I Believe…I Can Run A 100 Mile Race Without Training – Part 3: Race Report(s)

Back in April, right before the start of my first 100k at the Free State Trail 100k, I was sitting on the ground tying my Luna Sandal Leadville’s, and a dude walks up to me and asks how they were working out for me. I replied I was pretty new to them, at least for trails, but they seemed to suffice and cover my gripes with other minimalist foot gear. As I continued the chat with this guy, his name being Joe Prusaitis, I found out is not only the race director of the Rocky Raccoon 100 and many others, but also a highly experienced ultra runner himself, running as crazy as the infamously difficult Badwater Ultramarathon. He was really nice, giving me pointers and what not. Flash forward to my decision to run a 100 miler, and meeting him that day guided me to this race. That and I FLUV the Beatles. Continue reading

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From Never Running to an Ultramarathon in a Year: Part Last

4 Days after my first Ultra I was recovered and not sore. The night of the 50 miler, I was not able to move very well. The following day, I was limping, but by day 3, I was almost running fully at the valet job. Remember, I hadn’t run in months by this time, with the exception of a few medium runs and a single 15 miler. Which made me wonder: was it valet that made it possible for me to do these races with no outside running? Was it the barefoot/minimalist running as well? I don’t know. Valet was only sprinting off and on and it was only twice a week. But in the 50 miler, and the running hard at the end, it made me wonder if I could go faster to begin with. I wondered if sprinting in valet was some sort of training I did not know about. If you could call that training. But I also wondered about the Vibram Five Fingers and barefoot running. How much did that affect things? All of my running injuries had stopped cold turkey when I dropped the shoes. And although I did have growing pains in barefooting, which can be expected, as well as over doing it problems, those past races were not that hard on my body and I think it has to do with the feet! Now I am really curious about possibility!

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Part 17: 9.5 Months After Losing Da Shoes: The Kansas City Marathon

October 16th, 2010
The excitement was in the air. Chad and I got up uber early, hit some oatmeal with some whey protein added to it, based on a suggestion. Figured I could test that today. Why not? An hour later, we both hit some chia seeds with some honey and lime. Yummy. Off to the race!

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Part 14: Worn

By mid July, my leg rehab was over. My legs were not hurting during runs. My legs were not hurting after runs. No calf ache, nothing. It was awesome. I had returned to being able to run at least 10 miles any day, what I wanted to do once I went minimal. But now it seemed easier. Now I wondered how much I could do. It was time to turn up the distance.

So I went 3 hours. Continue reading

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