Trail Race One Year Later: Half the Distance and Barefoot

Ok, you've got me. I wore the VFFs. I wasn't technically barefoot and real barefooters might take me to task for that.

On Sunday, I ran the Harmon Farms Trail Race. Last year I ran the 10 mile version, but this year I opted for the 5 mile. I figured my first time on trails with the VFFs shouldn't be a 10 miler. Trail runners are an odd bunch, generally more diverse and more strange (eccentric, perhaps?) than road runners. Besides me with the weird shoes, there were people of every size and shape as well as a wedding party, gowns and all. Old dudes seem to love to talk to me about my footwear. Other people just do doubletakes and then stare sideways at my feet. This is Minnesota, after all.

It has been one of the driest Septembers on record, so there was no mud at all, just lots of dry, dusty and rocky singletrack. I'd forgotten that this course has more ups than I tend to prefer. However, I've found that one of the benefits to running with crazy non-shoes is that I find it much, much easier to run uphill. No more plodding, just lots of light quick steps that seem to get me up the hills much faster than before. I can't thunder down the hills like I used to because it's too hard on the feets without all that cushioning, but that's probably for the best. You have to be completely present in the moment to run trails in VFFs. No wandering minds or eyes allowed! I had one stumble when I was paying attention to the 1 mile marker instead of the trail and then another one because I just wasn't paying enough attention at all and ended up jamming my left little toe enough to bruise it. Beyond that, other than landing badly on a rock and making my left foot cranky, I was no worse for wear after the race. I might have attended a little too closely to the guy who was on my tail for the first four miles; he was a heavy breather and I wanted to stay ahead of him so I might have been running a little faster than I wanted to. We kept passing people the entire race and I think I was only dropped once. I lost him after mile 4 or so. By then I was tired, though, and it was more difficult to pay attention and stay in the moment. Rocks, however, are an excellent reminder to watch what you're doing!

I don't believe I've run a 5 mile trail race before, so this counts as a PR for this type of race (plus, in VFFs there are a whole new set of PRs to collect!). I finished in 48:08 and was 15th overall out of 50 (and yes, that sounds much more impressive than it actually is).