Canton, Ohio Marathon

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Canton, Ohio Marathon
By fredvp71, Now.k.a., "Barefoot Fred"

Hello BRS! Just a quick race report on a barefoot marathon (my first) I completed on Sunday, June 17 in Canton, Ohio. I will keep it brief, but feel free to comment or message me for more details if wanted.

Some people on this site are amazing runners and complete barefoot marathons 6 months after first starting. I have had a much slower process - my first year, I ran a 5K barefoot (and was badly injured from running in freezing temperatures). The second year, I was happy to finish a 10K. Last year, wait for it, a half marathon, and this year a full marathon!

This marathon was the first in Canton but was attended by 5,000 runners overall, including 300 or so for the full 26.2. The course was all roads, with a variation of tars from mostly pebble to that lovely smooth pure blacktop that makes me think of skateboarding. I would recommend this marathon for a barefoot runner for many reasons - tons of crowd support, drink stations every half-mile, and the best thing was nice warm temperatures. I don't like running barefoot in anything under sixty degrees (I do it, I just don't like it), so for me 60 to 80 degrees is the sweet spot, and you're going to get that in June, but maybe not in March or October.

The difficulties I had were being badly out of shape - as I said I start running sporadically in April and regularly every other day in May; to be ready for a marathon after just five weeks of consistent running was pretty tough. So tough in fact, I was not ready, but counted on the magic of my feet to carry me through, which they did. (Whew!) I was rocking about ten pounds of extra gut if you want the real image. Also, I came down with the dreaded awful cold 3 days before the race. That cleared up at the last minute enough to run and allowed me to hack some righteous monster-phlegm balls during and after the race. It has since turned into bronchitis, and I am still hacking as I type, 3 days later.

Anyhoo, my training regimen consisted of no regimen at all. I did a 12 mile run two weeks before the race, and a 16 miler exactly 7 days before the race. The 16 made me feel pretty confident because my feet were fine afterwards, and I ran an 8 mile run two days later, just before I caught my cold. So, that was it for training. Diet is not something I worry about either. As far as I can tell there are great athletes who only eat proteins, and great athletes who only eat carbs, so who the hell knows, or cares, life is too short, I eat what I like and run it off in the summer.

That being said, my nonchalance did NOT pay off, I repeat did NOT help the race. I almost gave up at mile 22, and sat in some dude's chair for ten minutes before deciding I didn't want to wait for the last place van, and stumbled through the last 4 miles. I ran the first 13 in 2 hours, which got me all excited for a sub-4 finish. I then proceeded to run the next 13 in 3 hours, including an amazing 84 minutes to do the last 5 miles. My final time was 4:54, which might be slow or fast depending on your perspective. For me it was just right, because I finished and had no injuries. I did get 2 small blood blisters on both feet, just below and between the big toe and second toe. They were dime-sized and not painful. It rained for the last 10 miles, and I think running in the rain on the super-smooth tar made me get a little careless and I got some friction, ironically, on the smoothest and most pleasant surface of the entire race.

The finish was the worst part, as it ended in the Football Hall of Fame astro-turfed stadium. It was like running on razor-wire brillo pads, after 26 miles of pebbly wet asphalt. I kept a smile on my face though, and finished strong. The race was Sunday, today is Wednesday, and I ran a little 4-mile BF jog this morning and feel fine. I guess now I can call myself Barefoot Fred! That's about it, huge thanks to the barefoot community who keep this site up and running. Thanks for reading!

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Welcome, Hannah!