Hair of the Dog 10k...01/01/12...Bethany Beach, DE

     It was a dark and stormy night except it was light...and sunny...and morning. For some reason I and a few other Slower Lower Runners decided it would be a good idea to run 6.2 miles on New years Day. I got there around 8am for the 9:30 start to get my packet and to get a good parking spot and the registration line was already getting long. I got my packet which included the normal random coupons for local businesses a reusable shopping bag, a pen, a sticker, a Cliff Bar and a nice long sleeve tech shirt. I wandered around for a while and was impressed by the timing set up, there was a nice finish line set up on the boardwalk and monitors that was to show your time as soon as you finished.
     I heard the race coordinators expected around 150-200 runners, it was apparent very soon that they were going to get much more than that, they ran out of race numbers, went to their back-up stock of numbers and ran out of those, they ended up writing numbers on paper with a sharpie to get everyone a number. At pre race announcements they said they were at over 600 runners!
     Temps at race time was probably around 45 and sunny, it was perfect running weather. The start was normal, just one block off the boardwalk heading south, the 10k runners started first and we did a 2 mile loop that took us back through the start which was pretty awesome because there was about 400 5k runners waiting to start their race cheering us on. As we were coming through, Tim the race director was commentating on  the racers coming through the crowd, it was cool to have someone announcing that the barefoot runner was coming through! We remained in town until about mile 4 when we got onto Rt. 1 for the out and back portion.

                   (I'm the barefoot guy in the pic and yes, I did beat that guy in front of me)

Clubmate C.J. officially unofficially running.

The roads in town were decent for barefooting, there were a few spots that were stony but the roads were mainly closed so it was easy to get around the stones, the highway was about the same except with 2 way runner traffic it was a little more difficult to get around all the stones and the one patch of glass but I got through unscathed. As I was heading back on Rt. 1 I had an eye on the road and all of a sudden there was a hand heading for me, it was my clubmate Dona, running her first ever 10k, looking for a high 5.
   The finish was cool, the last 1/4 miles was on the boardwalk and there were lots of spectators cheering us on. They handed out finishers medals for the 10k and the times were right there on the monitor. The after party had a great breakfast spread with bagels, eggs, sausage and lots of 16 Mile beers.
     My only complaint is with the timing company, they took well over an hour to get the times and awards straight, a lot of people left without getting their awards is took so long. I did end up with 3rd in my AG! And the awards were the cute little dogs with medals.

   All in all a great race, one I will probably run every year.

   And a special congrats goes out to Dona who ran her first 10k!

My story

I've had this blog for a few years now and never paid it much mind. Now, I have volunteered to be a barefoot running mentor and this blog could be helpful. So, a little about my barefoot self;
In March of 2009 I was browsing the Runner's World forums. I've been a member there for a few years but never really fit into any of the forums. I wasn't a beginner, an elite, a woman, a marathoner or a shoe. I mostly posted in the beginners just because they were nice. Then one day there appeared a Barefoot Runners forum. I didn't realize that people really ran barefoot so I was intrigued.
I believe I made a post on the first day the forum was there, it was profound, It went something like this, "are yoga toes anything like jazz hands?" who knew what that would lead to. I continued to read about barefoot running and did more reading at Ken Bob's site. I heard about Vibram Five Fingers so in April I bought a pair of VFF's and a pair of new Asics on the same day. Once I ran in the VFF's I had no desire to put the Asics on. My $100 Asics are in the closet with about 25 miles on them.
I slowly transitioned into barefoot running over the next couple months and through the summer I ran races in 5k, 10k, 10 miles and I ran the Baltimore 1/2 marathon barefoot.
I can't say enough about how barefoot running has changed my perspective on running, I'm not training anymore, I'm running. It's fun. Winter will be a challange that I will take as it comes and next fall I plan to tackle my first full marathon.
This blog will, when I remember to write, follow my journey through barefoot running, I'm sure there will be some personal touches here too. I'm not much of a writer so bare with me.