This is the story of how I got into running and what happened then. When I was a kid I loved to play football (soccer). I practically spend, I guess, 15 years or what seemes like all my youth playing football. Playing football entails quite a lot of running, but when I was playing it didn’t feel like running it felt more like a flow or a game. That was a really good thing because I really didn’t enjoy running in it self as an independent activity.

The reason for this was that the only time during a season we would do running as a fitness element was preseason training during the dark and cold winter months and the wet and cold spring months. And that dark, cold and wet feeling when I came to running kinda stuck with me, and the fact that I was slow didn’t really help either. So when I became an adult, taking up running wasn’t really anything I considered at all.

In January of 2004 I quit smoking (haven’t smoked since) and I knew that if I didn’t find some sort of sport or other fitness activity to do on a regular basis I would soon end up 20 pound heavier. I contemplated a whole series of activities but always ended up back at running because it met all the criteria I had set up; no fancy or expensive equipment, no need to join a club, no set schedules and easy to transport and do while traveling. So with a little help to change my mental images of what running was I got started and I actually began to enjoy it.

Four years later in 2008 I ran my first half marathon, the year after that I ran my first Copenhagen Marathon and that same year I also ran the 40^th version of the New York City Marathon, an absolutely amazing experience. But it all came at a cost. During my preparation for the Copenhagen Marathon I got a case of runners knee and only barely recovered before the race. In preparation for the NYC Marathon I had started looking into how to run more efficiently and run faster, because I wanted to become a faster runner, so at this point I had read a little about chi and pose running but not really started transitioning yet. Mind you, I ran in regular running shoes at this point and I was a poster child for heel striking. The day after the NYC Marathon I could hardly walk because of a blinding pain in my left heel. I had had that same injury before but in a much milder version. This time I knew, that if I did not change the way I was running I would probably not be able to finish another Marathon.

A friend of mine recommend that I read the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and so I did and I had the same experience I guess most other people who reads that book have – a kinda of epiphany – it made sense in a very simple and straight forward way. So I got my first pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes and started transitioning (wouldn’t recommend this today) between VFF’s and regular running shoes. I had about 3 month before my next Marathon in Barcelona and I hoped to run in my VFFs. But like a lot of other minimalist and barefoot runners I know, I ended up doing too much too fast and strained my right big toe, so there was no way I would be able to run the BCN Marathon in my VFFs, what to do? I decide to run in my regular running shoes, but at this point the raised heel had become a very annoying and unnatural element, so I decided to get rid of the heels of the shoe. I took a kitchen nife and sawed of both heel and ran my fasted Marathon in shoes with no heels. That was the last time I wore regular running shoes. The following 2 ½ years I ran 5 more marathons, 2 in VFFs, 2 in Huarache sandals and one barefooted.

I ran my fastest half marathon in bare feet in 2010 and that same year had my fist attempt at a full barefoot marathon but ended up doing only half because of poor form on a rough and hilly course that ended up turning my feet into bloody peaces of meat, so I DNF (did not finish).

If I was to start barefoot or natural running today I would start by going all barefoot right away. There simply is no better way of teaching correct running form than the sensory feedback you get from your bare feet. Whenever you ad protection to the soles of your feet you also ad the ability to make “mistakes” without feeling or receiving the injury (right away that is). So what I have described so far is basically the same story most other born again barefoot runners will tell you  ….. the next part of my running journey is much more interesting I think.

Just a short recap: I am no different than everybody else, I started running and motivated my self by setting goals in the form of future races and by constantly timing my runs, checking my speed and progress and pushing all this information to as many people as possible via Facebook, Daily Mile ect ….. the basic premise was, if it wasn’t timed and shared it never happened. This approach to running kinda worked okay for a year and a half and then it slowly started to come apart. My 2011 season started with a list of 10 marathons I had plotted into my calendar. By end May I had finished 3 and only skipped one. So far it all went according to my plan, but at the same time I started getting a feeling  that something wasn’t quite right.

Right after finishing my third Copenhagen Marathon (barefooted) I had an accident, I crashed on my bike and broke a bone in my shoulder. This gave me an involuntary brake from running for quite some time, in fact it ended up so that I didn’t really run much for the rest of that year. December came and I was beginning to feel ready to take up serious and regular running again, I started slow and it felt okay but still not great. I still had most of my speed left, so it didn’t feel like I had lost that much from the long brake. But what worried me was that I felt like I was running with the hand bake pulled, like I was running against my self in a way. Then from one day to the next I lost all my speed, just like that, it was like starting all over again, building up form. Normally when I go for a run I run between 10-20K, I almost never run less than 10k. This day I started out on a 14k run and after about 1.5k I wanted to quit and go home. I ended up dragging myself through 5k – the worst run ever. All the time during that 30 minute run I kept checking my watch in disbelief of how slow I was running. Two days later I went for another run and the same thing happened. I was baffled, I had no idea what was going on.

What I did find out in my total confusion was that running and checking my watch all the time just to find out that I wasn’t running as fast as I wanted to, was total idiocy and counter productive to my goal of getting back into shape an motivated. And if there is some thing I have learned from the marathons I have run it is this; it doesn’t matter what plans you have for the race, your body will run the race your body is capable of. So the more realistic your plan is the better the race. I decided then and there to stop timing my training runs and only to time my runs when in a race.

The next thing that happened maybe goes to explain the sudden loss of running capacity or the resetting of my running if you will. It takes a bit of explaining; I have all my life been what you would call barrel legged, and quite a bit at that. One day, standing I front of the mirror after a morning shower I noticed that the gap between my knees seem to be much smaller than I remembered. I used to be able to put a fist between my knees with room to spare on both sides. Now the space was only about an inch. And on further inspection I also found that my right shoulder seemed lower than my left. To make a long story short, at the age of 41 I discovered that my left leg was longer than my right and that it had straightened out during a period of maybe 2 years, almost eliminating by barreled legged ness. In addition to this my entire posture has realigned so that I now can stand straight for long periods of time on the balls of my feet with no effort, problem or pain. Basically my entire body has reset it self. Going back to my sudden loss of running ability, this makes a lot of sense, it is as if I am starting to learn how to run all over again.

All of these experiences has changed my view on running and why I run. Running is supposed to be fun, most of the time anyway. The same goes for life. If your only goal is to reach the finish line fast, then you miss the entire race  … and what’s fun about that?! So to celebrate my new found joy of running I decided to run my first ultra marathon, the Copenhagen Ultra Marathon, 50k on 14^th April. The first 30k were probably the best 30k I have ever run, in terms of how it felt and the flow of it. It almost felt like I was a passenger in my own body – and like my body told my “hey relax and lean back dude, I got this one”. The next 10 was back to reality and the last ten was a bitch – but a very nice bitch. All in all a great race.

So now I only run when I feel like it, I don’t have a set program that I follow, I run the distance I feel like at the speed that seems most natural and I always listen to my body. The same goes for everything else I do in life – it’s so simple – do what makes you happy and do lost of it!!! Run Free!

I arrived in Berlin in the afternoon on Thursday 23rd September at Tegel airport. It was warm and sunny a real Indian Summer had taken hold of the city. I had never been to Berlin before and always had this idea that it would be Eastern Block gray and dismal, but I was very pleasently surprised, waht a wonderfull city. Started of by having an ice cold weis beer with my Berlin friends in a typical Berlin Beer Garden.

Svitlana & Jens

The next day is spend walking round this historic place with my good friend and Berlinerin Svitlana. The temperature was now in the 20-24 Celsius, absolutely fantastic. seeing Berlin for the first time was for me a very big experience and also very different. I have been to many different places in Germany before, in the north, south and west, but it was nothing like what met me in Berlin. To me the city has a grandeur comparable to cities like Rome, Madrid and Paris. Well after a couple of hours taking in the sights it was time to go get my race number at the Expo at the old Tempelhof airport, now a convention center. Expos are Expos, but this one is by far the biggest I have seen so far, even bigger than the one in New York.

Tempelhof Airport Berlin

Hung out on the old runway in the sun for a while and had a Erdinger alcohol free beer, it actually tasted really good …. something I would experience again later on. Saturday came and with it a major change in the weather, the temperature dropped to 10 C and i started to rain. Unfortunately the weather would stay like this all through Sunday to. Saturday evening i loaded up with a pizza and a couple of beers a the local pizza restaurant and went to bed early. Race day, I got up really early at around 5 and started have break fast, muesli and bananas and some energy drinks, plus a couple of big buckets of coffee ….. I have to admit that i haven’t really nailed this part of a marathon yet; the pre race eating and drinking part, but I guess I will get better at it along the way. Left the Berlin suburb Westend to go by S-bahn to the Main train station. It was a 800m walk from Svitlanas place, where i stayed, to the station, while waiting for the train I was checking all my gear in my race bag and to my horror I had forgotten the timing chip. I handed my bag to Svitlana grabbed the keys for the apartment and raced the 2 x 800 meters at a brisk pace to retrieve the chip, and I made it in time to catch the train we planned to take. Great warm up.

The next part you might wanna skip if you are soft skinned. I will try to keep i short. All I can tell you is that 2 big cups of coffee in combination with a 1600m semi sprint does something to your system. So when we got to the bran new main train station there were certain needs that i REALLY needed to see to. I can tell you that this station only has on centrally located toilet and it is not really capable of handling 30,000 + people’s needs all at once …… At this point my desperation had turned in to sheer panic. Normally I respect ques and never cut in front, but this time I did not care. I stared straight ahead of me and just walked past the 200 people standing in line …… well it all turned out great

15 min to race start and the temperature was about 8 C and now it started to rain. It was pretty cold waiting for the start, and actually getting in to the starting area turned out to be rather difficult, people everywhere. Finally the gun went of and we were of. I decided to take it easy for the first 5K to warm up and then settle in at my avg. speed from 5K. It worked well and there was plenty of space to set you own speed. After a while I didn’t even notice the rain anymore and I just settled in my own groove and rhythm just above 5:00 per km. The only thing that turned out to be an issue was the puddles forming in the road, I did all I could to avoid these cos I didn’t wanna soak my Vibrams to early in the race.

Passing through Brandenburger Tor

My race strategy was to run what some people call a “10-10-10″ strategy. This stands for 10 miles, 10 miles and 10K which adds up to 42K. I wanted to run the first 10 miles a my avg. marathon pace, then for the next 10 miles I would try and up the pace a bit and then for the last 10K just give whatever I had left. After the first 10 miles/16K I upped the pace a bit, but ended up struggling for the next 16K to hold this increased speed and I would constantly slip down and run at a slower pace for a while until I noticed and then sped up again. This elevator running drained my energy so when I hit the 30/32 K mark I was starting to slow down, but I still had the power to push my self to hold a decent pace. When we hit Under Den Linden I was getting ready to finish the last 300 meters of the race at a sprint, so after passing the Brandenburger Tor I took of and finished the race in style. Right after the finish there where mobile bar lined up where you could get and ice cold Erdinger Alcohol Frei, some might think, who wants a beer right after a race, but between you and me this was one of the best tasting beers I have had in a long time.

Finishing the race

Berlin was my 5th marathon and my fastest so far, my time was 03:46:50 and it was the best race I have had so far perfectly executed. I gave my self a big Indian dinner and a couple of ice cold beers to celebrate. Next race would be Calvia Marathon in Mallorca, but that is a different story.

Arrived in Rome late afternoon on Friday18th March. Took the train from the airport to the main train station Termini. The small Bed & Breakfast I was staying at, which was actually an converted large apartment, was located close to the station an just across from the Basicillica de Sct. Maggiore.

Basilica Maggiore

Apart from a short two day business trip a couple of years ago I hadn’t been to Rome for more than 23 years. The first trip was a history excursion with my high school class. After having checked in at the B&B and dropped of my bags and I went out to get something to eat at to see some of the City. Armed with my iPhone map and some wage memories from 23 years ago I went out to explore. I ended up just grabbing a couple of pizza slices from one of the many shops in the streets and spend my time taking in the city. I managed to see, Fontana di Trevi, Pizza Navona, Pizza del Fiori and a couple of other places.

Fontana di Trevi

Saturday came and I went to the Expo to collect my bib no. The setup was pretty well organized even though I did have to stand outside in a long line for approx. 20 min. before I got my no. Then came the worst part, getting out of the expo. The organizers had arrange the layout of the expo as a long winding snake path, with guards at every point where you could potentially make e short cut. After another 15 min. I was out again only to discover that I had forgotten to by some gels for the race. But fortunately the gel stand was right at the start, so I hoed I could quickly sneak out again the same way I came in, but no, I was stopped by a guard and told to take the long road all around the long line of stands ……. That is not the way to do it, sorry Rome, but you are way of here.

The rest of the day I spend walking around Rome in the company of Stephania a local Roman and fellow Couch Surfer. It was nice to see Rome in the company of a local person. And we finished of the day at Trinity College, an Irish Bar, with a couple of ice cold Carlsberg and Guinness.

Forgot the Name

Sunday, Race day and my alarm clock rang at 5:30, I got up and started my traditional race day morning routine, breakfast , coffee and energy drink. Then at 7:00 I went for at walk to get my system going. Then I headed to the starting area located just net to the Colloseum, an absolutely fantastic location. I was wearing my Luna Sandals (Huaraches) and my Sport Kilt and I can tell you it turned some heads …. The most frequent responds was disbeleaf followed by the question “are you gonna run in those?” …. It was good fun. I had brought my small video camera mounted with a gorilla foot tripod to hold on to, so that I could document the entire race.

A bit after 9:00 and the race started, fantastic. This was my first marathon in huarache sandals and I was kinda expecting to have to stop at least once to tighten the laces cos they tend to loosen up after a while. After only about 2k one of the laces actually got untied so I took the opportunity to tighten both at the same time. The entire first 10k was some of the most cowded I have ever tried in a race before. In Barcelona it was extremely crowded for about the first 5k, but opened up after that, this was different. I decided not to spend unnecessary extra energy by trying to pass al these people, so I just settle in at the same pace as the rest of the group. What I later discovered unfortunately was that I also adopted the cadence i.e. I ran with to long steps resulting in slightly over striding. When running in barefoot or in minimalistic footwear over striding I not really a good thing. It put excess strain on both you knees and soles of your feet. This is also the first time that I have had excess knee soreness after a race and I think this was the reason.

At about 10k we hit the Tibern river and followed this for another 5-7k towards the Cathedral of Sct. Peters. Simply an amazing setting. After the very slow first 10k I tried to pick up the pace a bit. I was hoping to hit the halfway point at about 1:52:00, but when I got there my time was 1:57:00 and I was finding it increasingly difficult keeping a satisfactory pace, I didn’t feel a very good flow in my running. At 25K I knew where this was going, it was going down hill, and going down hill fast.

I keep bumping in to this English guy at we chatted a bit every time and all the time I gut encouragements from a lot of other runners. Most of the cheered go Scotland on account of my kilt. I also bumped in to a guy from the Vatican, he was filming me while I was filming him. Being the first time running in a kilt I didn’t really have any idea of what to expect chafing wise and I thought that the amount of Vaseline I had used was okay, but it wasn’t. At appox. 30K I stopped at an aide station got lube up. This is actually the first time in my life that I have put my hand down my own skirt/kilt … and a Vaseline lubed up hand at that, funny.

From 30K I realized that this race was not a question of getting a good time anymore, now it was just a question of finishing. The good thing about it was that the last 10K of the course were absolutely picture perfect. We passed Piazza Venetia, The Spanish Steps, Fontana di Trevi and some many other places I don’t remember the names of. This help a bit in terms of shifting focus from the pain as was in. The last 2K seemed like they would never end, but then we returned to the area of the Colloseum and the finish was within reach. Going around the Colloseum one last time before finishing is by far the best finish stretch in any marathon I have ever run. My time was 04:12:14 the second slowest marathon I have ever run ….. but it was Roma Baby!

Next up is the Brutal Marathon in Aalborg the town I was born and grew up in. It is a 6.9K course you run 6 times and there is a 120M height difference on each round.

Some time back I decided that I wanted to run my first full barefoot marathon in Berlin this September (26. Sept. 2010). But given the fact that I only had experience with barefoot distances of between 10-14 km I decided to test my barefoot form in the Copenhagen Powerade 1/2 Marathon last Sunday (12. Sept.). I was really excited about running a long distance barefoot and at the same time a bit uneasy.

The days leading up to the race I followed the weather forecast carefully cos my barefoot-research (Run Telmann Run) told me that running barefoot in the rain and on wet surfaces was really not a good idea, you feet would would not be able to hold up over a long distance in those conditions. The weather forecast for Sunday was mixed, so I decided to bring my plan B’s, my VFF Sprint, and put them in a belt around my waist only to be used in the case of rain. Did have to cos it stayed dry.

Sunday came and I did as I always do before a race, got up really early to get some breakfast and coffee in well before the time I had to leave for the race (runners: you guys know why right). I always get this uneasy buzz or nervousness in my body before a race, It has been like this all my life before any significant or semi-significant sports activity, soccer, golf, what ever. I get this strange fear of not being able to run at all, I mean not being able to run AT ALL ……. the race starts, and i will just be standing there not able to move my legs, like in a bad dream. I didn’t happen of course.

My race strategy was to run a perfect race in the sense that I wanted to be able to be on top energy wise all through the race and finish strong and avoid the extremely slow finish I had come to know so well from most of my Marathons. So I was going to run by listening to my body all through the race and set a pace just below my long distance max (what ever that is). The best way I can describe it is running at a pace where I feel like I can run forever. But as so often before my excitement got the better of me the first km and I ran that in 04:30, but quickly noticed that I was going to fast, so I adjusted the speed (I was doing 04:45 K’s for a long time). I only looked at my watch very few times the first time was at 10K and 47:00 minutes out.

After about 3K the pace balloon 01:40 past me by and to my joy I saw that the two pacers were running friends from my team at the Athletics club Sparta. I got a lot of credit for running barefoot, even though I do think most of them think I am a bit crazy, ha ha ha. I decided to try to follow them for as long as I could, but still without pushing my self past my own limits. I was able to keep up for about 10K and the distance then just keep increasing, but as long as I could keep the 01:45 balloon behind me I was happy and would be looking at a new PR. At around 14.15K I was kind of feeling a bit of resistance and fortunately we hit different sections where I had to slow down on account of difficult surfaces (cobble stone and rough asphalt) and that actually helped me conserve some energy. So when we hit the the 16K mark I got this really great feeling of floating along with no effort at all, a really great experience and i started to pass quite a few runners. Almost felt their stares in the back of my head as they were thinking, what the hell is this a guy running barefoot just passed me

The great floating feeling didn’t last long though and the next km i was struggling again, but I decided to ease of a bit and save some energy for the last 2K and a strong finish. The route on the last section had been narrowed so now I was forced to run on some very rough asphalt from 19-20K, so I waited for my strong finish until the home stretch and last km, ran in i around 04:30 and the last 300m in 04:09 ….. still barefooted as I had been for the entire race. I later (not that much later) found out that my increased speed the last km when tired had messed up my running style and thus resulted in a couple of rather big blisters on both my feet, but after just 2 days I was back out running again. so even though the blisters hurt some the first day it turned out not to be that serious. The lesson learned here is to focus on form and style all the way through the race and especially at the end and when tired.

I finished in 01:43:51 and improved my Personal Record by 2 minute in BAREFEET!!!!!!! I was a FU….. great race and a very gratifying experience for me. And a big thanks to all of you who helped me along out there with you “Cool”‘s and Respect’s ….. it all worked. Next race is the Berlin Real Marathon on the 26th september.

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??

Me & Barefoot Ted

Yesterday Friday 21st May I had the extreme pleasure of participating in a Barefoot Running Clinic with Barefoot Ted. And the ultra short version: IT WAS GREAT.

Bare Foot Ted is not only a great runner and athlete his is also an amazing person. He spend a long time talking about his back ground and his philosophy on running and running barefoot. And we got to try a series of his own training methods for strengthening you legs before and during barefoot running.

Ted will be running the Copenhagen Marathon barefoot Sunday, I would have loved to join him, but I am opting for my Vibram five Fingers KSO’s only because I am afraid that my home made Huaraches won’t stand the distance without braking …… i simply can’t wait for it to become Sunday … it’s going to be AMAZING, my first Minimalist Marathon

Hi Y’all

Copenhagen Marathon is coming up on Sunday 23rd May and Run With People will be there in full force!! For me (Soren) it will be my first Minimalistic Marathon, in the sense that I will not be running in regular running shoes but will run in minimalistic shoes i.e. Vibram Fivefingers or my recent favorites, my home made Huaraches sandals.

Right now (Thursday) I am still not sure which solution I will choose. I would love to run in my sandals, but I am afraid that they won’t last the full race, and then I will be left with only bare feet to finish the race …… and I am not quite there yet. My Vibrams are the safe solution because I know they will hold up and I know that I can run long distance in them …… well, I will let you all know which ones I choose after the race …

After reading the book “Born to Run” by Christopher Mcdougall in December 2009 I have experimented with different kinds of minimalistic running shoes, primarily Vibram five Finger (KSO). After a slow and some times painful (muscle pain only) transition period of about 2-3 month I really came to love running minimalistic. I even ran a few short runs totally barefoot. With about two weeks left before the Copenhagen Marathon I decided to run the race in my Vibrams, simply because I run better, faster and with great joy than in any pair of reg. running shoes.

But today after completing my first ever run i home made Huarache sandals I think I am going to run the Marathon in those instead. I ran one of my fastest 10.5K training runs this year in the sandals . Huaraches are the original footwear of the Tarahumara Indians in the Copper Canyon in central Mexico. The Tarahumara Indians are known for their exceptional running abilities and stamina, they can run 50+ miles a day for several day in a row and the art of running is a integrated part of the Tarahumaran culture. If you like running I would def. recommend that you check out the book “Born to Run” it’s a really great story.

Do you want to keep fit and improve your speed at the same time? The answer is interval training and even better; interval training on hills or on slopes. Go for a 5-6K run and incorporate 5-6 30 sec. speed sections up hill. It will take your breath away, but you will feel the change very quickly. And if your are in Copenhagen there is no better place to do this than in the Frederiksberg Garden, check it out on the map. this was tip of the day from Run With People.

The weather right now in Copenhagen is snowy and in the sub zero degrees Celsius, but that doesn’t stop us from running and keeping fit. Her you can see a couple of pictures from my 19.5k run the 28th January … it was cold and very slippery. Also check out our new FACEBOOK page right HERE.