Well, it is night time now after the Gold Coast Marathon, and what a day! It has been a big journey to get to this point! It all started about 9months ago when I decided to transition to barefoot running and sandal running. I have slowly but surly built up my distances barefoot and everything came to a spear head today.
I was a little cautious coming up to race day, as I hadn't run quite as long as I would have liked to barefoot in training. I have been training long in my sandals and bare so, really, training for two different events at the same time. My longest training run barefoot had been 30km so after that it was the unknown.
We arrived at the start line after seeing Tegan and Brett off in the half marathon. I was to be pacing Matty Roberts in his first marathon and looked forward to the challenge ahead. The gun went off and we were into it! We started pretty quick and rolled along nicely. The crowds and people running were very interested in the 'barefoot man' and I had many cheers and conversations along the way. Matty got a few to running in his 'thongs'! People are funny! Ha! For the first half marathon we averaged under 5min 30sec per km! Quick to start and especially for Mattys first marathon. The first half rolled over in 1hr 55min. I was quietly worried about how quick we had begun but knew that Matt had trained hard and was up for the challenge.
Matty started to drop back at about the 23, 24km mark. I could see that he was doing it a bit tough and having a rough spot. We spoke about it and decided to slow back a bit so Matt could get back to feeling a bit better. We ran along still under 6min pace and things were going pretty good.
Getting near the 30k mark, my feet started to get pretty tender. The white line became my good friend and where possible I stuck to it. This is generally the smoothest part of the road and felt NICE! We saw our support crew at about the 32k mark and said a quick Gday and gave a few kisses out.
We took off again much slower and decided to do our best to run to each aid station and then have a little walk for a short distance while taking on fluid and fuel. This wasn't a bad plan for me as I was feeling the pinch as my feet were SORE! We managed to keep this up for the rest of the run and Matty did really well. We were pretty steady and my feet were bloody sore but we kept on keeping on and finished the race in 4hours and 6minutes. We had some ripper celebrations in the finishing chute and really enjoyed the moment. What an effort for a first marathon MATT! I am so proud of you Matt, you did an amazing job and just kept on chugging! Once going through the finishing chute, I was then grabbed by the Gold Coast Bulletin press and got some pics for the paper! YES!
All in all it was a ripper day and everyone did so well. I am so very proud of everyone who ran especially our crew with Tegan and Brett both doing around 2hrs 10min for the half. Top job!
So, my thoughts on my first barefoot marathon. Let me just say that it was BLOODY HARD!!! My body and legs aren't and wern't even that sore, but the tenderness in my feet just drained me of every ounce of energy I had. It was just like everything I had was being sucked through my naked feet! It was an amazing, awesome and such a worth while experience but one that I probably won't do again for a while. I will continue to run bare on grass 3-4times a week and now concentrate on the sandals. Good times! Such a rewarding experience and I can now officially be called BAREFOOT GRILLS!!! TOPS! A great weekend!
On the updates...the 12week challenge has started very well! I had my weigh in this week before coming away and at the start of the challenge (only two weeks ago) I weighed in at 88.3kg. When I weighed in this week I was 82.9kg! YES! So stoked with that much off in such a short time! I am aiming to now be under 80kg by Flinders Tour (four weeks away) and will do my best to smash that up!
As this is also mid year (6months) some of you would remember that I had a goal this year of trying to average 100km per week for the year. So at this point, here are some stats...
This year to date...2560.6km! On track for the goal!
I have, since September last year done the following...
1062km Barefoot
1033km in my Leadville Luna Sandals
1787km in my home made Luna Sandals
Some good k's with a lot more to do.
Tomorrow also marks 10weeks until the Glasshouse 100mile race. I have set myself some pretty serious training and diet goals, stepping things right up! I am aiming to do a minimum of 100miles a week in training for the full ten weeks and eat REALLY clean for the ENTIRE 10 weeks with no compromise! As I said I have started my 12week challenge well but it is time to STEP UP CRAZY style! Ill keep ya all posted on my progress of course!
Well all that is about it for this weeks ramblings! I hope and pray that you are all doing super and loving life! I thank you all for your support and love in my journeys and crazy ideas! I am sure that there will be plenty more so watch out! Sweet! Love each other, run free and Ill catch ya soon! TattooRunner
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