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The North Country Trail Races held in Manistee, Michigan proved to be a memorable experience.  Personally, the race was an abysmal failure (more on that later).  Despite my own poor showing, this was a weekend filled with great stories. The 50 Mile Finish The headline HAS to be the finish of the 50 miler.  Jesse Scott , my occasional training partner, pacer at Burning River , and friend was running his first-ever 50 miler.  He battled with Brad Hinton over the last miles of the course that culminated in a neck-and-neck sprint at the end.  See the video here: After some delay, Brad was awarded first (Brad in white), Jesse second (shirtless).  In my biased opinion, I think Jesse crossed the finish line first.  Unfortunately the officials (I believe the decision was made by Bart Yasso) ruled in favor of Brad.  Both Jesse and Brad were absolute class-acts and perfectly epitomize the sport of ultrarunning. The finish was even more dramatic as Brad had went off-course very early in the ra

For a barefoot runner, I spend an inordinate amount of time testing shoes.  Even though I prefer to run barefoot, there are times when the protection of shoes is a welcome luxury.  Sometimes shoes are an absolute necessity.  My philosophy of shoe use is simple- run barefoot when you can. If you need the protection of shoes, use the most minimal shoe for the job.  The only way to assess the best shoe for any given situation is to test all options repeatedly.  Over time, huaraches have proven to be a great catch-all solution for almost every situation requiring shoes.  The genius of the huarache sandal is the simplicity of function.  It is a piece of material suspended below your foot with a piece of binding material, usually leather or twine. With every other minimalist shoe, some element of the shoe design interferes with foot function.  Vibrams unnaturally separate your toes and fit can be an issue as your foot must conform to the predetermined shape.  EVOs are snug around the ankles

Human behavior fascinates me.  Human behavior in relation to barefoot and minimalist shoe running fascinates me even more.  I have been in a position to observe the progression of this phenomenon for a number of years.  The entire movement can be framed within the context of the sociological/anthropological concept of the diffusion of innovations .  The concept outlines the progression of any given innovation within a society.  It is somewhat odd to consider barefoot (BFR) and minimalist shoe running (MR) as an "innovation", but it does represent a significant change in our society's collective thoughts on running.  After all, we ran barefoot or in minimalist shoes for tens of thousands of years.  The modern running shoe has been around for thirty.  The idea of framing BFR/MR within the context of the diffusion of innovation came from repeated discussions with individuals within the running shoe industry.  Over the years, I've had the opportunity to discuss BFR/MR wit

Over the last year or so, I began seeing more and more runners sporting various leg and arm compression sleeves.  I tend to shy away from things that appear to be fad-like, which is where I placed compression sleeves. My opinions changed after Shelly purchased a pair of matching pink arm and leg sleeves.  She bought them for the UV protection aspect, though I'm sure the aesthetics of the pink color swayed her purchasing decision.  She tried them on various runs and wore them for a few races.  She praised them often, but I wasn't convinced. During a long run, she commented that she felt faster when wearing the sleeves.  Hmmm... that piqued my interest.  I was considering giving them a try, but couldn't quite pull the trigger.  The clincher came when I read a blog post by my friend Dr. Scott Hadley (the physical therapist that gave my the calf-rolling self treatment from his TrekoClinics site).  He discussed an article that appeared in the Journal of Strength and Condition

When running barefoot, the foot strike (I prefer the term foot "kiss") often receives unnecessary focus.  New barefoot runners will spend so much time trying to master the nuances of the "perfect" foot strike, they will ignore more important elements such as posture, relaxation, etc. I routinely instruct people to do whatever feels natural.  The idea is simple- if you follow my advice of starting on a smooth, hard surface, foot strike will take care of itself.  If you land with a heavy heel strike or overstride, pain will ensue.  Giving detailed instructions cannot account for the natural variation in anatomy.  We're all different.  As such, our foot strike will look slightly different.   I land on the lateral side of my sole and roll my foot inward.  Others land more towards the center of their midfoot.  How you do it is mostly inconsequential as long as you can accurately react to the feedback from your feet. There is one issue that arises repeatedly.  many ne

With so many things happening, it is impossible to write a single post about each.  Instead, I will occasionally write a quick summary of current happenings. The Barefoot Event at Schuler Thanks to everyone that attended the Schuler Books barefoot running event in Grand Rapids last night!  We had a great crowd!  Thanks for Dr. Dave Asselin of PT 360, Tiler Webster of Gazelle Sports , and Emily Stavrou of Schuler Books !  I had the opportunity to meet a lot of great people. The Seven Day Minimalist Challenge Beginning today, I am going to start a seven day challenge to continue my journey to a more minimal lifestyle.  I'm still in the "getting rid of junk" phase.  The difficulty is allotting the time to cull my possessions.  This challenge will help towards this end.  Here's the plan: Over the next seven days, I will throw out, donate, or recycle 100 of my possessions each day.  Hopefully this will seriously reduce my clutter. Update on the Paleo Diet So far, so good

The second edition of The barefoot Running Book is now available!  For those that pre-ordered, the books should ship on Wednesday.  They are currently available on the Barefoot Running University website.  For those of you that prefer Amazon, they will be available very soon ( see page here ).   The cost is $14.95.  I kept the price the same as the first, but it expanded from 61 to 188 pages.  Check out the BRU book page for more information!   To celebrate the finished project, I am holding a contest to give away two books.  Here's how it will work: Think of your best barefoot running tips. List each one as a comment under this post. I will send one copy to the person that lists the most legitimate tips, and I will send one copy to the person that left the last tip when I wake up tomorrow morning.  For those of you that like strategy, it will help to know about what time I normally wake up.  Facebook friends , you may have a bit of an advantage with that one... :-) Good luck! 

August 14th, Fallsburg marathon , Lowell, Michigan.  I set a personal worst for the marathon distance.  I experienced things in this race I have never experienced before.   Cramping.   Dead legs.  Extreme nausea. To top it off, I missed a turn and ran an alternate route for about a mile.  I have a seriously painful bruise on the arch of my left foot.  My body feels the cumulative effects of being beaten up repeatedly, and is not responding well. Despite all this, Fallsburg proved to be one of the most fun races I've had the opportunity to participate in.  I got to watch Shelly finish her first marathon ( read her race report here ), which she totally rocked!  I was exposed to an entirely new set of trails I had never run before.  I got to catch up with several people and meet many more. Shelly and Jen Jordan finishing Before the race, I was able to chat with a bunch of people including fellow Hallucination 100 finisher Tim Adair, Barefoot Runners Society Michigan Chapter president

My good friends over at Ted's Google Group started a thread on paleo wiping.  This reminded me of several questions I've received over the years regarding the delicate issue of pooping during ultras.  I am always a little surprised this question does not come up more often.  Here's the situation- you're thirty miles into a 50 mile run.  You're surrounded by nothing but untamed wilderness.  You have to drop a #2.  Since there are no porta-potties for another 20 miles, you are left with no choice but to drop drawers and let loose.  I always assume everyone has the benefit of being raised in the sticks.  I sometimes forget my suburbanite friends have probably never had the opportunity to hone their wilderness bowel movement skills.  I am also somewhat surprised at the amount of anxiety some people feel at the thought of dropping a deuce outside the friendly confines of the plastic vertical coffins neatly lined up at the start line of races.  My first bit of advice- pra