24 horas en punto de Pinto

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24 horas en punto de Pinto
By Ares Descalzo


It was less than 1 year that I had managed to reach 102 km in a little less than 13h unofficially, since I did it one day that I planned, without circuit, time, refreshments or anything planned, just me and my backpack with a Little clothes, water and food.

It was a few days that I began to think about participating in a 24-hour test and it was chosen because it was in my city. Maybe it was not the best decision because I did it without knowing the type of terrain I was going to find, hehehe. But it does not matter because what I'm looking for is the greatest possible adaptation for my feet and in the end it was worth it.

I will not talk about the preparation I have been doing for this race but I will say for those who do not know that I have been barefoot for 3 years and more than 2 barefoot in my daily life almost all the time and that is very useful and effective.

Well, the day of the race I arrived at 11am (1 hour before), to pick up my race number and time control chip. The sky was black, it was raining and it was quite windy which made the thermal sensation even less.

At 12am the race started and most of us did it with thermal and rainwear, especially those that we would face the full 24h.

I started quite slowly but without stopping to run. In the first 3 hours I completed about 26 km but without any pause at a very smooth pace, from there I made my first stop of 15 or 20 minutes to drink water, eat a little tortilla and take off my raincoat as it had stopped raining a while ago.

From there until 46 km (5h45min), I went running slowly and walking in the most complicated areas for me, where the small stones of the road felt more. Although they were not too annoying I knew that going too fast would end up being tedious and psychologically it could take a toll on me and even saturate my soles and that was the last thing I wanted.

At this point I made a longer stop, at least 30 minutes. My intention was to make several stops longer than usual to see how my body responded and especially my feet because when they cool they tend to become more sensitive, but the return to the race was good without any problem.

In the following 4h I kept moving forward. When it started to get dark it was the worst part of the race. The loneliness of the night is even harder if it fits with that strong wind that made the thermal sensation begin to be less than 0ºC.

As I had no intention of doing a specific number of kilometers around 12 o'clock at night, I went to the car to wait for the weather to improve with 72 km.

I was at first holding 1 or 2 hours eating and drinking in the car while the storm was passing, but it did not subside, so I fell asleep for a while. A while? At 5am I decide to leave the car after 5h, hahaha, It seems that it was almost windless, it was not raining but although it was cold it was bearable.
Those 5h were very important for me, now I would know if my head, my legs and especially my feet could continue to advance after so many km and that long stop. It was a resounding success.

I wrapped up a little, put on the rain jacket as if it were a windbreaker and I had a hot chocolate with churros. WOW! It gave me a lot of strength and energy and by 5:30 in the morning I was running again. The cold was disappearing with the first rays of sun and it charged me with energy completely. It seemed to start another career.

At 9am it was 92km away. I stopped again and put on shorts, a short shirt and a wool hat. Covering your head while going barefoot is miraculous.

In the following 2h I was very comfortable arriving at 11am with 108km where I gave myself satisfied and stopped to stay with good feelings and accompany in the last lap to a companion / fighter who promised to make his last lap of 2km barefoot ... Yeah.

At 11h23min we started that last lap very very slowly, savoring that moment. Halfway back I leave my partner with his permission to reach the goal in time since it is impossible and is accompanied by several components of the organization.

Finish the test at 11:58 with 110 km for a terrain not too good to go barefoot but not bad either.
All this made me overcome my previous mark but the important thing was to finish as I did. Very good, plenty of strength and desire. Could I continue 24 hours more like this? I think so and that's what I'll look for on May 10 in "LA FIESTA DEL ULTRAFONDO" by Los Alcazares (Murcia).

Next stop, the unknown 224km?

- ALWAYS BAREFOOT.