Report: The 23rd Sabates Eye Centers Trolley Run (4-miler)

My first fully-barefoot race of the 2011 season was outstanding! After running a 5K in late January with Vibram Fivefingers Sprints on almost the whole course, I'd been conditioning my feet to do a lot more barefoot running. With this four-mile Trolley Run, I took a bit of a risk because I wasn't totally sure if my soles were yet conditioned for that distance. It turns out that they did GREAT and carried me to a four-minute improvement on my four-mile-race personal record (PR). I finished in 41:11 with an overall pace of 10:18 per mile, officially.

Up and at 'em

My family got up early on Sunday, April 17, in order to leave our house at about 6 a.m. The starting gun was set for 7:45 and I had a few things to do to get to the starting line - more on that in a bit. We traveled down to the Country Club Plaza shopping district in Kansas City, Missouri, where the finish line was located and the other events of the day were set to take place. We got the kids and my wife situated just after the finish line so she could get pictures of the finishers and other happenings.

It was then my job to get a little bit warmed up and head to the shuttles that would take me and 11-thousand other runners to the starting line. You see, unlike most races, this one doesn't go in a loop with the start and finish lines in generally the same area. This one actually starts four miles away - and uphill - from the finish line! (Any guesses how popular this mostly-downhill race is for the most elite runners?) After warming up some and using a, ahem, "plastic facility" in ~47 deg. F. conditions - brr - I kissed the wife and kids goodbye and headed totally barefoot to the line for the shuttles.

The Shuttle Shuffle

The experience of shuttling to the starting line is a whole big story in itself. I kid you not: From the start of the shuttle line to the end was literally three city blocks of people long! Wait that long in line barefoot and people are bound to talk to you about it. I had a nice chat with one guy who started off by saying I had to have real toughness to go barefoot. My feet and I were warm when I got in line, but by the time I got onto the bus, my feet were sufficiently chilly (i.e. NOT warm like a barefoot runner's feet should be). I spent the 15-minute-ish ride up to the start massaging my feet with my hands trying to get them warmed up again. The total time I spent waiting for the shuttles and riding one to the start was probably longer than I took to actually run the race!

On the positive side, I had a great conversation about barefoot living with a young lady on the bus. I don't remember her name, except that it was a non-typical name that started with an O...I think. Let's call her Olivia. We quickly got into a conversation about going barefoot and barefoot running. To keep a long story a bit shorter, I told her that I also live barefoot as well as running sans shoes - even shopping, dining, etc. She said she does the same a lot, much to the chagrin of many of her friends and family. I told her about how I founded The Primalfoot Alliance, and she seemed genuinely interested in the organization and for barefoot living to be much more acceptable. I'm glad that, although my feet were cold, Olivia and I could meet and we could have such a great chat.

The Start

As the bus pulled up to the drop-off zone, I glanced at my Garmin 305 GPS watch and saw that it was 7:55. TEN MINUTES after the starting gun was to have gone off. Seriously?! All that work attempting to get there in plenty of time and it still wasn't enough? Well, I'll just know better next year. For the record, the race web site indicates that I actually crossed the start line 12:21 after the starting gun.

My effort to re-warm my feet on the bus paid off as I started the race. That effort, plus the sun-warmed pavement, made it so my feet never felt too cold.

Off in the distance I could see the back end of my wave of runners. It was kind of surreal. The Trolley Run bills itself as the largest four-mile race in the nation, yet I was starting with just a few dozen people from our bus because everyone else was already gone! It was actually kind of nice. I didn't have to worry about getting my feet stepped on by a huge mob of people's Asics, Nikes, New Balances, etc. at the starting line. I've said a number of times that one of the biggest risks to living barefoot is other people's shoes.

The Race

After driving the course the day before, I was mostly looking forward to this mostly-downhill race. What I wasn't excited about was the approximately mile-long stretch of rougher pavement in the first part of the race. About three quarters of a mile in, we ran a while on smaller side streets. For those who don't normally run barefoot, side streets are not as friendly for barefoot runners because they're not as frequently traveled by cars. Therefore, the blacktop is not typically as smoothed out by constant traffic and there aren't as many tire particles to take the edge off the pavement's rockiness. Anyway, I was hoping that my feet would hold up through that part of the course and my technique would provide as little friction as possible to let me finish the race un-blistered, and it worked out. Awesome!

The elevation chart for the 4-mile Trolley Run shows a net
elevation loss of 164 feet - downhill almost the whole way!

There were a few fun and/or humorous moments for me throughout the race. One dude carried a Christ-like cross the whole way, though I'm not sure Jesus' model had a tire on the bottom of it like this guy's had. I have to think our savior's journey to Calvary might have been a little easier if it did. A random young lady was standing beside the course playing bagpipes, of all things, for all of us. I became acutely aware at a couple different times of all the "clopping" of the other runners' shoes on the ground while I was cruising along in stealth mode. The best story, however, is about a woman who I'd just passed. I ran by her and her friend and the next thing I hear is, "Hey, Susan." Then, nothing. I can't be positive because I didn't turn around to look, but I can picture in my mind's eye the woman pointing her finger down at my feet and looking at her friend with this stunned look on her face while she silently mouths, "He's barefoot!" At least, that's one scenario that could have happened. :-)

I am pleased with how I felt during the run. My heart rate stayed up but didn't push the limits to the point that I felt I had to back off from my pace. My legs felt good, never feeling like they were going to give me problems. The only slight issue I had was with a little more than a mile left. I started getting a little cramping in my right side - an issue I've had before - so I took appropriate measures to squash it. I had read right before my first 5K last year that exhaling when the same foot lands on the ground while running can lead to cramping on that side after a while. To fix it, just change up your breathing so that you exhale when the other foot lands. Voila! The cramping goes away! And mine did.

I felt a little bit tired in the last half mile or so, but I think part of that was mental. I knew that the end was (literally) in sight and my mind started giving up a little bit. A bunch of people did pass me when I slowed down at the end, but I still think I finished pretty strong.

Overall, I ran a very good race. I actually ran the whole thing barefoot, never stopped to walk, kept an elevated - but comfortable - pace and set a new PR for the four-mile distance. Speaking of pace, this is the second fastest pace I've ever run in an organized race, short of the Groundhog Run in January. Could I have pushed it a little bit more? Sure, but I can't complain. I also discovered that this is the longest barefoot run I've had since November 2010! My bare feet are back to where they were before winter, baby! It's all good.

Now, my training marches on as I prepare for the Hospital Hill Run (half marathon) on June 4. I'm planning for bare feet for that race, too. I wonder if pseudo Jesus and the bagpipe girl will be there, too...