Hi All,
I've got GREAT NEWS!!! My feet is healing fairly quickly and I think I'm ready to run another marathon this weekend. I will be wearing my Vibrams, though, as my feet is not quite ready to go 26.2 miles totally barefoot.
Here's couple of pictures taken during my epic attempt to make history by running a full marathon barefoot in Antarctica. I'm carrying the Guam flag on the left and the Philippine flag on the right. This picture of me running on snow and ice was actually a welcome relief on my feet compared to the roughly 90% of the course that was comprised mostly of gravel and jagged rocks.
I think it was around mile 6 as I was treading over some jagged rocks when I notice the blisters on my right sole pop and splattered blood all over the toes of the opposite foot. It was less than a half mile later when the blisters on my left sole popped, as well. From there, it was a long and excruciating trek back of approximately 2.7 miles to the base camp or the start of the loop where I could have my feet checked and cleaned and put on a pair of shoes. The course was designed as an out and back comprising of 6 loops measured at 4.37 miles per loop.
I did not realize that I was leaving blood trails along the course that was clearly noticed by the other runners. We were informed prior to the race that the White Continent is a “no impact zone”, meaning that what comes onto Antarctica leaves Antarctica, i.e. anything you needed to consume or let go of had to be carried on your body all the way back to Chile. No spitting was allowed and you had to carry your own pee bottle and pooh bag. The fact that I was leaving blood trails the entire length of the course was clearly in violation of the “no impact zone” policy. This obviously became the joke of many conversations on our flight back to Punta Arenas, Chile.
Although, I did not finish the race on barefoot I am still proud of the fact that I made a valiant effort and ran as far as I could on barefoot and still finished the marathon even with my feet all torn up and I did not succumb to giving up no matter how painful and excruciating it was after every step. For the first time in my 76 marathon career, I came in dead last with a finishing time of 11 hours 22 minutes. It was my personal worst time but, it was my best finish ever. I literally had more crowd support at the finish line cheering me on and congratulating me than a last place finisher ever had in any marathon race that I had participated in.
It is my fervent hope that my sacrifice helped raise awareness and support for my charity, Gawad Kalinga, whose mission is to eradicate poverty in the Philippines. I hope that I can continue to be a source of inspiration as I pursue my quest to run a barefoot marathon on all 50 States and 7 Continents as an advocate of Gawad Kalinga:
http://gk-usa.org/.
For what it's worth, something magical happened that day...my barefoot marathon stunt was supposed to inspire only the average folks and especially the non-running community but it somehow transcended into inspiring the elite athletes, as well. Here's my favorite comment on my Facebook account posted by an Elite Marathoner who ran 71 marathons in 2012 and completed a marathon in all 50 States twice over and is on her way to doing it 3 times:
"
Eddie Vilbar Vega is my hero! He persevered and overcame obstacles on his double continent quest and succeeded in completing 2 continent marathons which began in less than 24 hours apart! He lives by my motto..."Quitting is easy! Never give up!" I'm thrilled he didn't give up. And seeing him finish had me in tears! An amazing athlete is Eddie Vega!”