1st trail run

Well, yesterday it had been one week since I ran. I walked all week on my driveway @ home, which is mixed sizes of gravel. Hurts like h**l sometimes to walk on it, but Ken Bob says thats the best way to learn BF. But I haven't been able to run on it...did I mention it hurts!

So yesterday, I've got this pent up energy, calves are feeling better, been walking BF on gravel all week, so I says to myself, "Self, you should go to Turkey Mountain and run the trails. Maybe you won't blister running on the trails."

Let me explain about Turkey Mountain. It is designated an "urban wilderness area" and has a lot of trails that are used by hikers, walkers, trail runners, mountain bikers & horse riders. The have 3 trails with markers (red=1 mile, blue=2 mile, yellow = 5 mile) and other trails that cut across between these.

I have run on these trails 3 times prior to last night and, quite honestly, sometimes I'm not sure if I'm on the right trail or not. But I always figured "hey, I'm just running to run, and if I get a little lost, what the heck".

Last night I arrived a little after 7:00 pm. It was 101, with a heat index of 105. Not a big deal, I thought, since I brought some water, and I'll be running in the shade of the woods.

So I take off my Treks and walk to the trailhead thinking 2 mile or 5 mile, 2 mile or 5 mile. Well, lets see, if I do the 5, and if I can average 12 min/mile, should be done around sunset. Okay, 5 it is.

I'M RUNNINGBAREFOOT!! yippee!! Wow, it felt great. The first part of the trail is just hard packed dirt, with a nice tree canopy. Yep, this is what it feels like to be a barefoot trail runner (or as I found out later, this is what it feels like to be a barefoot trail runner at the STARTof a run).

My left calf twitched early on, and I was afraid that it would start hurting, but it loosened up and didn't bother me much, or maybe it just didn't bother me as much as other stuff.

I was running in my sunglasses, which are prescription. I am near-sighted, and as I near 50, seem to becoming more nearsighted all the time. Not a problem when reading...only I wasn't reading. ;)

I was running along, made a couple of wrong turns, but not to worry (I thought), I have my iphone w/RunKeeper going, so all my miles are getting logged. If I go a little over 5, what the heck, I'm feeling good.

And I was. There were some rocky sections that I had to work through, but all in all, I was feeling good (and BAREFOOT!).

The GPSin the phone wasn't doing a great job, but it is fairly wooded and I figured it would kind of catch up when I went through a clearing.

So I'm running along (BAREFOOT!), listening to some tunes, and I get a couple of miles into the run, I'm on the right trail (found a trail marker) and I get to what I think is about the 2 mile point. I emerge into a cleared area and look at the sun.

Hmmmm....down behind the trees. Well, I'm about halfway, no sense in turning around, I'll just keep going. Yeah, I don't think this was the first mistake I made on this run, but I know it wasn't the last either.

So, I'm off, still moving pretty well, some rock issues, when I notice how dark it's getting. Yeah, I remembered I had sunglasses on, so I took them off. Hmmmm...well, it is lighter with them off, but I can't see the ground very well. I mean, I can see the ground, but I can't see the ground well enough to run barefoot on. So back on go the sunglasses.

Well, I've a bit of a quandry here. Getting darker. Phone/GPS stopped (still haven't figured out why). Can't see with sunglasses very well. But don't want to think about having to run without them.

So I keep running..."running" may be too "speedy" of a word here. More of a jog/walk. Stepped on a 1" dia. stick that formerly may have been a tree. My foot gave way...the stick didn't! Dang that hurt!!

Ihad been so proud of my "avoidance" of "things that hurt feet" so far in this run. I had seen some glass..."deftly" went through/around it. I had picked my way through some rocky sections and I was still upright. But man! That stick hurt!

I figure at this point I "had to be" 4ish miles into it (wishful thinking on my part). Well, standing still wasn't getting me back to the parking lot, so gotta keep moving...

At this point I took the sunglasses off, because they were definitely becoming more of a hindrance than a help. I'm trying to jog/run some, because it is really starting to get dark in the woods! Actually, I thought I was doing pretty well for a nearsighted guy on his first barefoot trail run (in the dark). And then it happened...

I guess I was kind of curling my toes up, but I "kicked" (for lack of a better term) a tree root. I hit my foot right behind the toes, and from the way it felt, tried to rip off the bottom of my foot. Kind of like wiping off your foot (only in reverse) and doing it hard. You kind of get the picture...

Now, I'm going to change topics just a little...Have you ever seen a werewolf?? Neither have I. And I don't think they are real. I think the whole werewolf thing got started because somebody was on their first barefoot trail run and they kicked a tree root with their foot really hard, and nobody knew they were running in the woods, and all everybody heard was the "howling". Yep, gonna have to change my online names to "Werewolf Mike". Anyway, next time you hear a werewolf howling, just keep your eyes open for a lone barefoot trail runner...

Okay, back to the run...I says to myself,

Me: "Self, we still have to get back to the parking lot".

Self:"We" didn't get in this mess, and my feet hurt".

Me: "Well, maybe we can just walk?"

Self: "Gonna have to, 'cause self (and my friends, the feet) are strongly against running more.

Problem is...it's pretty dark now. Wow. Didn't see this one coming. So, I'm in the woods, on a trail I've only been on a couple of times that has a lot of little dead-end trails that branch off. And it's dark...Can't be over a mile...I can do anything for a mile...

Then it hits me!!! My phone! Ihave an LEDflash on my iphone4. Let's see, I know my son turned on onetime, so it has to be doable...YES!! I have LIGHT!!

'Course, now not only am Iwalking/jogging with bent knees, I am actually bent in half at the waist. Why? Because that is the only way I can see the ground! But, at least I can see it.

So now I think I'm in tall cotton. Moving along, thinking how lucky I am to live in a time where phones have flashlights. Thinking about how happy I am that I let my wife talk me into wearing my phone in case I needed it. And thinking that Steve Jobs is the coolest guy on the planet (next to the person who created the flashlight app). :)

New problem...if I'm bent over, looking at the trail in front of me, how am I going to see the trail markers. A couple are right beside the trail, but most of them are painted on the trees. So now, the nearsighted werewolf guy is periodically peering up at the trees (and not seeing a single freakin' trail marker, Imight add).

Looking back down at path...well, this one looks "more used", so take it. Oh...maybe the reason it looked "more used" was because when it rains water runs down it and washes all the leaves and stuff away. :( But at this point there is only one way, and that is forward (and preferably down). So I climb down a rocky wash that I would never attempted in the daylight. But desperate times call for drastic measures...

Well...keep moving southwest ('cause that's where the parking lot is). And about 50 yards on down, I run across the main path leading in. SWEET!!!

Of course, at this point I have to start lightly running again. Wouldn't want anyone to see me and think I wasn't fully capable of running barefoot on the trails in the dark, would we?

Got to the parking lot OK, wasn't sure how damaged my fee
t were, drove home barefoot (this may be against the law, but I didn't feel like sticking them back in the Treks). Took a shower and was pleasantly surprised to find the feet pretty well intact.

This morning they are tender (I skipped walking the dogs on the gravel driveway). But, all in all, they actually feel pretty good.

AND I RAN 5+ MILES BAREFOOT ON TRAILS!!!!

I'll leave out the running in the dark, impressive though it might be, because then I would have to admit to the walk/jog part. ;)

But this is the longest run/jog/walk I have completed BF. Cool...

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