Feet get pretty dirty wearing Lunas in the mud
Today was the 2nd annual Born to Run event at Soaring Eagle Park. Last year I did the 10k at this event since I was just off a 50k the week before. This year I had planned to do the marathon or 10-mile distance at least but, thanks to my knee, I was going to be running another 5-miler. After having read Finding Ultra in the last few days and seeing that the Watershed 12 Hour was last week and the Pigtails 200/150/100 mile was happening at the same time as this event, doing a 5-mile run sure didn’t seem like much of an accomplishment. Actually, it was just another training run for me with 300 other people, I didn’t ‘race’ the event at all and it was just another run in my slow 10% increase per week ramp-up. Pretty much everything will be that way until I get back up to half marathon distance.
The interesting thing about the run today was the fact that, as a Born to Run sponsored event, there was definitely a higher percentage of ‘barefoot’ shoes to be seen. Lots of Vibrams, Merrells and New Balance shoes on folks. There were two of us crazy enough to run in Luna sandals on a notoriously muddy course and one guy that actually went barefoot for real.
I’ve run this 5-mile loop probably a fifty times so nothing new there. The pipeline trail was muddy and I just plowed through instead of trying to keep my feet dry like I did last week when I ran it. I discovered that the Lunas get a bit slippery when saturated with slick mud, my foot was sliding around a bit on the footbed which was kind of a pain but didn’t really seem to impact my stability. The water drained out immediately, the mud dried and I was back to running as always but with very dirty feet. On the single track I think I spent about 2 of the whole 3 miles matching footsteps with the woman in front of me who was doing a good job of avoiding obstacles and puddles. Once back on the pipeline trail I just boogied to the aid station turn-around and then back up the trail to the finish once again getting my sandals slicked up with mud in the process, I debated ditching them and just doing the last mile barefoot. Finished in 53:49, 3/5 for old guys and 31/75 overall. Like I said, not a race time but a decent run time, a 10:45 pace, which was a bit faster than Cougar but this course did have less elevation gain.
Next up is the Lord Hill 10k next Saturday, a bit more challenging course. I did the half marathon there last year so the 10k should be a bit easier with a little less elevation gain. I doubt I’ll wear Lunas for this run unless it stays dry, the BareGrip 200s are more appropriate for the slick downhills at Lord Hill. If I can stick to plan I should be able to run a half marathon distance in 4-5 weeks.