Spotted on t'interweb thingy.
Surely these can't be for real. They look like condoms for feet and until such time as my feet become reproductive organs, I won't be wearing these. That said, some of the other upcoming Inov-8 products look appealing. The green ones on the far right are apparently called "BARE-GRIP 200" with a 0mm lift throughout. These could be the perfect cross-country/trail shoe for the barefoot runner wanting a little bit of off-road protection.
Following on from my first 10k road race in over 11 years, I've gone ahead and registered for my first offroad race in just as many years. Tomorrow I will be running the Forest Five. It's "5 miles along forest tracks of grass and gravel through the scenic Windsor Forest". Sounds good, but can I run it barefoot?
Not being one to be beaten by a bit of dirt, I headed out yesterday for a very gentle barefoot run over the course, or at least what I think is the course - with the aid of my Garmin Forerunner 405CX I followed this route - to see if I can actually run it barefoot. If I could, I'd run the race barefoot too, but until I'd covered the whole route, I couldn't be sure.
Headed out for my third Reading Parkrun on my own this morning. My wife hasn't been sleeping too well, so I left her in bed this morning whilst I went off on another of my barefoot adventures.
Wednesday evening saw me run my first road race in over 11 years, the first of 3 in the Yateley 10k series, and what a great run and evening it was.
The Yateley 10k series is a large, well organised series of races run on the first Wednesday in June, July and August every year and thanks to it's close proximity to work, has become a bit of a tradition with the runners at work. Each year, I hear the guys talking about the races so I thought this would be a great re-introduction to road running and my first official race in the UK (at the time I registered I hadn't planned on doing any of the Parkruns).
For the second week in a row that crazy nutter was there at the Reading Parkrun running without any shoes. Don't believe me? Well check out the photos (more here):
Check it out, some crazy nutter did the Reading Parkrun yesterday morning completely barefoot...
And that nutter was ME 
. Yes folks, I have now technically done my first race in over 10 years and I did it barefoot. I opted for a mostly grassy 5k and it was fantastic.
Once again long-distance running fans will be able to watch coverage of South Africa's world-famous Comrades Marathon live on the internet this year. It's being run a week Sunday (30 May 2010) so start planning your lives now.
Last year was the first time it was done and it was a resounding success and this year the organisers plan on building on that by offering online coverage again, and constant Twitter updates at http://twitter.com/comradesm2010 along with the usual TV and radio coverage.
The race is a bit of a tradition in South Africa and my family. Even if you're not competing, you're almost certain to know someone who is, so almost everyone spends the day following the events on TV or the radio. Not being in South Africa anymore, this was a tradition I've had to miss out on, but not anymore.
This year's down run (from Pietermaritzburg to Durban) is sure to be a bumper one. It's the 85th running of the race and it's drawn a whopping 23565 entries of which about 92% are expected to make it to the start line. If the past is anything to go by, we can expect well over 17500 finishers (about 75%). That is just phenomenal and you can certainly understand why Comrades is the world's largest ultra-marathon.
Comrades is now back on my list of to-dos, though not sure I'll do it barefoot. My cousin, Simon, and two of my uncles (Dave and Mark) have run it several times each and it's about time another member of the Seymour family ran it.
I've just attempted to get my hands on Michael Sandler's book "Barefoot Running: How to Run Light and Free by Getting in Touch with the Earth" and it's proving to be a bit of a mission, unless my money tree starts growing, and quickly.
The book has just been released and the reviews of the book are starting to popup all over the barefoot and minimalist running websites. I consider myself to be a seasoned barefoot runner now, but I'm eager to have a read through this book to see how closely my experience has been to that of the author's and also to see if I've missed some "magic trick" or other little useful snippet that would help improve my barefoot running.