I’ve recovered from my “feats of the feet” back to back minimalist/barefoot adventures in late September and early October.  I still have my final reflections on those runs as a pair that I’m working on, part 4 in my 4 part series, but it’s a hard one for me.

Fall is here in earnest.  My wife suggested doing the Run Like Hell event here in Portland.  It seemed like a good chance to do a barefoot half marathon, and why not do it pulling my girls in a rickshaw?  We made it a family affair, with my son in the stroller that my wife pushed.  With her in her Vibrams and I with bare feet, we were quite a presence.  Last week we did the Catalyst Challenge 10K by Reason to Run, so we had our whole family race day routine down.

(photo by Reason to Run)

I look forward to finding some pictures from today.  The Run Like Hell event is halloween themed, and I asked myself what a barefoot guy pulling a rickshaw should go as?  Deciding to stay clearly in the bounds of political correctness, most people suggesting an ethnic costume, I opted for Fred Flintstone.  It went over great.

Now, you might say that pulling a ~100lb cart on a hilly half marathon makes for a pretty tough day, and I’m not going to disagree with you there.  But why not go for a 50 mile unicycle ride the day before?  And why not do that the morning after an evening of perhaps too exuberant celebration?  It was not the most restful of weekends in our home.

Despite all of that the run went great.  I had no point of reference for how I would do.  I’d never raced a half marathon.  I’d never gone that far with the rickshaw.  I’d never unicycled to exhaustion after an equal portion of exuberant celebration before my main event of the weekend.  And in the end I exceeded my highest expectations about how I would do.  I was not reduced to walking over the big hill in the second half, I did not face mutiny from the girls I had in tow (although one did try to rally the other into rebellion).  I finished in 2:10.  It was a reinforcement of the message that crosses my mind somewhere in the course of each activity that Distance Minimally is about.  We can do more than we think we can.

A shout out to my friend Ben who gave support on those successes.  We spotted each other at the start of the race and spontaneously ran together for the event. He befriended my daughters and helped to entertain them when they grew restless.  He gave encouragement when the large hills began to wear me down.  By the end he was jumping invisible hurdles to keep the girls occupied.  Top notch.

And now, I’m less than a month away from my next Big Event.  The 109 mile El Tour de Tucson, which I will be completing with riding partner (and fellow Bastard [PG-13]) Max.  Then the Rock n Roll Arizona Marathon in January will kick off my 2010 calendar.  After this unique and successful year, and with some unique opportunities (such as automatic entry into Western States) and date changes next year (such as Angeles Crest more or less conflicting with Where’s Waldo), 2010 will have some big changes in my schedule and goals compared to recent years.  I might try some new races, and look forward to growing as a barefoot runner.

But the greatest additions to my race routine are the family races we’ve been doing.  I look forward to more of these fun-for-all events!