Join myself and other barefoot/minimalist runners on 24 April 2010 at the Energy Events Earth Day Run in Portland, OR.  What better venue to arrive in numbers and run as we are made to run?  There are 5K and 10K races, stroller friendly, dog friendly, and kids runs as well.  I’ll be there with my rickshaw!

http://www.energyevents.com/EarthDayRun

The combination of winning a free entry to the Fort Vancouver Runs from OregonLive.com on 28 March, and my daughter asking to go to another race for her 4th birthday this weekend, meant a wonderful barefoot morning with dad and daughters on Sunday.  The girls are getting a little big for their rickshaw but I have the next generation ride in the works.  I did the 15K but I think that on this race my passengers would have preferred the 10K.  After my run it was balloon animals and other kids fare until the 1K kids’ fun run.  My 4 year old did great in her purple minimalist running slippers, running the full distance for the first time and one of the only kids out there with perfect human running form.  I even met another local barefooter, although he was in his “Clark Kent” disguise as a spectator wearing some running shoes :)

I asked my daughters what their favorite part of the day was and my oldest said “the whole thing!”  Good times.

I’m thankful for all of the support I had in the One Day Run for Hunger.  With the help of a great many we raised $1045 for the Oregon Food Bank, and as chance would have it this matched exactly my goal of $10/mile as I logged 104.5 miles in those 24 hours.  That was good enough to take home a plaque for 4th place.  I had a great support crew, from my father who was there from setup to pack up, friends who came out to support me through the morning and afternoon, and my wife who stayed all night and joined me for 12 miles in her Vibram Five Fingers.  I was also pleased to see supportive messages during the run from people cheering me on through the internet.  When the run got very tough late in the night, all of that positivity really kept me going.  In the end there was just too much sharp gravel to make an attempt at a fully barefoot run, and I wore Vibram Five Fingers for the majority of the race.  I did put in a few miles early in the race running barefoot on that beautiful sunny day around Lake Sacajawea.

I’m working on my race report, I think there’s much worth sharing from the run, but I wanted to get the word out here that I surivived, and my feet did too as shown after the race!

And a barefoot running story to boot!  Check out the great Tail Winds cover shot by Brad Jones at RB Jones Photography, and the articles on pages 10 and 11 about Max and my 109 mile ride of El Tour de Tucson and my record barefoot running of the Dean Karnazes Rock n Roll 50k.

Here’s the direct link

(For the record, we don’t know any circus songs and Vibram Five Fingers are not “just like running barefoot”)

[Update 1: Minor text updates and added write up to this post instead of just linking to the original post]

Recently there was a study by Dr. David Carrier on the efficiency of different foot positions while walking, most notably a heel-strike vs a forefoot strike.  The results showed that heel striking was more efficient than forefoot striking while walking.  Many, particularly in the barefoot community, disagreed with some of his methods and results.  In particular the choice of a forefoot strike that did not have the heel drop fully to the ground struck many as different than the forefoot strike that they might use with the heel dropping completely to the ground.

I did a little experiment to begin looking at these questions that have been raised.  The initial experiment was very small, just a cursory look at the question, but it replicated Carrier’s results and gave an initial answer to the question of whether an alternate footstrike would have shown different results.  In this preliminary experiment, a heel strike walking gait was more efficient than a forefoot strike with or without the heel contacting the ground, and there was not a significant difference between efficiency of a forefoot strike with and without the heel contacting the ground.

This article at present is placeholder for one that I intend to expand upon with a less hurried experiment, analysis, and write-up than I post here, but for now here is a cleaned up copy of post where I quickly describe it, after the jump.

“Some new science about how we evolved to walk”

Very quick write up of a very quick experiment.

Short version:  In my own little experiment heel strike was more
efficient than ball-heel-ball or the low-digitgrade from Carrier’s
paper, while the ball-heel-ball and low-digitgrade did not
significantly differ.  One subject with three measurements on three
gaits.

Long version:

Heart rate monitor used to measure energy expenditure on treadmill set
to 3.5mph.

Heel-strike (plantigrade), Ball-heel-ball, and Forefoot strike (low-
digitgrade) compared.

3 minute warmup on each, one minute of observation with 3 data points
at 30 second intervals, 3 minute seated rest between observations.

ANOVA comparison of bpm by gait, bpm was significantly affected by
gait.

Mean(sd) of each:
Heel strike:  102.33(1.53)
Ball-heel-ball:  115.33(2.08)
Forefoot strike:  117.67(2.08)

T-test for pairwise comparisons.
Heel strike v. ball-heel-ball:  p=0.0014
Heel strike v. Forefoot:  p=0.0008
Ball-heel-ball v. Forefoot:  p=0.2417

Heel strike was significantly lower than either ball-heel-ball or
forefoot, while ball-heel-ball and forefoot did not significantly
differ.

It turns out that January’s barefoot 50K at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Ultra 50K with a time of 4:14:52 was enough to earn the title of “World Record” for fastest barefoot 50K kept on Barefoot Ken Bob’s Running Barefoot site.

I have to admit, this didn’t even occur to me, even when I realized that my run had a place on his results page, until Ken Bob responded by pointing out that it was the fastest on record.  This got me wondering, what am I really capable of as a barefoot ultrarunner?

At this month’s One Day Run For Hunger, I will be running barefoot/minimalist for 24 hour hours to raise money to fight hunger in our communities.  I’ve run a 100 mile mountainous trail ultramarathon in Vibram Five Fingers, so I’m confident that I have what it takes to run at least 100 miles in 24 hours without running shoes.  My question becomes: how far can I go barefoot?

Long ultramarathons are already full of unknowns.  Adding in the factor of extending my barefoot mileage would increase those unknowns, but could well earn me a world record for farthest barefoot run in a 24 hour timed event.

There are challenges that I would not have included if I set this up to set a world record.  Existing records have been set on smooth cushy tracks, while this is a groomed trail with a stretch of gravel on the loop course I’m a bit concerned about.  I’ve done gravel on similar courses without issue, but I don’t know how happy I would be happy to run over it 100 times.

Tell me what you think.  Play it safe or set the bar high?  As I’ve already said, I will be toeing the line barefoot and running the whole thing without shoes.  I already have it in mind to see what I can do with just me feet.  But I’m curious to hear from you.

Let me know here, on the Facebook group, or even on the One Day Run For Hunger fund raising page.

Beginning on the morning of Saturday 20 March 2010, I will be running for 24 hours at the Pacific Rim One Day Run raising money to fight hunger.  I will be toeing the line barefoot, and will run the whole race without shoes.  I hope to run 100 miles, and raise $10 per mile.  Contributions will go to the Oregon Food Bank through Firstgiving.

Can you sponsor one or more  miles to help me reach my goal of raising $1000 for the hungry in our communities?

Visit One Day Run For Hunger at http://www.firstgiving.com/onedayrunforhunger

Thanks!

I have a small part in CNN’s take on the barefoot running debate, in between discussion of Dr. Lieberman’s article showing barefoot style running land with lower impact forces and Dr. Carrier’s article showing that our heel strike walking gait is more efficient than the forefoot strikes of other nearby species.

The quotes are pretty heavily paraphrased and out of context.  I must say, if I didn’t know I took part in the interview I’m not sure I’d recognize the words attributed to me!

After exchanging a few emails with Kelly Johnson from the OregonLive.com’s Run Oregon blog, a nice write up about my development as a barefoot runner was posted this weekend.  I think Kelly did about as good a job as any I’ve seen on discussing the topic, as well as my reasoning for and experience with it.  Enjoy!

Interview with Oregon barefoot Runner Leif Rustvold

Add to the list of forthcoming race reports this weekend’s Inaugural Dean Karnazes Rock ‘n’ Roll Ultra 50K, part of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Marathon events. Briefly, it was a well planned and executed 50K, even if it was a bit odd to do our extra 4.85 miles at the start and then line up with the other runners for the regular marathon start. It was nice to have the ultra-amenities as could be provided to the smaller 50K group, including mingling with the run’s namesake himself. Dean Karnazes seems like a stand up guy, although he sticks pretty close to his Ultramarathon Man shtick. I thought he might be interested in chatting with another runner pushing the boundaries, as it seems to me a barefoot ultramarathoner is doing, but it seemed like a distinct non-subject to this North Face sponsored shoe endorsing running personality. That said, he gave me a fist bump and a sincere “good race man” after I came through the finish a few moments after him, with a glance at the not-to-be-mentioned bare feet. The race itself was enjoyable and well planned. A nice tour of the Phoenix metropolitan area, good replenishment along the course, enjoyable bands, and spectator presence throughout the course. The marathon environment pushed me to run harder than I usually do in the more relaxed ultra environment, and I set a PR by an impressive margin. I exceeded my best expected time of 4:30 to come in just under 4:15. My feet treated me well, with only some rough asphalt in the last blocks giving me any real pause. Rather my legs and general energy stores ran low before my soles did, leading me to slow a bit in the last miles. Not having my feet be the limiting factor in a barefoot 50K was an exciting testament to the ability to run extreme distances without shoes. At the end of the race, I relaxed with a beverage that it would be overly generous to call “beer”, provided free to race participants, and listened to the live musical stylings of my hometown’s Everclear. Friend and photographer Brad Jones was on hand to document the run for an upcoming article in Tailwinds magazine. All in all it was a very pleasant visit to Arizona, an enjoyable race, and I left with a great sense of accomplishment with my first barefoot ultramarathon performance.

On Thanksgiving 2009, my family went to the Portland Zoo for our third three-generation running and walking of the Turkey Trot.  Below you can see me, ready with the rickshaw, and my father saying some last words to my girls before we took off running.  Despite the look in the picture, they actually can see out with the rain cover on the chariot!

And, of course, I ran the 4 mile fun-run barefoot.  It was cooler than other runs I had done to date, but I’d been spending plenty of time out and about barefoot as Fall settled here in Oregon so I was ready.

The course begins with a slight uphill, and then about a mile of steep downhill before turning around and charging back up that hill and into the zoo for the finish.  I positioned myself toward the back of the starting lineup, answered questions about running barefoot for the curious runners, and then we were off!

Starting so far back in the crowd, it wasn’t long before we were seeing people coming the other way on their way back from the turnaround point.  It was entertaining, as I’d never had a chance to hear so many people’s first response to seeing me.  People around me usually first noticed the rickshaw, as I pull about 100 extra pounds between the hardware and my daughters, and then add “annnnd … he’s barefoot.”  Runners coming at me from the front uniformly have one word bubble out of their mouth.  ”Barefoot!”

Going down the hill with the crowd, I had to hold the weight of the rickshaw back.  Especially after runners started coming back the other way there was little room for passing.  Finally we made it to the bottom, I raced past the water stop, and started working up that hill.  Running up a big hill pulling all that extra weight is quite a challenge, and my whole body responded like I was running a sustained sprint.  That said, a couple I know from the Oregon Trail Ultramarathon Series ran with me a bit and I was able to sustain an effortful conversation before they continued on past me.  It always feels good to rise to a challenge.  All that hard work, with the weight and the climbing, was noticeable on my feet too.  I took great joy in stomping barefoot in puddles as I found them.

Finally I crested the hill and began the descent into the zoo.  Twists and tuns through the familiar sites, and I finish in 46 minutes and change.  It’s hard to interpret that time, what with the multiple unique challenges of the run, but I know I had a great time and pushed my limits.

Now it was time for our new tradition of the kids run.  I put my cold feet into Vibram Five Fingers, and my father and I took my two girls for their first race with both of them running.  The younger made it back to the finish first, but the older ran more of the course.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

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!

This is part three in a four part report on my recent barefoot/minimalist running.  The first part detailed my unshod journey - how I took off my shoes.  The second part was a detailed race report of the “Hundred in the Hood” in Vibrams,  in which I ran the PCT Ultra 100 Mile Endurance Run wearing Vibram Five Fingers.  This post provides a detailed race report of my barefoot running of the Portland Marathon.  The fourth and final post will give my less detailed impressions of reaching these two minimalist accomplishments on back-to-back weekends and where I see myself going from here.  I hope you enjoy the race report!

One week after running the “Hundred in the Hood” PCT100, my feet seemed ready to run again.  I had come out with a couple of blisters right behind the toes that were my main concern.  But after a week they had recovered to a point that they were not going to stop me from going down to the Portland Marathon start line.  I was positively non-committal about finishing.  I had run the marathon as little as two weeks after a 100 mile trail run, but cutting that recovery time in half for my tired body and battle worn feet to set out on my first barefoot marathon was not something that I was sure I could do.  I saw myself finishing, but I wasn’t committing to it.

The morning of 4 October 2009 came, race day.  I got online and saw reference to lots of rain.  It had rained all morning but the hours of the race still looked like good weather.  I made sure I had a jacket, and wondered how the wet streets would affect my run.  I have done all of my barefoot training in Summer.  Mostly in the Summer of 2009 when I set out on a training plan to get my feet and form ready for a barefoot marathon, but also all of my other attempts at barefoot running.  All in all I wasn’t too concerned.

I make it downtown, park at the local university when I see the usual backup of traffic with marathoners trying to park as close to the start as possible, and start making my final decisions.  Rain?  No.  Leave the jacket.  Race “chip” loop thingy?  Use the zip tie I’ve positioned on my left ankle.  Drop bag to wear sweats to and from the start/finish?  No.  I head down to the start ready to race.

The conversations start immediately.  A group of Japanese girls make comments I can’t understand and give off a flurry of surprised laughs.  People ask me if I’m running the whole way barefoot.  People ask me if I trained barefoot.  People ask me why, Why, WHY?  I do my best to answer with levity and humor.  One woman says her son has Vibram Five Fingers and will be thrilled to hear about me.  A woman with an Australian accent shouts the name of a barefoot runner - I didn’t hear which one but she said “he was a famous barefoot runner!”  I find my way to the lineup of runners, position myself near the 4:15 pace group, and settle into longer conversations with the runners around me.  I’m near a man who has run one marathon in Southern California and has come to Portland with a friend for this marathon.  I discover that mentioning last weekend’s 100 mile run doesn’t feel like the right way to proceed in conversation.  Many things about today are new.

As the start approaches, people start jumping the fence to get into position.  Up until this point the cold of the street on my feet has been my main concern, but now I’m worried about somebody landing on my toes.  We all get into place without incident, and we hear the first firing of the start gun.  And another.  And another.  We’re starting in waves.  Finally our section of runners is moving and I cross the chip-reading mat.  I start the stopwatch on my phone and we’re off.

The cold wet road feels funny on my feet.  I can’t tell if I feel more or less than usual.  I hope that I’m not altering my form as a result because that could make for a long day.  Temperature changes have caused me to blister before due to changes in running form.  I settle into my pace and stop worrying.  Things are feeling good.  The questions pick up again now that the runners are mingling past each other.  I discover that when somebody asks if I’ve run a marathon barefoot before, and I say “no”, that this seems to let them totally ignore me as somebody else’s problem.  A couple of miles into the run I’ve made it into some real conversation.  A woman goes beyond the “are you running all the way barefoot” and “have you done this before” to ask the meaty question “why?”  I explain about how we’re made to run, how shoes are largely incompatible with that way of running, and my desire to avoid injuries.  Another runner saddles up beside me.  Avoid injuries?  What do I think about shin splints?  Am I concerned about staff infection?  I do my best to answer these questions, and get into another great conversation.  This woman is an assistant track coach, and seems interested in my combination of reasoning and applied experience.  We chat a bit more, giving the brief runner biographies that get exchanged during a marathon, and then part ways again.  A man and woman in orange ask me if I’m making a point by running barefoot.  I say no and ask if they’re making a point by running in orange.  They say no, but say that I should do this to raise money for a cause.  They seem experienced in such things and I tell them about the blog.  A man who seemed to think that some barefoot runners on the Run Hit Wonder 10K were crazy points out that at least the street is wet for me, providing less friction.  I point out that the goal is to set the foot down and lift it up, that friction was not a real concern with proper form.  He points out that it will be better for me because there is less friction.  A woman is very excited to run with Barefoot Guy (the whole town seems to have got together and agreed that this is what they would call me).  She shouts at her son to take pictures of us together as we pass him.  A man who has read Christopher McDougal’s Born To Run takes the opportunity to question a living breathing barefoot runner.  People on the side of the road are very excited about Barefoot Guy.  A woman asks why I’m barefoot and believes me when I joke that I forgot my shoes.  A man talks to me about meditation retreats, seeming to sense that Barefoot Guy has something in common with him that many other runners don’t.  I try to respond to positive and original comments throughout the day.  I cross paths with the assistant coach again, and we settle into conversation in its long form.  We chat about all things marathon and plenty of things barefoot along the industrial out-and-back, through NW Portland, and onto St. Helens Rd.  We pass the half way mark and make it a couple more miles toward St. Johns Bridge.  Many of the routine comments go unanswered as we are engrossed in conversation.  Finally I need to make a pit stop and she continues on.

So far my run has been uneventful aside from the unique conversations.  The coldness of my feet passes and I seem to adjust fine to the wet road.  I’m not too tired from last weekend’s run, and seem to be maintaining a steady pace (looking at my results afterward would support this, I was like a metronome).  I was feeling some body friction that I worried would alter my form, but some petroleum jelly took care of that.  I wished I had a steady supply of carbs to insure my fuel level, but I seemed to be doing fine.  People are slowing down on the approach to the St. Johns Bridge, but I’m just getting warmed up.  I start a lot of passing.  The results stat page would say I passed 797 people after the half-marathon mark and 31 passed me.  Looking back I can believe it.  I didn’t get much faster but I think a lot of people started slowing down.  I’m looking forward to the stretch from the St. Johns Bridge to mile 21 or so where a lot of pictures will be taken.

Now that I’m a good ways into the run there doesn’t seem to be the doubt that people had at the start.  I hear a lot more people calling me crazy though.  There are great crowds over here and they’re all very excited about Barefoot Guy.  I try to return the favor.  As people start hitting the wall I hear more comments from those around me.  Some say “at least I’m not barefoot like that guy.”  Some say “even Barefoot Guy is doing better than me!”  I get used to a wide range of exclamations as people realize they’ve been passed by Barefoot Guy.  Some say “how’s being barefoot treating you?”  And I say, “fine, how are those shoes treating you?”  Some say just fine, some say not so fine.  I ask if they’ve thought of taking them off.  And of course there are plenty of people on the sidelines saying “OWWWW” or “doesn’t that hurt?”  I laugh it off and tell them “it’s like a massage!”  As I pass 20 miles though, the furthest I’ve run barefoot, I can tell my feet are starting to get tender.  Nothing that bothers me, and good interactions with the crowd and runners can distract me from the tenderness.  I’m happy to be approaching the final stretch of the marathon though.

By mile 23 I’m working for each mile I run.  I’m still having good conversations and running fine, but the soles of my feet have become the limiting factor in my run.  Suddenly I don’t find it so funny when people say how much running barefoot must hurt.  Not that its at all unbearable, but I realize that everybody else is told “you can do it”, “you’re awesome”, and “you’re almost there!”  I’m getting “doesn’t that hurt”, “OWWWWW”, and “you’re crazy!”  The equivalent would be if they said to the other runners “aren’t your legs tired?”, “I’ll bet you want to stop running”, and “aren’t you tired?”  Why is it OK to demotivate Barefoot Guy?  I start yelling back at them.  ”Is that supportive?” or “Is that what I want to hear?”  I wonder if my nickname is about to change to Barefoot Dick.  One of the runners I’ve changed places with for 10 miles or so comes up beside me and jokes “you do know about the 0.2 miles of hot coals and glass at the end, right?”  We laugh about it and I ask if there will be syringes too.  I’m beginning to slow down as the last mile is on particularly rough pavement and some of those 31 people probably pass me at this point.  But the crowd is now thick and they’re very excited about Barefoot Guy.  There’s only two more turns, and it seems that with every step the crowd is getting larger.  My pace picks up again, I know how close I am, I have the smile of a person about to complete a momentous goal.  I’m not charging ahead trying to come in ahead of any additional runners I am able to.  I’m just happy to cruise into the finish.

And finish I do.  In about 4:10.  I don’t hear my name called.  I don’t hear what I had written in the comments of my race registration.  That this is my 10th Portland Marathon and my first barefoot marathon.  But that doesn’t take away the fact that I have indeed made this accomplishment.  I get my medal, space blanket, pin, and take a bottle of chocolate milk.  I notice  that I’ve got blisters on my toes.  That’s never happened before, but it doesn’t hurt and this whole thing is a learning process.  I decide that instead of grazing on the food at the finish I’ll head home to share this time with my family.  It seems to take forever to make it out of the fenced off finish area, but I finally do and am among the finishers scattering out across town.  A couple tells me that they ran a half marathon the weekend before.  I decide I can mention again the race I ran the weekend before too.

I’ve run many marathons and even more ultramarathons.  This would have been a rather routine marathon at a training pace if I hadn’t decided to follow through and run it barefoot.  It was not my plan to run a marathon the week after a 100 mile trail run, but the result of chance.  I was signed up for the Angeles Crest 100 Mile Endurance Run until it was canceled due to wildfires.   The PCT100 was scheduled for the next week, and I was happy to be able to run it.  I expected my first barefoot marathon to get pushed to my next marathon, but not being one to arbitrarily say “I can’t” I decided to try this marathon anyways.  I’m very happy I did.  As a pair these two runs have convinced me just what great things we are capable of as we are made!