Wednesday evening saw the running of the second of the three Yateley 10k races in the series, and like the first one, I ran it barefoot.

I'd had a bit of a sedentary two weeks building up to the race following the onset of the early signs of the dreaded top of foot pain (ToFP) that cropped up during my piggies hill training session on 22 June. With only a single tabata rowing session done between then and the race I went in the race very relaxed and rested with my foot feeling good too.

At 7:30pm we were sent on our way and I paid special attention to my pace. I went into this race wanting to crack 45 minutes and intended on doing so by keeping a constant pace that sat in the 4:20 min/km to 4:28 min/km range. This plan worked beautifully. I managed to remain disciplined and didn't get caught up in the excitement of the start of the race too much and managed to keep my pace more or less within this range right up until the 8th km. This included the particularly stoney tarred section along Reading road between about 5.5km and 7.2km which this time I chose not to try and avoid.

I suspect I could have kept this pace up beyond the 8km mark had it not been for what happened next... just after the 8km mark the pain on the top of my left foot returned, and with a vengeance. It was pretty damn painful, but as I'd got most of the way round, there was no way I was going to stop now - I'll probably regret this later. I quickly found it wasn't as painful if I turned my foot inwards slightly and almost rolled over my big toe (could the cause of the pain be due to a slightly outward pointing left foot?) so with my slightly adjusted gait and slower pace I headed for the finish.

Turning into the field entrance I glanced at my watch and noticed I was still on course for a sub-45 10k, so I floored it as best I could, passed a couple of people and crossed the finish line with a new PB: 44:43.

Pleased as punch I handed in my timing chip, grabbed a water and a choccy bar and headed back to the car. The pain in my left foot starting to really sink in now too. Impressively I had my official results SMS by the time I got back to my car too...

So all in all, I had a great run, except for the onset of ToFP at 8km, but that's incidental really as I'd managed to set a new PB and still had a great time. Still no sign of any photos from this or the previous race though - I'm starting wonder if they had an official photographer this year.

Now I'll have to see what happens with my left foot over the next few weeks. Hopefully it'll recover completely in time for the 3rd and final race in the series on 4 August.

Better late than never. Last Wednesday saw me take on my first imperial distance race (we only do metric distances in South Africa): The Forest Five (mile) at The Look Out in Bracknell and what a fantastic evening and offroad race it was.

Following the test run I did on the Monday, I had intended on running in my huaraches, but then common sense prevailed and I opted to run in my Vibrams instead. I decided not to run in the huaraches as I've not done much running in them yet and the last thing I wanted were blisters from the different style of footwear, especially likely as I'm not too sure I've got them properly adjusted yet.

My wife very generously offered to drive me to the race and we arrived with about half an hour to spare. As I pre-registered online I already had my number so had plenty time to locate the race start - it's a little walk into the forest - and warm up. It was a very pleasant evening, so getting warm wasn't a problem.

At just after 19:30 we were sent on our way by the most feeble sounding airhorn I've ever heard, or didn't. The air part was there, just the horn part made no sound at all: should have used a vuvuzela . As usual, I set off a little quick, but I managed to ensure it wasn't too quick and soon settled into a pace of about 4:20/km. The route was slightly different from the one I found online and ran on the Monday, but only in the last half of the race in which they brought us back in a large arc which included a lot more little ups and downs than the original route. This added a nice challenge and I suspect caught a few of those who've run the old route a little by surprise. They did however warn us at the beginning that it was a slightly different route, though I couldn't hear why. My watch also reported the route to be slightly shorter than 5 miles, but I think we can attribute this to the tree coverage over large parts of the route - the race organisers assured us the route is accurately measured.

As can be expected, my Vibrams lived up to expectations and protected my feet enough for me to maintain a nice fast pace without blocking too much feedback. They also draw a lot of funny looks and even a couple of comments with one chap commenting on having read Born to Run, but not being brave enough to try barefoot or Vibrams. I encouraged him to give barefoot a go and he then bid farewell and left me in hist dust .

All in all, this was a very pleasant race. It was a relatively small field, on a fabulous evening in a beautiful settings. This is definitely a race I'll be doing again. This part of Bracknell forest will also be getting a lot more visits from me too: it's a fantastic area to run.

Oh yes, and my official results:

Time: 34:34
Overall Position: 56 / 327
Age Category Position: 28

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.

Well, I can say I certainly can, but I won't be racing that route barefoot. Most of the route is on nice forest floor roads and they're quite gentle on the feet so I was easily able to keep up a pace of about 5:30/km (nice and slow). However there is about a 2 km stretch along the back which is definitely not barefoot friendly. There are lots of rocks and pointy stones and very little space to avoid them. Over this section I saw my pace drop to around 9:30/km as I minced my way along and I honestly can't see how I'd do that leg any quicker without a bit of protection on my feet.

So with that bit of research done, I've decided I'll be running the Forest Five tomorrow in my huaraches (I must write about these at some point). I'm glad I've done my little bit of pre-race research as I certainly wouldn't want to have shown up eager to race barefoot only to find everyone laughing at me as I hobbled along those two tough kilometres.

If you're planning on a barefoot race, research the route first, especially if part of it will be offroad. You won't regret taking the time to do so. If it's not possible, err on the side of caution until you are sure your feet can handle the toughest ground nature can throw at you.

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.

I had a relatively good run today. I had intended on running at a consistent pace in the region of 3:48 to 3:54, but after a relatively quick first kilometre (I still don't go out gently enough), I started feeling a bit tired and settled in at a more relaxed pace. Finished off with a fast last km with a near-sprint at the end. Still managed a sub-20 so I'm happy. This run also tipped me over the 400km of running this year.

I'm running the Forest Five on Wednesday evening (probably in huaraches rather than barefoot as it's all offroad) and I'm on the early shift again next week, so I may not be up for another Parkrun next week, but I'll see how I feel.

This weeks results:

Time: 19:52
Overall Position: 12 / 122
Age Category Position: 2nd

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):

Things were a lot cooler this week thanks to the clouds and light drizzle, but I think it was more conducive to running. I had a great run this morning, but unfortunately, I don't learn. Last week I mentioned I set off a bit fast, well this week I set off faster (3:25 for the first km) and found myself in the lead as we approached the bridge. It was at this point I realised I was being silly and backed off a bit and settled into a pace of around 4:00/km - the pace I planned on running the whole race at. To be honest, I don't think I could have kept up a pace much quicker thanks to my blistering start.

That said, I can't really grumble too much about my fast start as it meant I managed to smash a whopping 28 seconds off my time from last week setting a new personal best (PB). The overall pace of the race was a bit slower this week too, but I think everyone still had a great run.

So my results this week were:

Time: 19:41
Overall Position: 14 / 127
Age Category Position: 3rd

I think that's a good bit of speed work in preparation for Wednesday's Yateley 10k. I'll be doing that barefoot (though probably not anywhere near as fast as this 5k) so if you're there, watch out for the crazy fool - I'll be the one in the red shirt

Oh yes, and don't forget: Comrades online tomorrow morning.

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.

I've been contemplating doing the Reading Parkrun for a while now however have always been put off by the weather or the fact I had to make my decision to run by 6pm the night before. Not anymore. On Friday morning I heard the weather was due to be glorious this weekend, so I thought I'd register for the Parkrun this weekend and give it a go. Well, things have changed since I last considered doing the Parkrun as now you only need to register once, print off your barcode and take it along to ANY Parkrun in the country. No more pre-registering the night before. Just turn up, run, and flash your barcode when they register your finish position. Brilliant.

So with myself registered and barcode printed, my wife and I got up early on Saturday morning and cycled down to Thames Valley Park. The weather was wonderful, as predicted, and there was quite a turnout. Apparently there were a record 115 entrants in yesterday's run. At 9am we were promptly started and things got off with a blistering pace. I somehow managed to get a little caught up in the excitement of it all and started off a little too quickly, but I soon settled into a comfortable pace and finished in a time of 20:09 - waaaaaay quicker than I was expecting. I was only aiming for somewhere around 23:00, so I'm chuffed to bits.

Of course, I suspect a lot of my great time has to do with the fact that the course is mostly grass. There is a short section with a gravel path, but most of this has nice grassy verges so there's not need to continually run on the gravel. The gravel wasn't completely avoidable but I didn't really have any issues with the sections I couldn't avoid.

So my results were:

Time: 20:09
Overall Position: 16 / 115
Age Category Position: 5th

All in all it was a great run and I'm glad to have done it. I think I may have to get my bare feet down there more often too.

Oh yes, and for those who don't know anything about Parkruns, essentially they are free relatively informal timed 5k runs run in parks all over the country, open to anyone and everyone (provided you're pre-registered and got your barcode). Check out the about page for more details.

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.

So, the first place I hit was Amazon.com. I've got a gift voucher that isn't transferable to Amazon.co.uk so thought I'd use it for this book. Nope. Sadly, the book isn't sold directly by Amazon, but rather by the publisher and they won't ship to the UK via Amazon. The book also isn't available via Amazon.co.uk, nor any of the other European equivalents. So it's to the book's site itself.

Well, that's a bit of a dead end too - the cost of the P&P is nearly as much as the book. The book costs $24.95 and P&P to the UK is $19.95. Add to this the fact the Pound is sliding against the Dollar, by the time the book arrives in the UK I could soon find myself in the position where the book costs more than £18 and thus becomes liable to import duties (not VAT as books are exempt) and thus I'd have paid more than double the price for the book.

Eager to find out if there is anyway I can get this in the UK without it costing me twice as much, I've used the book site's contact form to find out. I'll update you when I hear back.

In the mean time, if anyone knows of somewhere in Europe that is selling this book, then please let me know.

Update - 19 May @ 18:30: Well, Jessica Lee of RunBare has replied to my email already (I love it when people are prompt repliers):

From	Jessica Lee
To	Colin Seymour
Date	Wed, May 19, 2010 at 5:42 PM
Subject	RE: Purchasing from the UK

Hi Colin,

I'm sorry for your troubles. Unfortunately, our shipping costs 
to the UK are exorbitantly high $15 US + the handling costs 
from our fulfillment house.

We are currently working with the main distributor of Vibram 
FiveFingers in the UK to also distribute the book to UK 
customers. Hopefully we'll have a cost effective solution for 
you soon. We'll let you know as soon as we do.

Best regards,

Jessica Lee, President
RunBare™

So when I know more, I'll let you all know.

Update - 9 Jul 2010 @ 11:45: Looks like Jessica forgot about me as I've just discovered the book is now available to buy in the UK.

Way back in February, I was approached by Jana Witt, a Science Communication student at the University of the West of England asking if I minded answering a few questions for an article she was writing for their student newspaper - The Western Eye - (Jana is science correspondent) inspired by the recently published Liberman paper.

Being the nice person that I am, and eager to promote barefoot running, I gladly answered Jana's questions. I think I went a little overboard on some of my answers as I would have smashed Jana's article word limit had she published my responses verbatim, but she got the gist of my answers and put together a great short article for her readers which was published in the March 2010 edition (PDF download here if you want to read the whole paper).

Jana has kindly provided a copy of just the article in JPG and PDF formats for you to read too (2 months ago: I completely forgot to publish this back then, sorry Jana).

Enjoy.

Some of my friends and family think I'm a little bonkers when they hear I've taken up running again, but this time completely barefoot. I'm sure most of them give it a fleeting thought whilst we're discussing it and then shrug it off with the thought "daft fool". Well, not my wife. Whilst she isn't into running and isn't likely to pick it up any time soon, she is supportive and she made me smile yesterday. Whilst driving home from my sister-in-law's, we passed a runner and out of the blue my wife nodded in his direction and said "Lose the shoes you woofta".