Barefoot Runners Society

April 6, 2013 – Sacramento, CA

The day had I had waited a year for had finally arrived - Redemption Day. It was the morning of the American River 50-Mile Endurance Run once again. Last year, I had trained numerous miles only to wind up injured at the start line resulting in my first DNF ever.

THIS year was going to be different. This was MY year. It was time to run to Auburn to get MY AR50 Finisher’s Jacket.

I kissed and hugged my wife and kids – my “crew” for the race. I stripped off my Sockwas, handed them to my wife, and joined the growing crowd of runners as they meandered toward the starting line. My family headed to watch the start from the Guy West Bridge. The runners would race west away from the bridge for a...

That's Amber and myself; she ran 55:45 for her second (and fastest) 10k, and placed first in her age group. I have not been able to bring her to the darkside, even though her wiener dog tried to help by destroying her new running shoes the night before the race (the ones there are actually pretty old)!

I was sporting my old BRS shirt, lots of comments on this race, all pretty positive!

Once again it was nearly too cold to run barefoot. Was around 37F for the race. I can go mid 30's is about all, and for a race when I know I'm going to be a little distracted and not concentrating as much on form I don't like to be so close to going numb. But I decided to go for it. At first they were a bit cold, but warmed up fine after about a mile. Not sure if that had anything to do with the extra wear on my soles (below)....

Barefoot in the Winter? Are you Crazy?

I guess the short answer is YES, but I’m not alone.


The BRS 2012 Winter Challenge has come and gone. 46 members from 8 countries, joined our Challenge this year, which ran from Oct 1st to Apr 1st. Any barefoot run with the temperature below 41°F (5°C) was a qualifying run. The Challenge had participants record the distance they ran per temperature range. Some ran only a mile or two while others ran 100s of miles. The point of the Challenge was to encourage all to try running in the near or sub-freezing temperatures. And try they did. As a group, we ran 2323...

The bigger the challenge, the bigger the disappointment when you fail. Mt Tammany 10 was undoubtedly the biggest thing I've ever attempted. It's a little known 38 mile trail run with an elevation gain of over 12000 ft held at Mt Tammany near the Delaware Water Gap in NJ. You simply ascend and descend a steep, ROCKY hill 10 times around an almost 4 mile loop. Oh... and you get 10 hours to do it in.

Lesson learnt #1: When you sign up for a race find out what it involves before you start training.

I trained. Just not for this race. I ran gentle trails and roads. I suspended swimming and upper body workout and lost weight. I stopped cycling to tone down my quads and lost weight. I made a deliberate attempt to improve my cadence instead. In short I trained for a very different race.

Lesson...