Barefoot Marathon

Cape Cod Marathon, Falmouth, MA
October 27, 2013

Plan the run, run the plan.  Nutrition at faster speed.

Objectives for this race

  A - qualify for Boston 3h10m dead or alive

     Dolor transit, gloria aeterna est.     
     Pain is temporary, glory is forever.

  B - finish under 3h30m

  C - finish first barefoot marathon

      It can be done!

  D - do not get injured, learn, and have fun.

My motivation for A dropped as the Boston Marathon 2014 was sold out, and there is plenty of time to qualify for Boston 2015.  Final plan was to do the first half marathon at 1h35m, and then decide how I feel for the second half with a theoretical option for A (forget about negative splits).

Target vs official times:

   Half time target:  1:35:00   Actual: 1:35:01

      The half hitting exactly the target was only 50% good execution for the miles I paced on the mark, the rest was pure coincidence.

   Final time target: 3:10:00  Actual: 3:28:05 (7:57 min/mile)

      While this met objective B with revised target 3:30:00, execution was a total crapshoot too.

Pace plan: 3:10:00 required 7:15min/mile average.  So plan was to run 7min/mile with 15 seconds of walking at each mile.

Weather forecast: 45F at start at 8:30am, 55F by 12pm.  

Clothing plan: shorts and t-shirt, or my big pocketed triathlon tank top.  

Actual weather: 8am at start line - still raining.     

Clothing:  Mylar blanket stuffed between short sleeve and long sleeve shirt.  Visor hat.  Garbage bag shell.  Good the sun showed up before gun start, so I got rid of the hobo attire.

Road condition: unknown

  Actual - Wet first 15 miles, started to dry out by the end.

  Rough asphalt in rural areas, and along the ocean.

Footwear plan: none

   I taped my big toes to not crack at sides, and across the ball of the foot. 

   At the start line a guy asking what does the tape do.  I answered "Nothing.".  He got it - just for your head :)

Nutrition plan: got 6 GU gels at the expo (100 calories each).  At Ironman pace I could stomach 200 calories an hour, so that seemed reasonable.

Start line nutrition adjustment:  Taped two gels on my forearms, and only one fit in my shorts.  Decided that 3 GUs will be enough to take me to mile 18 for the only fuel stop…  and I could try the Gatorade.

These carbs are mostly for my brain, and I'd be 2500 calories deficient anyways.  

Logic was that if I were to make 3:10 my pace would be much faster, so my GI system won't take as much, even though I'd need even more calories.  But I've carboloaded somewhat, and I am pretty efficient at fat burning.  Wrong: I am not in Ironman regime, my baseline RQ is high, and not carboloaded much.  I had too many injuries this season to put in fast long runs for training.

For under 8 min/miles fat burning doesn't cut it, I'd be mostly burning stored glycogen for 2-3 hours, and then I'd have to rely on blood sugar.

Since it was cold at the beginning, miles 1 and 2 were 6:22min/miles without the walking break.  Took off the long sleeve and tried to stick to the plan.

Then miles 5-6 were 6:45min/miles since I didn't want to lose a great draft team in the headwinds.  

At mile 9 I passed by the second relay exchange station, and received a standing ovation wave from the waiting runners commenting on the barefoot technique - I couldn't help not to run a 6:20min/mile, paced by fresh relay runners…  Well, maintaining that pace on a hill drained my blood sugar.  Now I was concerned I am running out of GUs, so I started saving them.  Tried the Gatorade at a water stop against previous experience - plus instinct to lighten up for fast pace sent me running the next mile looking for potty…  So all gains from not following the plan were lost.  I made exactly target time at the half, but it was clear I wasn't not in the zone for a repeat.  Switched to Plan B - new target was to add a minute per mile and still finish under 3h30m.

The usual hundred+ chit chats from fellow runners and bystanders, and "crazy, amazing, incredible" compliments give barefoot running an extra booster.

But my legs were a bloodied mess.  This combination of weather, speed, and distance, was a new challenge.  My wet feet were softened,  my big toes cracked from pounding way too fast on a downhill  (the tape disintegrated way before :)  The wet slippery asphalt was causing blisters on other toes.  Tried to focus on avoiding sliding but it's hard on wet paint and tar.  (Not that I haven't had blisters at shod marathons, and I'd get a blister with wet shoes too).   A very rough asphalt patch abraded a chunk of skin on one big toe.  That was new, but it was going to fix itself.  I saved the tape for real emergencies.  Feeling my toes was a good reminder to be constantly aware of technique, so I don't develop any soft tissue problems.  My only problem with my knees was that I'd occasionally feel droplets of blood  from the other foot passing by…

Anyways, the real problem was the nutrition gap.  The new pace seemed sustainable, but I was slowly licking my last GU to get to mile 18.  There I got a bag of Cytomax drops - that will get me to the end right?   (Right, I didn't check it's only 180 calories, which at this speed and empty of glycogen reserves was nothing.)  After gobbling most of the bag got another good 7:40 mile, then had to switch to fat burning at 9-10min/mile.

Before the hill just towards the lighthouse a girl caught up and then ran by my side panting heavily.  With eyes fixed on the lighthouse I whispered - 'keep pacing me', she whispered back - 'we can help each other'.  We were both bonking, but we took down that darn hill.  Hills demand too much fast twitch muscles that mostly feed on carbs…  At ~25 mile she got a second wind on the flat and tried to peel ahead, but then stopped to walk.  I'd been saving two Cytomax drops (36 calories…yay) to fuel/fool my brain to sprint the last mile for a strong finish.

[The bloody pictures are too gory to post, but I will update this post with smiling finish line pics :)]