Tag Archives: Bedrock Sandals

Fairfield Half Marathon is History!

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On Sunday I gave myself a birthday present.  I turned 59 on the 23rd and ran the Fairfield Half Marathon on the 24th.  It is a race I’ve run several times in the past, but this was a milestone run for me.  It was the first time I’ve run it in minimalist style.

A year ago a 10+ mile run was not a big deal.  I was putting those out on a regular basis all through the summer.  Then in late fall I started the transition to minimal style and my mileage and milestones all changed drastically.  Back in May I hit a plateau where I felt my form was good and I was going to slowly add miles.  The form has stayed and miles have been added.  It has not been without pain and adjustment.  It has been enlightening and exhilarating.

What’s Changed?

Well, first off, my times aren’t that much different.  I went back to the records and in 2002,  10 years ago, I ran Fairfield in 1:52:28.  My personal best was somewhere around 1:51, but I can’t remember where I ran that.  I know, I’m not much of a record keeper for running.  As you can tell, world class does not describe my times.

This year I finished in 1:54:52, 968 out of 3522 and #30 in my age group.  And I ran it in my Luna Sandals

scary looking picture

BTW, my feet aren’t purple, but I couldn’t find a place where the light was decent for the shot.

NOTE:  The right sandal is a little bigger.  I was trimming them down for a more custom fit and screwed up the the right one.  Luna sold me a separate sandal and I am waiting for the imprint to finalize before I do the last trim. That is what is great about sandals – you can cut them to fit.  They guys at Luna are just great to deal with. To be fair, the guys at Invisible Shoes and Bedrock Sandals have always been easy to deal with, too.  I think it is part of the mental framework that comes from this style of running.

What About The Race, Already?!

The Fairfield Half course is not flat.  There are five of six good climbs and a number of rollers along the way.  The last climb hits at about 10 miles and is a sharp uphill for .2 of a mile followed by steady upward grade for a just under a half mile.  That doesn’t sound long, but when it is hot and you’ve already run 10 miles, it is taxing.  I was looking forward to that last climb because I know it had stopped my on my second run of the course in 2003.

Before the race I did the wait-in-the Port-A-John line routine and then some walking around to kind of loosen up.  A man walked passed me and asked if I was going to change into shoes when the race started.  I smiled and said I was running in the sandals.  The two women with him almost gasped and did the “Really?  You’re running in those?” response.  That made me smile as I told them they were pretty comfortable.

About 10 minutes before the start I was sitting on the side of the road people watching.  )(It is an occupational hazard for a writer who is also a slight introvert.)  As I watched, a man who looked to be in his late twenties or early thirties walked by me.  He was barefoot.  I got off my butt and asked him if he was running barefoot.  His name was Adam and he confirmed his barefoot intention.  Then he asked if I was wearing Luna’s and we talked a while.  It turned out he was almost two years into minimal style and it had saved his knees and lower legs.  He told me that it took a long time for his calves and achilles to adjust. That made me feel better about the ongoing muscle adjustment I was experiencing.

The gun went off and we did the shuffle for a minute or so until we got passed the start line. I set off Sportstracker on my iPhone and got ready for the first mile warmup.

You can tell from the picture that it was a very accurate monitor for the run.  I kept the audio alerts off and put my iPhone into sleep mode and only used about 10% of the charge during the run.  Not bad.  I could – will – do a marathon with it.

About 5 miles into the run, a young man pulled up next to me and asked how I liked my sandals.  I told him that it took adjustment to the new style, but I loved the feel.  He was wearing some minimal shoes and agreed on the adjustment.  He asked me what brand and I told him “Luna” and spelled it for him because he thought I said “Muna”.  We chatted for a little while and then he moved off to the side to join up with a young woman.  As we hit a downhill and I started to pull away (more on that later), I heard him saying “No, Luna. L-U-N-A.” to his friend.  I smiled.  It’s funny to witness when people are shy about talking to someone. At least she had a boyfriend to help satisfy her curiosity.

After the turnaround, somewhere around mile 8, I was coming off another downhill when I heard a male voice over my shoulder. “True minimalist running!”

“I love it,” was my response.  That led to a nice conversation while we ran side by side for a mile.  He was wearing a pair of Merrel’s that he really liked.  We talked about how long the adjustment took and how nice it felt to have the feel of the road under your feet.  And, more important, how much more fun running had become. He said he was disappointed that he couldn’t get any of his friends to take up the style.  I agreed since most of my running friends think I’m crazy or that I’m doing something so herculean that they can’t imagine taking on the effort.  I guess that making running easier is hard work in their minds!

All along the way people made a comment here or there.  I had no problem with that and I tried to be a good representative of minimal running and barefoot style.  The great thing was every time I got asked a question or someone commented to me, I found myself smiling.

One of the male things to do on the race course is what I refer to as Tail Watching.  Not very clever, but descriptive, so you figure out what it means!  Post a comment if you need more details.  During the race there was one female GenY’r who seemed to have a pace about the same as mine.  I would gain some distance on the ascents and decents and she would catch and pass me on the flats.  She had on bright orange shoes and a black kneeband on her left knee and, with my admiration, was running for the Whole in the Wall Gang, a charity started by Paul Newman for kids with terminal and chronic illness.

About a mile from the finish, after I had gained on the last long climb of the day, she pulled up next to me, said “Good run”, then proceeded to pull away to finish ahead of me.  Maybe she had been watching my ass?  It’s my story and I can believe what I want!

Listen.  I am way passed worrying about people beat me in a race, so I don’t get all macho in the last 500 yards and try to run people into the ground.  There is always someone ahead or behind me.  I did pick up my pace thanks to her wake up call and finished in a time faster than I had expected.  I was shooting for 2 hours.

Reflections on the Day

I had a great time.  The weather was clear and sunny and the course was just beautiful.  It was usually shaded by tall trees and it meandered through some wonderful New England residential areas.  People were out in front of their houses cheering us on.  Bands were playing great music every few miles.  The volunteers at the aid stations were fantastic and the local police represented for all peace officers. It was a well coordinated, well appointed race that was a pleasure to participate in.  My only complaint is that is should have started an hour earlier because it was over 85 degrees when I finished.

As I crossed the finish I got a pretty cool medallion, too.

The Downhills Were Awesome!

I have put on close to 400 miles in minimal style over the past 7 months.  If you’ve been following this blog, then you have read about the adjustments I’ve made in style.  The biggest difference in running in sandals is going downhill.  In regular shoes, you just clomp down the hills and let your feet get squished a bit in the toe area.  When you wear sandals you have a little part of the strap between you first and second toes and if you land and push forward, you’ll screw yourself up.

What I discovered over the miles is that going downhill means a faster cadence while keeping the stride pretty short and landing on your forefoot or midfoot to keep the impact minimal.  It feel very unfamiliar.  I was going to say uncomfortable, but that is wrong.  Running downhill that way in sandals is comfortable, it just feels strange.

For months I’ve had no one to compare against on the hills.  Flats are just time, but hills are different.  Quite frankly, I knew I was tearing up the hills and this run proved it.  I get into this nice smooth forefoot strike mode and I move up the hill, I don’t run it.  Shorter stride, higher cadence and smooth.  I gained on just about everyone on every hill I ran in Fairfield.  A couple of times some guys tried to keep up with me and I watched them blow up near the top. Just to be clear, I wasn’t sprinting.  I was maintaining the rhythm and the hills didn’t kill me.  I killed them.

Going downhill was an eye opener.  I thought I’d get womped because the style I had developed seemed slow when I was out by myself.  The opposite happened. When I got to the first real descent I had to find a clear path otherwise I was going to run over people.  The form turned out to be efficient as hell and so smooth I even surprised myself. All of a sudden, it felt very familiar.  It was so much fun that I smiled like a kid on every descent.

Post Race

I walked around and ate watermelon and bananas and drank a lot of water.  People asked about my sandals and I continued to represent in as positive a manner as I could considering I was hot and tired (I had gotten up a 4am to be able to drive to the race in time).

When I got home I noticed my calves were very stiff and my right knee was hurting.  That was new.  It only got more tight as the day went on.  I didn’t take any aspirin of Advil because I wanted to keep an eye out in case it was an injury and not just post race shock.

To make the story short, the pain in both areas dissipated the next day.  I made sure I ate Omega rich foods and took some Omega oil blend that I had gotten as a sample.  That, I believe, helped the recovery. On Tuesday, I was back to normal.

I have now hit the third phase of my transition.

Running the half was the longest distance I have gone since my transition.  I’ve hit 10 miles several times but had to back down to let recovery happen. I crossed a bridge this weekend and now realize that I am at the same point in mileage buildup as I would be if I were wearing shoes. I am back to where I was last year, except I feel like I have a lot more headroom in my running.

Does that make sense to you? After talking to the minimalist runners on the course, I think they would understand. My transition isn’t over and an idea occurred to me on my drive home on Sunday that I will share with you in my next post.

Right now I just want to celebrate regaining my running legs.  More than ever I am convinced that your body can take a lot more than you give it.  I am also convinced that if you give it the test in a form that matches what the body was built to do, you can maximize the benefit and push further than you ever thought you could go.

Keep Running.  Dig Deep.  Run Free.

What are those on your feet?

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When I committed to minimalist/barefoot running I didn’t realize that footwear would be such a big deal.  I actually thought the transition would save me some money and not be as agonizing as finding the right pair of traditional running shoes.

Once again I have been surprised on my journey.  The number of minimalist shoes offered to the public has grown by an order of magnitude in just one year. Every major shoe manufacturer has developed or is developing a response to the new craze.  It’s great to see the support, but now it is just as hard to figure out what to wear as when I was wearing standard running shoes.

There are some great sites out there, like toesalad.com, with a lot of good reviews.  I don’t have the disposable income or the inclination to test and report on a ton of shoes.  I find one that works for me and keep with it until it stops working for me.

What is my selection process?  It is a two phase approach.  Phase One is based on pure instinct and some intrinsic appeal of the shoe.  Phase Two is experiential.  I get a failure or two and figure out why I don’t like them and try to find something that compensates for that failure.

For Phase Two, here is the selection criteria I came up with:

1)  Whatever went on my feet needed to transmit the feel of the road as close to barefoot as possible.
2)  My feet needed to feel unhindered by the footwear.  That really means no friction spots and no sense of enclosure and room to let my toes splay during normal footfall.
3)  They need to be durable enough to take some mileage.
4)  They need to be easy to get on and get off.

The selection criteria is simpler in minimal.  You aren’t looking for cushion or support.  Actually, you are looking for the removal of both of those.  It is your posture, stride and form that give you all the cushion you need.  Here is what I discovered about minimalist footwear.

A Round Robin of Shoes

Good footwear disappears under and around your feet.  You develop a cushioned, garceful run by letting your feet hitting the ground tell you when you are screwing up.  Listen to your foot (too many funny lines spawn from that one!) and you’ll get it.

To get to this cosmic realization I have done some trials. Here is what I’ve been through so far:

Running in circles

Let me explain the dress shoes.  Last week I went into the City (we all know that means New York City, right?).  I got stuck behind a school bus on the way to the local train station and had to run the .3 mile length of the parking lot at the station to get to the train.  I know is was .3 mile because when I got back in the evening I measured it.  About 200 yards into my train sprint I realized I was running with with barefoot form!

I also show my classic Nike Vermero’s.  They aren’t used in minimalist, but I’ve logged so many miles in regular shoes, I feel I have to show a pair. As I proved with my dress shoes, I can run barefoot style with these if I need to.

Socks were the easiest and simplest covering to wear.  They do need to be expendable because running on the road with all the sludge makes them pretty gross after a few miles.

A Mile in My Socks

If you’ve been reading this from the start, you know my first minimal shoe were the Vibram 5-Fingers.  I call them “monkey shoes” because of how they look when you wear them.  I put some good miles on them and took them on the road when I traveled.  It took me a bit to figure out how to get them on and off smoothly and I’m still not that good at it.  My toes are stiff.  That’s probably TMI.   BTW, the more you do barefoot the looser those piggies get. Anyway, the 5-fingers lost points on ease of ingress and egress.

Monkey Feet

I tried the Merrell Trail Runners and found them to be stiff. That made me think friction burn so I sent them back before I took them on the road.

Then I bumped into Luna Sandals while searching websites on barefoot running.  There was an immediate appeal to me.  These were patterned after the huarachis worn for millennium.  That was the intrinsic value that caught my eye.

I’ve never been a sandal wearer.  For the most part my casual shoes have always been my running shoes. My feet have been trapped for decades.

The Luna’s looked cool.  Plus, they had a leather sole on top of a Vibram bottom which gave them a very finished look.  The lacing was pretty simple and straight foward to use.  I looked at them and thought I could wear these around all summer.

I opted for the easiest of the lacing options and have been putting miles on these puppies ever since.  They quickly became molded to my feet and they disappear when I put them on they are so comfortable.

Here’s what I like about sandals.

  • They don’t hinder my toe splay.
  • They are comfortable.
  • They DO NOT flop around like flip flops
  • The laces DO NOT chafe or bind or rub.

You have to adjust them a little at first to figure out just how tight and what angles for the laces work best for you. What you’ll notice is they don’t need to be as tight as you would tie a shoe. Just a bit snug.  That is the same with all the other sandals I have tried.

I had worried that the lace between my toes would be on issue, but after a minute or two I got used to it. Even running down steep hills I don’t feel any pressure or rubbing. The same for the lace as it goes around the heel.  I keep it snug, not tight, and have had no issues with heel movement or with flopping.

To round out my collection I have a pair of Bedrock Sandals and a pair of Invisible Shoe Sandals.  Both have slightly different souls and lacing, but are basically the same huarachi design.  I haven’t put much time in either of them, so I will hold on the evaluation.  In both cases, the laces are comfortable.

What the Luna’s have going for them is the way the laces I have selected are attached at the toe to the sole.  That is the traditional weak point of the huarachi.  The lace starts at the toe and is a knot on the base of the sandal.  That knot typically protrudes and will eventually wear through.  If you have enough lace you can restring otherwise you need to get replacement lace or new sandals.  The guys at Luna have found a way to fuse that knot to the sole so it has a minimal chance of wearing out.

What About the Weather?

As you know, I live in New England.  I have had a fortunate run of weather so I am able to keep some outdoor mileage going when I would normally be getting my cardio work from shoveling snow.

In the early part of the fall, I got a pair of Toesox and ran with them and my Luna’s.  That was great for cold weather even down to the low 20′s.

Maybe These are Monkey Feet

The only trouble with this combination is when it is very wet outside.  Not so much rain, but slushy snow and icy puddles.

I started looking around for a very flexilble minimalist shoe and found two of them.  The one in the picture are a pair of Stem Footwear Primal Origins.  They are about the most comfortable shoe I’ve ever worn, period.  They are also a totally flat shoe, meaning no heel rise, and so flexible you can roll them into a ball.

It was cold when I took the shot, so I had socks on, but I usually wear this without socks. I will say that the sole is very responsive and when I do run in them I feel all the texture of the surface of the road.  They are so comfortable, I wear them most of the time now instead of old running shoes.

The other shoes I am eyeing are Kigo Drives.  They have a similar look to the Stems, but a slightly different sole.  Haven’t gotten a pair, but may try them out when I am ready to rotate.

In none of the cases have I had the shoes or sandals long enough to give feedback on durability and mileage.  That will be something to report later this year.

For the time being, I am enjoying the running weather while I can and keeping my mileage in the 3-6 mile range for the next month or so.  The reason is to give my feet some time to adjust.  Remember, I’ve been in shoes for over forty years, so my foot muscles are going to take a little time to loosen up.  They feel good now and I’ll start doing speed work and hill repeats this week, but still in the 6 or less miles.  Come March I will start to ramp up slowly since I signed up for a half-marathon on April 1st – no joke!

Next up – You eat what?