Report: The Inaugural Nightfall 4 Miler

On the evening of Friday, August 20, I participated in the very first Nightfall 4 Miler road race held in Warrensburg, Missouri. A product of my former college roommate's brother -- a state-champion in high school and now-professional distance runner -- this inaugural race was a fairly small event with (I'm estimating) around 80 participants. I was the only barefoot runner, though one woman ran in a pair of pink Vibram Fivefingers Bikilas.

After an hour-long trip from our home to Warrensburg, my wife, kids and I arrived with about 40 minutes to go until the starting gun. That gave me just enough time to pick up my registration packet, use the restrooms, warm up and get situated.

I was looking forward to this race for a few reasons. First, it was nice to be back in Warrensburg, the town where I attended the University of Central Missouri prior to graduating in 2002. Second, I got to see a couple of my best friends again. My former roommate Daniel, his wife Noelle and I were all close friends in our campus ministry. (Aside: I actually helped them get together. When Daniel and I were living in a house off campus, I'd invite Noelle to come over and hang out. Eventually, they became close, fell in love and the rest is history.). Third and finally, I was looking forward to seeing what a run longer than 5K was like. Since restarting running last fall, I had NEVER run more than 3.1 miles at a time prior to the 4 Miler.

Looking back and all things considered, the race went better than I felt it did at the time.

I started off with Noelle and her friend. We paced each other for about 1 1/4 miles of the course, and then I started wearing out and cramping a little bit. Knowing that taking walking breaks can improve one's overall time, I walked and they ran ahead. After several intervals of running and walking while Noelle continued running, she slipped away so far into the distance that I really never saw her again. I'll admit: That was disappointing. I felt bad that my body wouldn't permit me to run as long as I'd have liked to. I thought that maybe, maybe I could run the whole thing, but I had to be honest with myself. I hadn't trained as well for this as I had for the Hospital Hill 5K and it showed. Could I have kept pushing myself to the brink of near vomiting and even collapse? Yes. Did I want to do that? No.

At the two-mile mark I was running through the Start/Finish line to begin the second of two laps in the course. There was cheering. I saw my wife and kids, and Daniel even came over and we high-fived. Cool. As I was heading down the road from that point, I heard the announcer behind me:

"And now here comes the first finishers of the four-mile course! Let's give them a hand!"

Half as slow as the first finishers. Great. I flopped an arm down in frustration. The same scenario actually happened in the Hospital Hill 5K, too. As I was running down to the finish of that race, officials were motioning me to quickly get to the side because the first finishers of the 10K were not far behind me. History was repeating itself. I'm essentially half as slow as the fastest runners out there.

I don't know what my split was at the half-way point. I just wasn't paying attention when they said it. I think it might have been 23 minutes and change. I don't know. My Runkeeper report says it was around 22:09. Again, I can't know for sure. I was determined to try to finish strong and make up time on the downhills. That said, I continued to struggle somewhat.

I met up with another female runner at about the three-mile mark. She had run the first half of the race with her child in a stroller and was now pretty worn out. We stuck together for almost the entire last mile.

Then, the rain came. With about a half mile left to go, the sky opened up and it rained pretty nicely. I told myself, "The sooner you finish, the sooner you can get out of the rain." I was also concerned about my iPhone. So I ran most of the rest of that distance back to the Finish line. I got wet, but my iPhone was fine.

I finished with a time of 44:04, according to Runkeeper. For a four-mile course that was a 11:01/mile pace.

Comparing those times to Hospital Hill, I did pretty well. Every runner knows that you're slower the farther you run. This race was 9/10 of a mile longer than the 5K. This overall pace was 11:01 compared to Hospital Hill's 10:45 pace. Not bad, given the difference in length. What's more, I walked quite a bit during this race. Taking that into account, you could argue that when I ran during the 4 Miler, I ran faster than Hospital Hill, because the pace wasn't much different for the two events. So even though I a had bitter taste in my mouth that evening about how I ran, I did pretty well.

Looking back on the race, the roads on which we ran didn't help. Many of the neighborhood roads that were used had old, cracking asphalt. Honestly, they weren't overly barefoot friendly. Hospital Hill had much smoother roads overall, a plus when you're running barefoot. It was also a little disconcerting that most neighborhood traffic still flowed as we ran. Officials and law enforcement would stop traffic on crossroads, but we would often have vehicles drive past us in either direction during the race.

The race was a little tough on my feet and legs overall. Some muscle or tendon in the left arch of my foot started burning after a while, probably because I'd never run for that long before. My calves and shins also felt the effects of the longer distance, too. While my soles and calves never hurt as badly afterward, my lower legs have been feeling a bit shin splinty since then. They got a bit of overuse, I'd say.

Hopefully next year I'll be in a lot better position to do well in this event. Hopefully the race organizers will have electronic timing -- early finishers had to wait for more than an hour afterward for the results and their awards. Hopefully the City of Warrensburg will repave some of their streets in the mean time. :-)

I want to thank my wife, Glenda, for her support of my running and for taking the pictures you see here. I love you, Honey!


So what do you think? Have you tried barefoot running? Have any questions about the run? Please leave your comments below.