About a month ago I came across some link I think link from Barefoot Angie's blog proclaiming that May 1st would be Virtual marathon day. Hmmm? I like running marthons, and I don't like spending money on them. I marked the day on my calendar (yeah right I just looked over my shoulder and my calendar still says March). It was an intriguing concept, everybody runs a marathon on their own and reports back to the site. I was totally in, although I have not reported back to the site yet but probably will when I finish this post. (what a slacker I have become)
Then I found out a few weeks ago that May 1st was also International Barefoot Running Day. Sweet. I was planning on running Barefoot anyway. At first I wanted to make some sort of event out of the occasion but I could only think of one person stupid, I mean strong enough to join me. My good buddy Christian Burke . On International Barefoot Running day it would be cool to cross some boarders but alas Mexico 120 miles away and Canada a wee bit farther. I guess we're gonna run where I always run, where people have been running barefoot for years and did'nt even think they special or weird for doing so.
Vamos a la Playa
The Hermosa 24 was only about 8 weeks away and I needed to get as many miles on the soft sand as I can. Last year Christian set the record with just over 83 miles in 24 hours. If have any hope of beating that running 26.2 should be a piece of cake right.
Our plan was to meet at the beach at 10 a.m. and bust out a relaxed slow soft sand run not worrying about the clock at all. I packed up a cooler with vegi's fruit and beer. (something I never do for a run but this somehow seemed like a special occasion)
The Sun was shinning brite and I knew it was gonna be a good day. I had my Garmin
on so it didn't matter what course we ran, we would know when we hit the mark
on so it didn't matter what course we ran, we would know when we hit the markOld video of mine
At first I thought we should run between the Hermosa and Manhattan piers (i.e. The Hermosa 24 course) but then thought it was such a beauftiful day might as well traverse the sand from the end of Manhattan to the end of Hermosa roughly 9 miles if we ran from jetty to jetty, this way we could enjoy all the scenery although are necks may be a little sore by the runs end. All we had to do 3 laps and we'd pass thew cooler 5 times for refreshments.
On the first lap we ran slow. Starting at Longfellow we headed North to Manhattan before hitting up Hermosa. along the way we ran into many of our fans
Of which Christian has a ton (maybe 2 tons)
as for myself
How did she know to bring that sign to the beach?
Well we kept running through Hermosa near First st. I ran into my nephews who ran with us to break wall and back. I told them we'd be back in a few hours.
1st nine miles done body felt great I was moving slow. The comradery was good and I knew my neck would be sore the next day
Lap 2
The sand was burning hot. If we stayed on the soft sand I would blister by days end (blisters are just temporary pain) I could deal with it. Christian was feeling the heat more than I was and at about mile 11 we switched terrain. I did'nt need to move down to the hard pack but it was smart decision.
wussy
Since we decided to be wussies and run on the hard pack (something I never do) to told Christian we must switch our run from 26 miles to 50 kilometers. (maybe more). He agreed and are speed started to pick up on the firmer ground. During our second lap we my buddy Ryan joined us. I promised him some beer if he stuck it out till mile 18 and he couldn't resist. When I passed my family on Lap 2 one of my nephews wised up and stayed with his friends while his younger brother age 7 showed us the sprinting out in front of us as we ran. I was stoked he joined us and I think he was proud of his efforts.
Thank you to the kind people at Stone.
I could care less about a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I all I ask is for a beer at the end of my run. (well maybe another beer in the middle of my run as well)
After our second lap we stopped briefly to down some ale. to help rejuvenate our mindless aspirations.
18miles down and it felt like we had just started running. As the day progressed more and more friends began to show up at the beach. Every seemed like every 2 seconds we had to either stop, wave, or kiss a baby. at one point I had some little kid I didn't know begging me to bury him. I didn't really know the protocol for this situation so kicked a few grains of sand his way before taking off.
(I guess this will good practice for when I run for the presidency in 2016)
and once again my nephew joined us for a few steps.
Marathon completed 27 miles in the books. We decided to run Manhattan one more time. We had been running pretty slow all day. Why not speed things up a bit? Perhaps going fast would use different muscles and make it easier. We got to mile 31 and we were still 2 miles away from our beer. I decided to push to tempo and start running sub 8 minute miles ( I could still run 6's if I had to). I felt like I was dragging an anchor, Christian was pretty beat but his credit he battled through it and the final 2 miles were our fastest of the day. For some reason Christian made me promise I would not run any more miles after stopped (ego trip lol) the thought hadn't even crossed my mind till he said something. I obliged but would I listen to myself?
Time for another Beer.
I had a great time running with Christian and seeing a bunch friends and family on the sand. It was a great day and a great run.
I had some business to take care of home but once that was done. I thought maybe a few more steps on the sand would do me some good. Since I had wussed out earlier I needed to get back on the soft sand plus it was going to be beautiful sunset.
(that thought goes through my mind everyday)
I called Christian up giving him fair warning of my intension's asking if he wanted to join me. His response was a kind hearted.
"You Bastard."
During my five mile sunset run I passed Christian on the beach playing Volleyball with his daughter. Defiantly a better decision than running more miles with my Dumb Ass.
Life is good!
5/14
Awesome. I'm in awe!
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