We got very lucky with the weather. The starting line temperature was 62F and when I finished it had just hit 80F. A little humid but this is Minnesota in July so that's to be expected.

This was to be my first attempt at 50K. I'd previously only completed one road marathon unshod and had to DNF a trail marathon in the North Dakota badlands because I had yet to learn a crucial lesson about hyponatremia. More on that later.

My finishing time was around 6:40. I was hoping for about 6 1/2 hours and the course had over 4,000ft of vertical gain in it so I was more than happy with that. I had briefly considered doing the whole thing unshod but there's simply too much gravel and I'm not there yet with that. I ran the whole thing in my Luna Roots Origen sandals which performed excellently. A great deal of the course is easy dirt and grass, however. And there was one fine...

A former international marathon runner has spent 52 days running across Spain barefoot through snow and rain to raise thousands for charity and mark her 59th birthday. Julia Chi Taylor, who lived in Eastbourne for 12 years but now lives as a nomad with no permanent home, is believed to be the first person to attempt this feat. Julia set off on March 23 from Suances on the northern coast of Spain and finished on May 12 - her 59th birthday - on the Southern coastal town of Almuñécar.

To continue reading, please visit: https://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/...pain-barefoot-to-mark-59th-birthday-1-8536079

Barefoot TJ kindly asked that I start making blog posts. I've got a few things I've posted over on reddit that made for interesting conversation so I'll start putting them up here, too.

For the most part people have a very linear view of traction: more traction is better than less traction. I'm starting to see how this issue is far more complex when it comes to running. When running on different surfaces is discussed the focus is usually on hardness but that's just one of several factors that distinguish one surface from another. If I were to break it down for concrete vs dirt singletrack I'd list the following:

• Concrete: Smooth, level, hard and high traction
• Dirt singletrack: Varying degrees of texture from smooth to rocky to rooted, not level, varying degrees of soft to hard and overall a...

since January 2018, the Autism Society of Iowa wanted people to hear about the Barefoot Autism Challenge if they haven’t already. They had me talk about it at conferences and even at the statehouse. And once the Autism Society of America shared the promotional video, it got even more people looking at it. But nothing could have prepared me for this. Erin, an associate of the Autism Society of Iowa got the idea to make my challenge be year round. And I thought it would be good not just to raise awareness, but have people do a post if they missed out on April. Especially given how others have posted before or after April. So if anyone is thinking about doing something for autism, give the #barefootautismchallenge a try