Blood Lubricates the Wound

Today I ran my first half marathon as a runner. I did the Carlsbad half marathon 10 years ago or so and barely ran at all, I was so out of shape and heavy.
Today was a completely different story. Same course as ten years ago but it just flew by.

Leading up to the race I had hopes of coming in at a sub 2 hour time, but I got injured playing soccer one and a half weeks ago. Since my injury I haven't been able to train at all. So I hadn't ran for two full weeks and only got back to walking normal this last Wednesday. I was quite nervous starting the race because I had no idea how my leg was going to respond.
I started out at a 10 minute pace to test out my leg and it felt good so I bumped it up to 9:30-9:45. I kept this pace for most of the first half of the 13.1 mile course. Then around mile 8 I was feeling good and a woman marathoner started to pass me at a 8:40 pace so I matched her for the remainder of the race and came in with a time of 2:02, according to my watch. My mind was so knackered that I didn't even look at the big time clock.
Around mile 5 my Vibram FiveFingers started to wear the skin off of my right instep. I messed with it for a second but didn't want to get out of the groove. So I let the shoe wear it down so the blood could just build up a lubrication layer and I didn't feel it anymore after mile 7 or so.

I'm pleased that I could go out and run very close to my goal time while "injured" and without training.

Special thanks to Ryan & Kristina for driving and cheering me on at the finish line...awesome experience!

Running a lot, barefoot...well almost.

Wow, it's been a long time since I last posted. Since then we've had Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. I've been so busy that the time just flew away.

I found out that I am signed up to run on a team in the Ragnar in April. Ragnar is a 12 person relay foot race of about 200 miles (about 16.5 miles/person). It goes from Huntington Beach to San Diego and I am super excited about participating. Just looking at all the information on the website (http://www.ragnarrelay.com/race/southerncalifornia) has jumpstarted my running schedule and my drive to get out there in the sub-freezing temperatures of Ramona at 5am.

For the first time in my life I am starting a long term, 15 week, training program to culminate with the race on April 15th. I am already finding the joys of running and being free in the wilderness of Ramona. There are some really cool places if you just take all those trails that you never gave a second thought about which jut off the main trail. All of a sudden you are ALONE and won't see anyone else for an hour or two.

Since August I have only ran in my Vibram Five Finger KSO's. I plan on never running in "regular" shoes again and have nothing but praise for the 5fingers.
I plan on posting regularly as my training progresses and I experience new "running" type things that I've never experienced before.

In this new year get out there and try something new or push yourself in a way you've never done before.

Keeping my sole's on the ground, and running forward,
-Kori