Pineland Farms Barefoot 5k

Memorial Day Weekend Recap #1 – Pineland Farms Trails Challenge 5k

Race: Pineland Farms Trail Challenge Barefoot 5k
Date: May 29, 2010
Location: New Gloucester, ME
Distance: 5k (barefoot on trail)

Official Result: 33:33
33/34 Total

Full Results Here

When I signed up for the Pineland Farms 50k trail race on Sunday I wasn’t sure that I would be racing any of the shorter races on Saturday. I drove up early enough to sign up for a barefoot 5k. It would be my first barefoot race, and my first time running barefoot without Vibrams on.

I’ve had Vibram FiveFingers for walking for over a year now, but when I showed up to the race, I couldn’t find one of them. Not a problem, I signed up for the barefoot category instead of the shod division.

As I milled about barefoot I got chatting with some members of the Metro Boston Barefoot Running Meetup Group. Some of them had been running Barefoot for 40 years, long before the recent barefooting fad. I may join them for future training runs.

The start of the race had 60 or 70 runners either completely barefoot or wearing minimalistic shoes like Vibram Fivefingers.

The course was tough, especially for someone who normally wears at least Vibrams. There were gravel sections that made me almost stop. But overall there was a nice variety of pavement, sand, pinecones, fields, gravel, and dirt. The last few hundred feet were on grass which was wonderful.

At one point in about mid race I was passed by Bethany of Our Love on the Run. She was also being slowed down by the gravel, but had a great technique for making it through. It was only her second time running barefoot ever. Our feet were so dirty.

But we should probably note that a lot of the girls running barefoot had nail polish on.

I finished before last in the barefoot division, but there were a few people behind me in shod. I was pleased, the time was probably a personal worst, but I had participated in one of the first races of it’s kind. And I had tested out the quad before the 50k.

Being at the back of it’s pack I didn’t get one of the neat finishers awards but I found them to be quite nice. The footprint maker has quite the arch.

Post race I attended the Barefoot and Minimalistic running seminar that was being offered by the Metro Boston Barefoot group. The barefoot runners were so passionate about it that I may ditch the Vibrams more often on my barefoot runs.

I will however be very careful about where I step. I had a thorn in my foot that took me most of the afternoon to work out. When I finally did get it out I estimate it was between a 1/4 and 1/2 an inch long. But once it was out, it mostly didn’t bother me in the race the next day.

Here’s a race picture of me near the finish line courtesy of Don Penta

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