Sunday 23rd May was perfect for running a Marathon, the sun was out for about the first 45 min and made it quite a warm beginning but it became over cast and the temperature was perfect for the rest of the race. I ended up choosing to run in my trusted Vibram Five Fingers KSO’s, I was too afraid that the Huaraches would break. The VFF’s were great to run in and I had absolutely no problems with them what so ever. the problems I experienced had nothing to do with my footwear but more to do with my over all form.

Now two weeks after the race I am very happy with my over all performance considering that it was my first VFF marathon and that I have only been running in VFF’s for about 5 months. My time was 3:58 made up by a rather quick first half (1:47) and a not so quick 2nd half 2:11. The short explanation was that I fell victim to the classic mistake of running way to fast in the beginning, way faster than I was actually able to maintain for a full marathon. My goal was to finish under 3:45, so I was a bit disappointed just after the race, but now I am quite satisfied and have learned a valuable lesson: You always end up running what your body allows you to run, so be realistic when laying out you race strategy. A Marathon is not 2 half marathons, Surprise!!

As you can see from my splits I was quite a bit slower on the 2nd half of the course compared to the first, up until about 30K I was still trying to get some good speed out of my legs and hoping for some hidden energy reserves to miraculously appear, it didn’t happen and my speed only decreased. I finally accepted the fact that I would not finish in under 3:45 and settled in at a speed were I actually was able to kind of enjoy the rest of the race (not quite but almost) and when I hit the cobble stone section for the second time I decided to take of my VFF’s and run the last 3.5K barefoot, cobble stones sucks in both VFF’s and barefoot.

Running the last section totally barefoot was really great, I was still struggling and in pain, but that had nothing to do with running barefoot, my legs were mega sore, but some how take of the shoes shifted the focus and I was now just focusing on feeling the surfaces. I did turn some heads I must say, but hey, you can’t run other peoples races, you gotta run your own right.

So my first minimalistic VFF marathon is in the book and i can’t wait for the next one, Berlin in September, but first there is a question of a little half marathon run to Sweden across the Oresund bridge next Saturday. What to wear, what to waer??

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