First BF marathon report by longtime lurker...
Joris Goose
After lurking and leeching heavily here and there, soaking info like a maniac sponge, I am finally posting my first and loooooooong report here about (the road to) my first BF marathon, to make up for my posting passivity.
Hopefully, it is more interesting for you guys to hear about transition, MAF runs, spring versus active foot lift, low carbs and red beetjuice than my friends and family who are by no means as geeky as I am
Short background: 33 years old guy, have been playing field hockey until I went to college, then started partying and drinking pretty competitively and stopped all real sports activities all together. Six years ago started running. Usual story I guess, running with a nike+ app and loud music on and trying to go faster every run 2-3 times a week. Started doing 10 milers and half marathons. In 5 years, no significant improvement, but luckily also no real injuries either. Admittedly not very original, but after reading BTR, I bought some VFFs in may 2010 on a business trip to the USA. Total revelation! However, I was soon to also discover TOFP en TMTS. After discovering those terms and all the info on the interwebzz and on this and similar forums, I also started reading some books (Jason’s, Ken Bob’s, etc..). Not to mention my obsessive watching of all barefoot related videos on youtube!
Already, my first year after going minimal, I immediately PR-ed on both the 10-mile and half marathon, albeit modestly. Then another plateau, as I basically still adhered to a “no pain no gain” training regime. After I logged a total of 2500k at nikeplus, I felt I had to try something new. Therefore, I changed the batteries of an old heart rate monitor. I somehow got sucked in further down the BF rabbit hole and even started skimming through the several threads about Maffetone. This nicely coincided with my transition from VFF to BF in April/may this year. As I was slowly (literally really slowly) building mileage BF, I needed to walk less and less and saw some improvements after pretty strict low HR training, initially 3 times/week. A friend and colleague had both registered for the full marathon in our hometown this October. At first I was hesitant to join, but when I slowly built my mileage and presumably aerobic base, I started believing it could be done. As I changed my diet a bit, basically less sugar/carbs and more veggies and fat, I really lost some weight (even concerning some people around me) and became leaner than ever, as a side effect of the supposed fat burning training routine. Not until only some weeks before the race I started some tempo runs and did a 20-mile fast finish long run 2 weeks before the race. The peer pressure of my colleague, made me start using gels on my longruns, my longest being 3.17. The last weeks when I finally let go of the comfortable pace dictated by my HRM, I also got more into finding my spring. Cucuzzella inspired as opposed to the premature lifting, I had been used to after rereading Ken Bob. In total, I have logged 550k (around 340 miles) barefoot, excluding the transition miles…
Three days before the race I started drinking biologic red beet juice, in addition to my smoothies with chia seeds and no real carb loading approach. Our newborn had been disturbing my nights for about 3 months and also the last few nights before the race were suboptimal. Nevertheless, I felt okay and relatively relaxed at M-day. Based on previous results wearing VFFs at half marathons and my confidence in the MAF training I had been doing for almost 6 months, I aimed at a sub 4 hour time. The weather was nice and chilly, but quite windy as well. What disturbed me a little however, was that it had rained the night before and the roads were all still pretty wet, which I had hardly experienced during my training runs.
The start in the Olympic stadium included wet grass before entering the track, which was also wet, got me awake and just after the start my heart rate in the first 2 miles was already way above my MAF rate. My pace however, was only around 6min/k, which is slower than what I usually am able to run after a decent warmup under my 147 MAF rate.
First 2 miles were easy on purpose and conservatively started picking up the pace during the first half of the race, soon ignoring the constant flashing of the HRM in the high 160’s. Shortly after the HM (13.1 M) mark, I noticed my right toe was bleeding. As I could not figure out if I cut it, had something in it, or it was a ruptured blister, I had the people at the 25k aid station check it, clean it and tape it. As most first aid people think you are completely nuts if you run without shoes, they were discussing about advising me to quite the race. As one of these volunteers had seen me training BF and figured I possibly had at least some idea of what I was doing, they thought it was okay to let me continue. As I proceeded after losing at least 6 precious minutes, I still felt good mentally, and physically. I had been using a gel every 45 minutes, and drank at every aid station and munched on a few banana pieces. My girlfriend and parents supported me at several points, close to my home, supplying me with additional water, apples and cookies and carried my emergency minimal shoes. Only the very last couple of k’s, I started feeling both my pads and the lateral sides of my feet. As I knew my supporters were waiting at the finish, too late to switch to shoes, I completed the race BF. At the finish I found out that I had several blood blisters toes, pads and sides, but muscles felt fine and I was not as exhausted as I had been in several half marathons or even 10Milers! I finished in a net time of just under 4 hours, average HR 165 (MAF +18, perceived effort mild/moderate) raising also 150 Euros for cancer research in doing so
The only thing I was less happy about was the blistering, which I had not experienced after my first 4k BF run over half a year ago. The days after: remarkably, no significant muscle soreness, but all my still intact beetred blisters caused me some serious and silly limping!Lessons learned:
If you never train with soaked feet, don’t run marathons with them…
Maybe the “springing” also needs perfecting, because there may have been a little more toe-off than my toes were used to.
Losing weight, after doing some aerobic basebuilding, largely in line with Maffetone, certainly enabled me to do a comfortable and very easy marathon.
Dutch people and all international competing athletes are without an exception very tolerant and positive about BF running. Nevertheless, there were no others I have spotted that day in contrast to many minimalist guys.
Easy does it
, but less caution might have resulted in a slightly faster time.Overall, my n=1 endurance experiment was quite a success and hopefully next year will be even better!
Thanks everyone who posted here and elsewhere, I could not have done it without all the tips, information and inspiration you have provided me over the last year!
