Member Blog of the Week - First Barefoot Snow Run By Barefooting Bob

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Member Blog of the Week
First Barefoot Snow Run
By Barefooting Bob

Some might say I have crossed over the line from 'Crazy' to 'Down Right Insane,' if they saw me running around downtown last Friday decked in my winter running gear and no shoes. According to the majority, I was dressed for the weather (I guess that would mean I fall into the minority category) from the ankles up, but supposedly below my ankles were slightly lacking. I actually felt perfectly fine for the situation at hand of trying to dwell into the realms of snow barefoot running.


Who would have guessed that so many people would be concerned about the well being of my feet?


It was a perfectly balmy day in the 'Peg for November (-10 degrees C/ -20 degrees C with the wind chill), partly cloudy with a pleasant swirling wind. The game plan was to do a 5 km loop from the office, thru the forks, up to Main Street and back to the office, all in all, about 30 minutes due to the surface conditions and expected lack of barefoot traction.


I got ready to go, suited up c/w running toque, scarf, wind repellent gloves, layered shirts, and running jacket, and of course, my winter Running Room pants (advise from Barefoot Rick stressed the importance of keeping your core warm, and your feet will follow). I decided to leave myGarmin behind this time, as I didn't think waiting for the satellite to be located would be particularly helpful for my bare feet, must keep moving until foot temperature stabilizes. This being said, I headed to the lobby to start my journey into territories not travelled by the masses.


I got to the lobby and looked out the glass entrance doors to four smokers all bundled up and shivering, trying to shelter themselves from the wind. My first thought was, 'Hmmm, this should be interesting, hopefully I don't give someone a heart attack. (I found out later that all of them were shocked to see the 'CRAZY' guy from the 4th floor still running around without shoes! I wonder who they were referring too, not me!!) Getting a head full of steam, I opened up the exterior door and sprinted down the steps, holding my VFFs in my hands. Around the corner of the building I went and straight thru the first snow bank like a man on a mission, of course I was on a mission, To test the boundaries and go where no Winnipegger has gone before!!


The plan was to do a 5 km loop around the Forks and see how the feet and toes react before I tried stretching the distances out further. Let's just say I have found out the hard way that getting your feet wet in slushy road conditions and then trail blazing thru snow drifts with barefeet is not the best thing to do. My wet feet froze fairly quickly, and I was limited to a 2.5 km run instead. Anyway I digress, so back to the report.


I was very happy at how my feet were responding to the snowy sidewalk and snow drifts both in traction and feeling of the sidewalk. I got some more weird looks from commuters (both pedestrian and car traffic) and a whole lot of finger pointing. I actually felt pretty good, and my feet were fine; I could sense a little bit of numbness settling in though, but I was not prepared for what was to come (this would be the damn slush). I got to a busy street corner, and was surprised to see wet slush all over the roads, not thinking anything of it, I bolted across the street trying to avoid the puddles and ended up bounding thru slush build up and basically soaking my feet. Somewhere in the back of mind, I thought that might not be too good considering the temperature and the uncleared sidewalks ahead. But me being me and ever trying to push the limits, I trudged on thru the snow, causing more looks of confusion as I ran by the bundled masses walking thru the snow.


As I worked my way along Main Street back towards my office, I passed more finger pointing and surprised looks, but I really didn't care; I was having a blast. By the time I hit 2 kms the numbness in a couple of my toes was definitely noticeable, but the strangest thing, the rest of my feet felt warm (relatively speaking). I heard that once you get to a certain point your feet start to relegate heat, but I was surprised how noticeable it was. My first thought was this is pretty neat; my gloved hands and scarf covered face were colder than my bare feet-who would have guessed?


I pulled into the office and headed up to check out the damage on my feet. They didn' t look too bad at first glance, a little red, and the numbness was definitely apparent, but as my feet started to defrost, the numbness was more apparent, and the pins and needles appeared. This, of course, caused me to dance around my office a little bit and probably looked a little silly, but it helped push the feeling into my toes.


All in all, everything seemed fine, I expected some minor frostbite to appear because of the wet feet, and I was right; by the time I got home I ended up with 6 toes with frostbite blisters and minor swelling. I drained the blisters to help facilitate healing (and found out afterwards that you should not do this according to the professionals, you are suppose to let them heal and let them break open on their own). I had no ill effects to draining them, but one toe kept blistering up and filling back up with liquid, thus it was drained 3 or 4 times. It took about 5 days for the swelling to go down and the healing to complete but no adverse effects were apparent. I waited for another 4 days after my toes were healed before I attempted another barefoot run (I will blog about this in a later post), but I was able to run in my Zems quite efficiently prior to that.


So now I know I can run barefoot in the snow, but I believe -20 C is my limit, at least until I decided to push the boundaries again.


Barefooting Bob


http://winnipegbarefootrunners.blogspot.com/
 
I've been running barefoot (skin to ground) since the summer of 2010. Since then, I've run several half marathons completely barefoot and found a long-enduring love of water shoes & Soft Star Moccasins.
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-20 is pretty dang cold. Just wondering, did you warm up before going out? So far on my couple of winter runs, I've figured out that if I jog in place around the house with all my winters clothes on until I start to feel like I need to take some layers off, then when I go out my feet are already warm. Otherwise I'll usually have to stop a couple times and warm up my feet with my hands (I probably look really funny running, then suddenly sitting down and holding my feet up in the air.) I haven't had a chance to run through any snow yet, though I am kinda looking forward to it just to see if I can handle it, and I wonder what snow will feel like under my feet.
 
Danjo, thanks for the comments and I love your enthusiasm about running in snow, it definitely is a interesting feeling (until your toes finally go numb). Anyway to answer your questions, on the this particular run I did not warm up, I more or less got ready to go and just went. I found out this is not recommended, I now warm up for about 5 minutes doing high steps in place to get the blood flowing and hear two pairs of hand knit wool socks over my feet for about half a hour to get my feet core temps up (my staff and co-workers definitely think I'm nuts now). Another little item that I have found that works to help regulate the temperature of my feet, is that I wear wrist bands over my ankles, this seems to help as well not sure why, but what the heck.

Your point about you looking funny sitting down and holding your feet, well, as I say 'Say La Vie', do what you need to do, most people are oblivious to what is going on around them unless it involves themselves, and the others could become a conversation piece, and no publicity is bad publicity.

For your running thru snow, just take it slow only short distances and listen to your body and more inportantly your feet. Also do you have snow in New Mexico, I am assuming you are close to the mountains? Anyway good luck and let me know how it goes.
 
Hi Bob,

You must be made of pretty stern stuff up there. I don't think I could venture out if it is less than 10C. I guess I don't really have to as Adelaide winter temperatures rarely if ever get to below zero.

I have run along the beach when it has been maybe 10C and my feet felt cold enough then. What always worries me is that the numbing effect of the cold stops the feedback from my feet and I can't feel if I have stood on something. Maybe after a few years of barefoot running the confidence of knowing your feet will be ok will help to relax me a bit more.

I'm having the opposite problem at the moment, we are heading into the hot part of the year when the air temperature can get up into the mid 40's and the pavements get well over 50C. If you can't run in the morning by the time the evening comes the roads are too hot, they retain the heat well into the night.

I've learned not to drain blisters but to let them naturally break down. The worst one I had was when I was in a cross country race (wearing spikes) many years ago. I made the mistake of putting vasaline around my toes before putting the shoes on.

Well, during the race the spikes grip the ground extremely well, the feet inside though were slipping all over the place. By the time I finished the race I had a blister about 6cm across, it was huge.

I had to race a 9 mile race the next day and so I drained the blister and bandaged the foot. During the race the pain from the blister was incredible, I ended up having to run on the side of my foot. I was almost too frightened to see what my foot looked like at the end. I think my sock was full of blood. I had a break from training for a few weeks after that.

Regards

Neil
 
Thanks Neil, I agree about the heat, it can be as dangerous if not more for barefoot runners. Running on black top or asphalt when it is that hot and sunny can burn your feet very badly. I ran a half marathon in Southern Alberta this summer in 30 degree weather, and my feet were slightly medium rare by the time I finished. I found if you stick to the white painted line on the asphalt (this helps regulate the temperature), the going is not as tough.

Regarding the blisters, for me it kind of depends on how bad they are, or what my schedule is like whether I drain or leave them. I do find if I have a easy rest type schedule, draining the blisters helps the pressure and allows them to heal quicker. If I have a run the next day, I will try to bandage them and leave them alone, and allow them to pop on their own.

Thanks for your imput and I would love to get the chance to run in Aussie land one day.