposed to meet.  Ethan, a fellow barefooter, showed up ready to race with his son Conner in their running stroller.  We staged up at the starting line way in the back.  Almost ready for the clock to start, Robyn, Ethans wife found us and hi-jacked Conner, so Ethan didn't need to run with him.

Once the gun went off we hung around waiting for the start line to clear.  Ethan took off and was gone within the first 100 yards, he ended up running about a 6:30 pace.  I spent the first mile weaving through people, listening to all the barefoot murmur.  I wondered if Ethan heard the same comments, but I figured the wind in his ears (from his blazing fast pace) would have drowned them out!  On I pressed, nerves in my feet firing on all cylinders.  I found myself sticking to the yellow lines on the road for comfort.  By the end of mile two the pack had thinned and weaving wasn't an issue anymore.  I spent most of the time reminding myself to lift my left knee, because that foot pad was screaming a bit.  Almost home and into the third mile I hit an oh-so familiar road, the road I work on.  Wow, this road was rough, it was patched, pot-holed and just plain painful.  This had to be the longest part of the race, but the finish line was near.  The final .2 or .3 miles of this race was on the rubber track at Butler Stadium, I had been looking forward to this.  With the softer surface and finish line in sight my speed felt like it doubled.  I ended up pushing through the finish line at 26:37.

Day Four, wait what happened to day three?  Ok, so I took a break yesterday.  A friend was visiting Gatlinburg, TN and he smuggled some Death By Salsa from the Pepper Palace into the office.  I love hot stuff, but my stomach doesn't.  After eatting way more than I should have we let it settle for a couple hours and took off on a 7 mile run.  Both our stomachs were acting up for the first 4 miles which really took a toll on our pace and minds.  Back at home my stomach was still feeling it and Lee Anne had been off work all day.  We needed to return a pair of Five Fingers she bought.  So we trekked down to Fredericksburg and swapped them out for a sweet pair of New Balance Minimus, she likes them much better.  While we were down there the sun set and I figured I'd put in enough rough mileage today, why bother with the headlamp and barefooting.  So there is my long-winded excuse, back to progress!



Today I took yet another route from home and racked up about 2.5 miles at a 9:05 pace.  I really picked it up this time.  My recent times were bothering me and the 13 mile bike ride me and Lee Anne did prior wasn't going to deter me!  As you can see with speed and distance increasing your feet start to blacken.  In actuality I took a well traveled road, vice the back roads I'd been pursuing.  The pad on the ball of my left foot started to burn a little, but after the run I saw no hot spots, which I was worried about.  I stopped with the barefoot gig last year because of a nasty hot spot I accumulated; it was even painful to run in shoes for a week afterwards.  I just have to keep reminding myself to lift and pull forward with my knees, push off as little as possible with my feet.  I am still pretty excited for the race on Quantico because the roads should be worn much smoother than the rough stuff I am running on around our house, allowing for much better speeds!

I took a slightly different route today up 'the' hill.  It's a pretty decent hill to work on, could be better could be worse.  It ended up being another 1.5ish miles at a 10:15 pace.  

I found lots of rocks on this route, those ones that stick to your feet so you step on them repeatedly until you stop and kick or pick them off.  A couple people were out walking, enjoying the weather.  The one guy I've talked to before at length and we had a brief chat as I passed.  And there was this couple I had never seen before out and about.  I could feel the "this guy is crazy vibes."  So I felt the need to announce that I wasn't crazy, but I never worked up the courage to say anything other than hello, twice, because I passed them on the way back.  Next time I'll shout some random nonsense, so I can confirm any lingering suspicions they may or may not have.

My feet are feeling good and looking good, I'm going to up the mileage tomorrow.  I'm debating whether or not I want to put down a full 3 miles before Runstock.  Anyways, looking forward to Saturday night.  I've got a meetup going here and hoping to get attendance up before the weekend!

Something I've been meaning to do for a long time now is run a race barefoot.  I had my goals set at the Fredericksburg Historic Half and eventually the Marine Corps Marathon, but realized I should tone it back and be realistic.  So here it is, the MCM RunStock!  Like most of my decisions it was made quickly with little thought.  But that's the way to get things done...sometimes.

The picture to the right is my feet after about 1.5 miles at a smokin' 10:20 pace.  Check out my left (on the right of the picture) arch.  That foots always been a tiny bit bigger and that's why!  Even after all the minimalist running I've done, the arch is still low.  That goes to show there is no magical fix for anything, you need to be conscious of the problem and work towards a solution.  I'll add bringing that arch up to my list of things to do, actually it's been there for quite some time, but just hasn't been a priority.  

So on day 1 after 1.5 miles I feel great, half way to 5k!  One thing you have to keep in mind for my goal is that I've put more than a few miles in with zero heel drop footwear, so don't try this without the 'supporting mods.'  All I am trying to do over the course of 5 days is build my skin up to take some speed abuse once standing at the starting line of the MCM RunStock 2011.  Also, the biggest part of the goal: actually running barefoot in front of people at a race!

First of all my apologies, I know you've all been dying to hear about my July Half Marathon (hah!).  I've been busy again, with what, I don't know, because all I do is run right?  Well that's not exactly accurate, which I'll address in another post on here shortly.  Onto the main event!

Lee Anne and I had stayed over at my Dads house in Greensville, SC and he drove us all the way to Columbia, SC on Interstate 26.  We had been on the road since dark but the sun had risen by the time we arrived.  Lee Anne and I both fell asleep multiple times on the way there and I didn't drink much water due to the drive.  

I was at the starting line at Harbison State Park on a cool, although humid July 10th morning, half asleep and lacking hydration.  We ramble through the pre-race spiel and the next thing I know I'm off running.  There wasn't much distance on the fire road to thin out, luckily there were only 146 finishers, so we thinned without much difficulty.  I remember being parched after the first mile and soaking wet with sweat after the second, the humidity hung thick that day.  Eventually I hit the first water point and began re-hydrating myself.  Everyone that I chatted with was relatively cheery and in good spirits, until we hit the hills.  I like hills, I charge up hills one leg at a time.  On my way up this one particular hill, I had to split between two people.  You know, those people that walk in the middle of the trail like they're the only ones out there.  I might also mention I don't sneak up on people, I announce, with great pleasure, which side I'm going to be passing you on.  Anyways, the one individual says to the other "You can't run up any faster than you can walk up."  The other individual seemed to mumble an agreement, as I passed them...  If you don't see the idiotic irony in that, please click the X button in the top right corner.  

Needless to say it didn't break my spirits, but the rest of the hills did!  I fell a total of 2 times, I mean total wipe out into the rocks and dirt.  I'm pretty sure I broke my little toe on my right foot at one point.  Somewhere along the line I regained myself and got a second wind as they say.  It was probably at the point I recognized people I had passed earlier, passing me.  I suppose I should clarify that it wasn't the two tool bags I had passed on the hill (wow bitter much?).  Ok, so the rest of the race went on great after I woke up.  And all the other people I had run into were very friendly and happy to be alive, hell I even made a new facebook friend!  The only other thing to really note about this race was the weird finish line.  It was this straight away in a grass field like many other finish lines, but the actual finish line was perpendicular to the long straight away.  Lee Anne got a great picture of me visibly displaying the awkwardness of it.  Other than that great race!  I heard a few people got lost, ok maybe a lot of people, but I had no problems in that department.  Thanks to all of the people involved, race staff, volunteers and runners!

Finish time: 2:10:27