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.

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!