Martinsville Half Report: Tights

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Barefoot Josh

There’s nothing quite like the anxiety of waiting for pictures from the race in which you wore tights publicly for the first time. I think all things functioned properly in a wardrobe sense, and the bright neon orange Umstead Duck Shirt certainly helped train the eyes of onlookers upward.

The weather felt warmer than the sub-thirties in the forecast, and apparently it was. Almost ten-degrees warmer. I considered taking off the Vapors, but doing so would still be pushing my cold-tolerance levels. I also considered just wearing socks (or the Sockiplasts), but with the tights it looked like I was wearing footy pyjamas. I don’t know, maybe that could become a thing, but I don’t think the time for the footy pyjama aesthetic has yet come. So I went with the Vapors (the black ones; the orange pair of a different hue than the duck shirt, creating a clash) even though I think they’re a trail shoe, and my feet maintained a happy temperature. I think my decision was a good one, because it got considerably colder by the end of the race.

I should note this is at least the third race now where I’ve been outbarefooted. Steve Perkins ran the course au natufoot, and apparently was comfortable the whole way. So maybe I could have run in similar fashion, but I think I would have suffered at least a little. Anyway, congrats Steve! Be sure to work on your soundbites!

The tights were exceptionally comfortable. 2XU Thermal Tights is what they say on the label, and I paid retail for them. By “I” I mean “we,” since money is a fungible commodity in this house. However, 20% of the sale went to Red Dog Farm, a cool place that takes care of all sorts of animals until they can get adopted out. This was all part of a local runner’s charity for the Boston Marathon this year. So I decided to believe in destiny for a moment and came to the conclusion it was meant to be, and bought them. Very pricey, but I don’t really know how to assign value to these things. It was nice not having the flapping fabric, and I never felt too warm. I don’t know if the compression (mild, I’d say) helped in any way performance-wise, since it’s hard to maintain objectivity and perceptive accuracy when you’re dancing precariously close to the red line up and down the hills of Martinsville.

Ooh, the prose is flowery today. What a treat for you!

None of that matters because I don’t know what I look like in them yet. No, mirrors don’t count. Not for me. I have this condition where I have an insurmountable urge to flex my muscles whenever I pass a mirror, accompanied by an eye squint, which has the effect of blurring the harsh lines of reality into something more proportionally pleasing. There’s no cure. Very sad. It is only the truthful capture of the camera that determines the success or failure of an outfit in action. So patiently I wait.

The race went well, by the way. I finished third out of everybody who ran it.

Oh wait! A picture has been posted:

So far, so good… photo by Ricky Scott

OK, that’s not so bad. I don’t look particularly offensive. Like the buff? That I got cheap from a guy I know who knows a guy who knows a guy in China. I just put the thing on my head to cover my ears, and let the excess fabric flow like the mane of a proud lion. Or Bon Jovi in the Living On A Prayer days. Take my hand, we’ll make it! I totally swear!

My finish time was 1:24:17, a 13.1 mile PR by a little over a minute and a half, and a P course R by almost three. I’m quite happy with that, especially so soon after Umstead.

Did you note the gloves, and how they match the shirt? Apparently being a believer in destiny, even if only for a moment, has some perks like fortuitous color coordinations: I was unaware at the time of purchase what color the Umstead shirt would be. I bought the gloves with the tights. Basically, I was hemorrhaging money that day. You should have been there. Too late now, my wallet is all stitched up and I’m back to being my regular cheap, “there’s no such thing as destiny it’s all chaos” self.

This was the third Martinsville Half, and I’ve run every one of them. 1:28:32 the first year, which was a PR by about four minutes at the time. 1:27:15 the next year, faster even though I added a third of a mile with an impromptu outnback. Would have been another PR if I had a decent sense of direction. It’s a tough course, but I seem to do well there. Which is weird, because not only have I never trained for it, but the race is always just three weeks after the Umstead Marathon. Maybe the reason I struggle at Umstead is that I’m actually training for Martinsville without realizing it.

Who knows. Anyway, thank you Martinsville for another great race!

Tough

Posted on March 14, 2013 by Barefoot Josh

“You still running without shoes?” called out a neighbor as I ran by. “You sure are tough!”

“Not tough,” I replied, trying to surpress my gasps of exertion up the hill. “Just very gentle.”

I wish I was tough. Tougher, at least.

Between miles five and six of the Umstead Marathon, I was in fifth place when I was left in the dust by the eventual overall female winner (and new course record holder for the ladies). She finished in 3:03:59. If my abilities matched my secret aspirations, I should have been able to hang with her the whole way. I wasn’t even close.

By mile twenty-three, I had slipped to eighth overall. Another runner caught me going up Cedar Ridge, but he was running at a pace I could match. Physically, anyway. Mentally, I quit. A plaque was a plaque, who cares if it says “8th Place Male” instead of “7th Place Male?” Then another runner caught me. Who cares if the plaque says “9th Place Male” instead of “8th Place Male?”

Whatever mojo I had to finish strong in Ridge to Bridge a year and a half before was nowhere to be found. It seems like many runners train to make their bodies capable of performing the ambitious goals of their strong wills. I train to make my body able to compensate for my lack of will. Sure, there were other obstacles that impeded my efforts, and maybe I’ll write about what I think those were at some point if I think anyone is interested, but the brain is the big one.

The silver lining to this cloud of self-pity is that I’m feeling pretty much recovered from Umstead, so I think I will be able to give a strong effort at the Martinsville Half in a little over a week from now. I haven’t PRd in anything since the beginning of June last year (5K on the Runway, 17:38), and I think I might be able to shave a few seconds off of my fastest half (Mistletoe Half 2011, 1:25:52). That would certainly be a nice way to kick off training for the next marathon, which will be the North Olympic Discovery Marathon in June.

My training plan for NODM will pick up where I left off, with a few adjustments. I will have two goals for that trip out to Port Angeles, WA. Only one of them has to do with the race:

1. New PR. The course is flat. 2:55:00.
2. Find a place to live.

No, we haven’t sold our house. Not yet, and of course we’re hoping we will before the trip. Even if we don’t, so long as our finances accomodate, we’re going to try to sell an empty house from far away. It’s time for us to move, and I’d kind of like to miss another summer of getting eaten by NC bugs. So after the race, we’re going to spend a week looking for a dog-friendly house to rent in Port Angeles. Then we’ll come back, pack a few things (very, very few things), and move on out.

Back to the NODM, it looks like this race will most likely be run with the Vapors. There are long stretches of chip seal and this stuff:

When I ran on this stuff barefoot, Iris was telling me to hurry up.

Someday, maybe. Maybe I’ll be able to more happily handle that stuff without shoes. Hopefully, we’ll be living there soon.

Merrell Vapor Glove: My Last Shoe Review

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Barefoot Josh

That’s it, my work here is done. After this, no more shoe reviews for me. If I get sent any more shoes, I’ll just be annoyed because I’ll feel obligated to try them, and that will cut into barefooting time or, in shoe-preferred situations, Vapor time. The Vapor Glove is all a shoe needs to be. I don’t mean “all” in the sense that it has a bunch of features like bells and whistles and what’s the latest thing out there now? Boost? No, by “all” I mean “that’s all?” Yes. That’s all.

If you squint, it looks like a bare foot with laces.

Flexy-bendy. So nice.

The Vapor’s competitive edge. Eesh, sorry, that was pretty bad.

A thin layer of rubber. That’s all. A thin layer of rubber to take the edge off of points, flexible enough that the foot can bend over and around the roots and rocks, instead of balancing over them on a stiff platform. The Merrell Vapor Glove is a trail running shoe. It is the best trail running shoe. My plan for the Umstead Marathon last weekend, and my backup plan, and the backup to my backup plan, all shared one tactic: race the singletrack easy. In the Vapor Gloves I couldn’t resist the temptation to maintain the momentum of the in-retrospect-too-fast first two miles. Finally, a shoe that felt right on the trails. Sure, as a result my legs retired before the race was done, but what fun that was.

/Umstead #3. Sure, over ten minutes past my goal, but a great trail run.

In my brain, I converse with myself a lot about trade-offs. I don’t believe anything comes without a price. If I run on trails barefoot, I usually enjoy myself but it’s a slow and exhausting experience. A stiff-soled shoe like the Trail Glove allows me to run with greater abandon and therefore faster, and they protect my feet very well from the potentially painful protrusions underfoot, but I never feel like I have any grip and I’m always twisting my ankle sliding off of roots and rocks. The Vapor Glove is thin enough that I can feel the shape of the ground, just without the unpleasant (but educational!) points. The tradeoff is a higher risk of bruises on the sole. I’ll take a bruise over a twisted ankle any day. Besides, bruises can be avoided by running gently, right?

I feel ya, root.

The difference between the road and the trail is mostly what the ground feels like. If the shoes I wear make me feel like I’m running on a road, I don’t feel like I’m really trail running (until I trip and/or twist an ankle). In the Vapors, there’s no doubt in my mind I’m on a trail.

I can run in them without socks, although my first outing in them were a cause for concern. I tied them too tight and bloodied my left big toe. Once I figured out the best lacing pattern for my feet, I’ve had no problems.

The best pattern for my feet. Don’t be a slave to lacing conventionality!

So far, they have been resistant to stink and hold up to regular cleaning quite nicely. I think because the upper is so light and ventilated, the stink struggles to grow. Only time will tell on this one.

Speaking of the upper, it’s made of some kind of slightly stretchy material that allows room for wider feet (especially with loose lacing). This is where, to me anyway, there’s the greatest room for innovation. The sole of the Vapor is perfect. Now I’d like to see some variety on the upper to accomodate different foot shapes and styles. Velcro might be neat, although I seem to be a lonely fan of the stuff. A casual style would be nice. So would a classic-looking leather running shoe, one that harkens back to the flappers and art deco.

A great looking shoe as is, of course. Look at that sweet nothingness of the sole!

So, there it is, my last shoe review. There’s no point for me to write them any more. It’s not in a shoemaker’s interest to send me shoes, because all I’d have to say about the latest pair of whatevers is “see how they are not the Vapor? That’s what’s wrong with them.” Kind of like my last string of reviews. I really do like running barefoot, and it’s a little absurd that I have this closet full of shoes that I’m never going to wear. Look, I suppose if a shoe company has a shoe they think rivals the Vapor and they want to send me a pair, sure, I’ll mention them. But most likely, I’ll just pass them on to my similar foot-sized friend Der Scott. Maybe he’ll review them.

I have no idea how my last three less-than-glowing reviews of their products were received by Merrell; I hope they were at least entertained and appreciated my candor. I like to think that maybe in some way my criticisms were helpful. Probably not, but weirder things have happened I suppose. From my perspective, I really appreciate the risk they’ve taken by listening to and applying the opinions and ideas of people who think shoes are pointless much/most of the time. I also appreciate their efforts to educate runners on gentle running form, and their initiatives to get people active and outside. Of course, I’m also really happy they made the Vapor Glove.

So here’s the question: is it really a barefoot running blog if there are no shoe reviews? We’ll find out. My traffic will certainly diminish, but that’s fine. It’s not like I was some kind of blogging powerhouse anyway.