Burning River Initial Report, The Barefoot Running Book Pre-order, and The Barefoot Book giveaway!

Burning River

Well, I finished the Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Run this weekend!  While I did not meet my goal of running the entire race barefoot (I decided to wear huarache sandals after mile 33.3), I did set a 100 mile PR (27:48 or so).  

It was an awesome weekend!  Tons of thanks goes to my excellent crew consisting of my wife Shelly, Jesse Scott, and Barefoot Art.  I met a ton of wonderful people, got to spend time with friends I don't see often, and experienced the full Burning River course.  A full race report will be forthcoming, but here are a few highlights:

• I wore a kilt for the entire race,
• My "Mike's Hard Lemonade and chia" iskiate worked as planned,
• I realized drinking 92 ounces of beer the night before a race and getting four hours of sleep is a bad idea,
• I am considering abandoning my goal of running a barefoot 100 miler and focusing on getting competitive,
• I am very good at powering up hills, but equally bad at running down hills,
• I need to do more back-to-back long runs to reduce the amount of walking after the half-way point,
• I am capable of a pretty good kick, even at the end of a 100 miler.  Thanks to Jesse's inspiration and Shelly's leadership, I managed to crank out a 12:00 pace for the last 4.8 miles, highlighted by a 6:45 sprint over the last 100 yards.

Photo courtesy Laurie Colón

The race report will be written over the course of this week and will be posted here.  Check back often. :-)

In other news...

The second edition of "The Barefoot Running Book: A Practical Guide to the Art and Science of Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Running" is almost done!  I am very excited; this edition is a significant improvement over the first edition.  To celebrate, I am offering it for only $9.99 + shipping and handling for about two weeks.  For those that order it, the book should arrive from the printer around the last week in August.  I will ship them as soon as they arrive.

The book can be pre-ordered here: CLICK HERE

Finally...

Just a reminder- you can win a copy of Daniel Howell's excellent "The Barefoot Book" by following these directions before August 4th (this Wednesday).