This was posted on my blog www.thelongbrownpath.com

On November 22, 2018 I completed the Art Van Turkey Trot Chicago 5-mile race, coming in 3rd out of 70 in my age group and 119 out of 2180 overall. My son Philip finished #8 in his age group and my wife Sue, who ran the 5k, finished #6 in her age group.

Two small successes: a decent performance on my part, and seeing family members running too. Successes so small as to be practically meaningless. Each of our runs accounting for little more than 30 minutes of effort. Yet it occurs to me if a person could achieve small successes on a regular basis — a successful race, or contributing something small to a big project at work, or making some little observation that helped a friend or family member, or spending time on a community project — such...

There are arguments against running a Turkey Trot on t-day, not least being paying $30 to a company that organizes races all year round, so that I feel my money is going to them rather than the non-profit they are supposedly donating to. But they are, and here in Boulder, where I am visiting, it's to a non-religious organization that feeds the hungry without any proselytizing, and people are bringing cans of food to donate too, so that's ok. The actual organization of this particular race is a little disorganized: I've run Turkey Trots run by volunteers that are done better.

Not to mention that with a full free day, most 'serious' runners might rather run a longer distance on their own, with the streets mostly quiet and car-less, which I would have been tempted to do, if alone, but I'm not, I'm with friends and that counts for a lot....

So, I bit the bullet, and decided to register myself for a real race barefoot (yeah, obviously not trying to compete with the guys who swallowed 10 k in 1/2 hr). The idea was to measure myself in a competitive environment and with the need to pace and keep a good speed to complete the race.

I had some training with 12 to 13 k runs in the mountains (so very very hard climbs, which do wonders for your cardio), so I was confident about being able to cover 10K, and it was fun, as the race course was totally flat.

In the end, quite satisfied, and I was feeling that good, that after the race, I added a 8 K hike back home. Feels good to be feeling fit again!

Full story:
https://visionsofasia.asia/2018/11/28/first-10k-barefoot-race/

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Jun Matsumoto‎ Barefoot Runners Society
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