BRS 2012-2013 Winter Challenge
By Barefoot YOW
Barefoot in the Winter? Are you Crazy?
I guess the short answer is YES, but I’m not alone.
left to right (Barefoot YOW's footprints, Mikkel, Barefooting Bob, rickwhitelaw, YOW)
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 miles (3739 km). That’s almost the same as running across North America (New York to Washington State). Here’s our Group numbers:
We had some great numbers by individuals. Two members (Chelsea and Bosenoge) ran marathons. Barefooting Bob ran at -24°F (-31.2°C) while dutchie ran at 11°F (-24°C). Oh, rickwhitelaw managed to smash the record for total distance by 100 miles as he ran 351 miles (565 km). We managed to escape without a major case of frost bite, but had a couple close calls. Rickwhitelaw made a great observation about acclimatizing “last year where I jumped in without proper conditioning and suffered frostbite, this year I was going to be prepared. I had already been working in cold conditions in September.” I think Bare Lee summed up the thoughts of the veterans, when he said “I'd say this year my tolerances improved … At this point running on dry asphalt or concrete when it's above freezing doesn't feel like a challenge at all … The Winter Challenge definitely made winter running more interesting and enjoyable, that's for sure..” We had a good friendly competition. The Canadians got off to an early lead but in the end the Americans took the top two spots. My toque is off to rickwhitelaw (1st), Bare Lee (2nd), and Run Barefoot (3rd). There were 13 runners that exceeded 60 miles (100 km). Hearty congratulations to everyone that participated. Here’s the individual numbers:
A comparison of 2012 to 2011 showed some interesting findings.1. We had a significantly higher average distance ran at the 23 to 14°F and 5 to -4°F temperature ranges, indicating improved tolerance.
2. Sweet spot as far as temperature was consistent 41 to 14°F (5 to -10°C)
a. 2012: 93.5% of all runs
b. 2011: 94.3% of all runs
Thanks to everyone that participated in our Winter Challenge. The rivalry was fun, and it was great to see so many take up the challenge of running barefoot in Winter. Spring in on its way. Get out there and run barefoot, no matter the weather!
Barefoot YOW