Reviewed By: thenakedfoot
Date Reviewed: 02/07/2012
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 2 Above Average
Location:
Anastasia State Park
AIA
St Augustine, FL
See map: Google Maps
Disclaimer: This review is being done by the co-founder of The Naked Foot 5k series so any biases are based on the fact that the reviewer is biased!
St Augustine, WOW! That could be the end of the review and would suffice. The wow is for the people, the city, and the site of the course. It was my personal favorite course as it had every surface in 3.1 that you could imagine. Sidewalk, road, deep white sand, hard packed sand, water, dirt trail, and road.
The morning started with an amazing sunrise over the Atlantic with a nice cool February Florida breeze. Steve Shomo, who is the regional BRS lead was our local race director. We love working with locals who have a passion for minimal and barefoot running. He was no exception. He had amazing volunteers ready to go as well as some great local sponsors. Some of them were 100% Living(www.100percentliving.com), a cool clothing line with a message of getting outside as well as taking care of where we recreate! The Clog Shop, a local store that sells tons of minimalist footwear. First Place Sports came out and demoed some Altra's! Drink Chia(www.drinkchia.com) a national sponsor with a great chia seed drink. There was a street performer playing and selling homemade didgeridoo's! Cool atmosphere set under the trees about 200 yards from the ocean. Steve did a great job creating the laid back atmosphere that all of the NF5K's will have.
The race was run by around 100 runners. Probably about 30% bare, 30% minimally shod, and 30% shod in normal running gear. Not sure about the other 10%, haha. In any case, for a beach run there werent as many totally bare as our other runs but it's cool because by the end there were people who started with shoes taking them off and running with them in hand.
The course started on pavement, went out on the beach for a half mile out in thick white sand(tough running here), and back on the hard pack by the water. Most runners were hitting their stride on the hard pack it looked like. After the ocean section there was a 1/2 mile on pavement and road that brought the runners to the trail section. I was taking pictures and video on the ocean and then hurried to get some shots on the trails. Side note: Lauren, Steve and I ran the course bare the day before and this section of trail might be the coolest singletrack I have done barefoot, ever! Once on the trail the runners had a few small up and downs, some stair sections and then they were back on the pavement for the last 1/2 mile. We got some good pics and vid that we will post on our site, www.thenakedfoot5k.com.
The run went without incident except for one finish line crash. Someone tripped trying to kick hard but no major damage was done. The post race was well attended and everyone hung out and did some foot painting, checking out booths, and playing BareBall, a game we invented solely for the races.
We are super excited to come back next year and have some awesome things up our sleeve to make St Auggy the "barefoot capital of the world"! Think, barefoot seasonal brews, bare mini golf tourney, and more!!!
Hope this review was helpful and we would love to hear what some participants thought!
Date Reviewed: 02/07/2012
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 2 Above Average
Location:
Anastasia State Park
AIA
St Augustine, FL
See map: Google Maps
Disclaimer: This review is being done by the co-founder of The Naked Foot 5k series so any biases are based on the fact that the reviewer is biased!
St Augustine, WOW! That could be the end of the review and would suffice. The wow is for the people, the city, and the site of the course. It was my personal favorite course as it had every surface in 3.1 that you could imagine. Sidewalk, road, deep white sand, hard packed sand, water, dirt trail, and road.
The morning started with an amazing sunrise over the Atlantic with a nice cool February Florida breeze. Steve Shomo, who is the regional BRS lead was our local race director. We love working with locals who have a passion for minimal and barefoot running. He was no exception. He had amazing volunteers ready to go as well as some great local sponsors. Some of them were 100% Living(www.100percentliving.com), a cool clothing line with a message of getting outside as well as taking care of where we recreate! The Clog Shop, a local store that sells tons of minimalist footwear. First Place Sports came out and demoed some Altra's! Drink Chia(www.drinkchia.com) a national sponsor with a great chia seed drink. There was a street performer playing and selling homemade didgeridoo's! Cool atmosphere set under the trees about 200 yards from the ocean. Steve did a great job creating the laid back atmosphere that all of the NF5K's will have.
The race was run by around 100 runners. Probably about 30% bare, 30% minimally shod, and 30% shod in normal running gear. Not sure about the other 10%, haha. In any case, for a beach run there werent as many totally bare as our other runs but it's cool because by the end there were people who started with shoes taking them off and running with them in hand.
The course started on pavement, went out on the beach for a half mile out in thick white sand(tough running here), and back on the hard pack by the water. Most runners were hitting their stride on the hard pack it looked like. After the ocean section there was a 1/2 mile on pavement and road that brought the runners to the trail section. I was taking pictures and video on the ocean and then hurried to get some shots on the trails. Side note: Lauren, Steve and I ran the course bare the day before and this section of trail might be the coolest singletrack I have done barefoot, ever! Once on the trail the runners had a few small up and downs, some stair sections and then they were back on the pavement for the last 1/2 mile. We got some good pics and vid that we will post on our site, www.thenakedfoot5k.com.
The run went without incident except for one finish line crash. Someone tripped trying to kick hard but no major damage was done. The post race was well attended and everyone hung out and did some foot painting, checking out booths, and playing BareBall, a game we invented solely for the races.
We are super excited to come back next year and have some awesome things up our sleeve to make St Auggy the "barefoot capital of the world"! Think, barefoot seasonal brews, bare mini golf tourney, and more!!!
Hope this review was helpful and we would love to hear what some participants thought!
