This was a race I found out a few months ago by chance on Runnet. For some reason I decided to invite Hiroshi, and he signed right up as well. It's a race I didn't know anything about, but it seemed like a good distance (HM) and not too much of a hassle to get to.
For about two weeks before race, I was trying to decide if I was going to go out hard, or just run with Hiroshi and go barefoot. This was partially due to the fact that I started to get ITBS in my right knee after doing a 100k week, and partly because I know that racing hard makes me anxious and screws up my stomach, which is a hassle.
I still couldn't decide the day before the race, so I brought shoes and figured I would decide when I arrived. I ended up going with Taiyo because Chikako said she would watch him with their girls while we were running. They missed their train in the morning, so Taiyo and I ended up going ahead. It was a really long ride with a crowded train, and it was a bit of a haul from the train station as well. When we got to the site, I decided to leave my fate in Taiyo's hands. I asked him if I should run with shoes or no shoes, and he responded immediately, 'no shoes'. In any case, Hiroshi and family were too late for us to get a good place at the start, and I had no time to warm up.
When they did arrive, there was only about 20 minutes left to the gun, so we when to the starting line, and there were a ton of people there. I was obviously the only barefooter, and was hoping that the roads would be smooth. the first 3k or so were so packed with people it was hard to move. Then it started to open up, and I got caught up in the excitement and took off. I ended up running the first 10k in about 48 min, and my feet were already feeling a bit sore, especially the outside of my right foot. By the halfway, I was pretty worried about being able to finish, so I found a medic and got some tape for my right foot. It helped, but the roads were a bit rough, and it was getting painful. Hiroshi caught up with me, and I looped around to run with him, but eventually he lost me as the roads were making it hard for me to keep a decent pace. I tried to catch him at one point, but I was worried about damaging my feet and couldn't do it.
I hit the 16k mark and felt confident that I could finish, if slowly. And slow it was, I finished in 1:51, the slowest I've ever run that distance, even in training. My feet were in better shape than I thought, and within two days they were fine.
The lesson learned is that it was not a great idea to do this since I had not been doing any BF running lately. I also hated being passed by so many people that I know were slower runners than me, and I hated missing the opportunity to be out front with the fast guys. I thought going easy and BF would be fun, but it was a bit too painful to be fun, and the competitive side of me was definitely not satisfied.
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