Earlier this year I decided I was brave enough to enter my first half marathon which took place this last weekend on Sunday 14th Oct. -The Perkins Great Eastern Run.

It's a flat course around the city and streets of Peterborough in the UK.
My partner has run it in previous years (shod) and I've always had that 'itchy feet' feeling that I'd like to run it, but until I started running barefoot I know I would have struggled badly with knee pain. Having steadily increased my BF distance however I decided it was time to take the plunge!

I trained reasonably consistently during the 3-4 months prior to the race, basically running every other day, with weekend sessions being the longest run and the mid-week sessions being shorter. Prior to race day my furthest distance was 18km. So I knew that the final 3km of the 21km half marathon on race day would be unchartered territory...

Hiking Sawteeth Mountain
By Tristan


I recently posted about my long 5-day hike in the Adirondacks, but that was not the only hike there I did this summer. I was on vacation and visited the area again in September with my parents on a short camping trip, and couldn't wait to get back to the mountains! Mom and I decided to go for a day-hike one of the days we were there. We settled on a hike of Sawteeth Mountain, a good long dayhike and rumored to be very scenic with many outlooks along the trail. It did not disappoint!

In early June this year, I had the opportunity to hike up Goat Fell (874m), the highest mountain on the Isle of Arran in Scotland. We took the short route via Corrie, so it was nearly all straight up and down, very little level walking. This was my first real mountain barefoot hike, and it went very well. The path is quite steep, and the upper half is rocks only, with some scrambling. On top of Goat Fell, great views, very rewarding - if you are on Arran, give it a try!

The way up was not a big deal, but I really felt my legs on the way down, due to the need to lower myself very carefully on each step. On the last hour down, rain started to fall, which really slowed me down as I was afraid of slipping on muddy rocks. However, apart from stubbing my toes once or twice, I got away without injuries, and felt great.

Lots of comments from other walkers,...

This summer I went on my biggest hiking trip yet, and finally getting around to finishing up the photos and putting up a brief report. I had this trip in my head for the last couple years, just waiting for the opportunity to take it. A week of vacation, and my son in summer camp spelled opportunity to me! I had the basics of the trip planned, just had to make a few tweaks and get my gear together. Biggest challenge was getting all the food I needed into my small bear can which is required there, and fitting that and everything else in my modest 48L pack. Took some careful planning and stripping down to the bare minimum of what I needed but everything worked out perfectly. I didn't really want to purchase a larger pack or bear can as most of my trips are usually 2-3 days. I still overestimated my food demand slightly, my bear canister can...