102km barefoot run

NYRR 60K + Brooklyn Marathon, New York City, NY
November 15-16, 2014

We are all in our own race

A classic threefold challenge - 102km (63miles), 1°C (34°F), barefoot
exactly as a friend had summed up my adventures: find something crazy then multiply by 3 :)

Race goals: finish with my 12 toes intact, meet the race cut-offs
Concerns: icy start (34°F), 2.4x distance increase, hypothermia, nutrition plan

Distance: 102km is two and a half marathons in a weekend.  Kamen had been doing this double feature for 3 years - so on one side it's in theory humanly possible :), on the other it's also likely crazy. Check :)

It was a good way to catch up on a season's worth of official races in a weekend trip to NYC.  Yet there was no way I'd risk doing this in shoes - my running assumption is that I'm less likely to hurt myself when getting immediate feedback on every step.

Barefoot: 100K was a new sole and soul toughness test.  Check.

Weather forecast was the unplanned exacerbating concern: iffy 30F-34F (-1C vs 1C) --
In terms of temperature it's not a big absolute difference one way or the other,

though obviously, traction considerations change with ice.
Still, it was mostly a psychological barrier to commit to running barefoot with ice on the ground.  Check :)

Training
Busy with a paper deadline two days after the race, I didn't have much time to train for this,
other than a fun half marathon, and alternating fast runs and biking to/from the office.
Most of my race prep had been by electroshocking myself with CompEx
while working at my desk to my officemates' greater shock...

Alternatives to consider

I still haven't figured out a reliable and comfortable lacing system for my home-made huaraches.
I was considering just taping cow hide on my feet, but I hadn't tested that system and risk of hot spots of the leather to skin contact.  And untested socks similarly may have worse abrasion, may be less so with sock liners.  At the end the only tested option was barefoot.

Day 1 - 60K 

    "In spite of temperatures in the 30s on Saturday, 300 determined runners covered more than 
    37 miles in Central Park to conquer the annual NYRR NYC 60K."

Distance:  37.3 miles, 60 kilometers

Weather:  34 degrees F, 52% humidity, wind 5 mph.

I was the only one to finish the 60K barefoot, as the couple of other experienced huarache or barefoot runners had better judgment ;)

This felt like a winter hike - at every lap's food and water stop had to put on layers - even a 30 second break was enough to lose heat that's hard to recover in fingers and toes.

I kept wiggling my toes every other step to keep them warm, and count them to check sensation every few minutes for the first couple of laps.  The first lap my feet were still getting numb so when people asked if it hurts or if it feels cold I could honestly say 'no' :)  Yet insensitive skin and less supple cold tendons can both easily get damaged.  So I stopped a few times to wiggle the arches and warm up my toes with my hands.

Ice patches on the ground at the start line were indeed not a physiological but a psychological  problem.  They made it worse by covering the ice with salt, as now I worried it would dehydrate my skin, so washed off my soles at water stops.

When the sun came out white paint lines were noticeably colder than the asphalt, making for another trade-off between smooth & cold vs rough & warm.

Nutrition

Nutrition gets tricky too at a new distance and speed.  I'd estimated 7000-9000 calories needed to move my 150lb across 102km - still less than 1kg of fat, and
the target pace was to be leisurely fat burning.  Ideally fast enough to not have to burn more calories for just keeping warm.  At the target 12min/mile pace I counted on being able to stomach real food.

Kamen again shined the way here - 5kg Nutella on bananas every other lap was the food you want to eat :)  Still having some 'baby food' purees, and Perpetuem chewables for quick carbs were good to keep motivation in check for the last few laps.

I certainly burned out my subcutaneous fat reserves, and I shivered for a few days in weather I can normally handle.

Day 2 - 42K

Motivation to get started again is the hardest...

I was most worried about left knee issues but those went right away after getting warmed up.  Instead I had issues with my right foot arch getting really stiff in the cold start.  This time had to wiggle the whole foot while in the air to get it warmed up.  It was a much warmer day, and the rest went smoothly.  There was a short hailstorm just after we finished the marathon.

The odd feeling was that while I've done the Brooklyn Marathon last year,
now this is a very different race.  As Heraclitus said, a man can't cross a river twice, as both the river and the man change, same is with road races.

It was nice to share the road with others shooting for their PRs, but we only planned to meet the official race cut-off.  We weren't racing against anyone today, other than proving this can be done.  It was great at the finish line they acknowledged Kamen for maintaining his tradition!

We make up our own races and live by our own rules.