When I met Steve Hooper for the first time we talked about running up to the top of Pine Valley Mountain. I was still trail running in Solomon GTX’s and pretending to run like the Taraumara. So Up to the top of PVM was a shod goal, a barefoot marathon, and other adventures were still a few years ahead of me. As many of you know Steve is quite famous here in St George as a capable ultra-runner / marathoner and the owner of the St George Running Center. On my 41^st Birthday I set a goal for myself to run up to the top of Pine Valley Mountain Barefoot. I remember telling Michelle that I was going to do this but was unsure if I could. I then forgot about this goal.

Two weeks ago, Steve says to me, “Hey do you want to run up to the top of Pine Valley Mountain and do research for an Ultra here in St. George?” “Yes!” was my answer.

June 2^nd 2010 we took off from Steve’s house to the Oak Grove Camp Grounds. I had on my Vibram Sprints as my feet were quite tender from the training I have been doing. “Yea I don’t think I will be doing this barefoot this morning” I said to Steve. “Good idea” he replied. We set out on the trail at a relaxed conversational pace, my body still working to get used to the starting elevation around 6000 feet. For two weeks I have been dreading this run as I was not sure if my body was ready. I have lost about 10 lbs and I am picking up the pace for my 6 and 12 mile runs, but for some reason the climb made me a bit nervous.

I ran for about 15 minutes, my Calves and Achilles burning, and then I got a rock in under the pad of my foot. I took off my Vibram Sprints removed the debris and pondered for a second, and then decided the make the run barefoot. My Calves stopped burning, my speed increased, and I was smiling from ear to ear.

Except for the rattlesnake on the trail, I had a blast playing catch up to Steve who was burning up the trail.

When I got to the top I remembered my goal of doing this run barefoot. It was quite an emotional feeling to be on top of the world, checking of a significant achievement for myself, and to do it with Steve Hooper. YES! Wow what an incredible feeling.

Incredible view – Steve to the left and me on the right.

Yes it is always required to do pushups at the top. AARUGHA!

YES! It felt good.

Steve looking at the trail going over into the town of Pine Valley completely snow packed. If we do do an Ultra here it would have to be in the Fall.

Listen to what Bob Babbitt and Paul Huddle of competitor radio have to say about the event:

http://competitorradio.competitor.com/2010/05/eric-abbott/

“Hardest run course anywhere” – Chris McDonald in his pre-race interview: go to 9:54 to hear the snippet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1TTeVLdG0k&feature=player_embedded#!

Also from what I heard from the rumor mill the race had the 2nd highest DNF of any Ironman event.

Can It Be Done Barefoot?

I have always wondered if an Ironman event could be done barefoot. Ever since I set my sights on running a Marathon barefoot it has been in the back of my mind. I first heard about Ironman races back in the eighties when I was in high school. Big athletic bodies moving out of the water on national television to mount bicycles (Just like in Breaking Away ) and then to run a Marathon (Just like Bill Rogers and company). For a tall skinny kid, the Ironman, in my mind was the ultimate athletic warrior event. No anorexic marathoners did these kinds of events. You had to be strong, you had to be big. It was little wonder that I found my way into the Marine Corps right after high school. I was off on a great adventure to Washington DC to learn how to guard the president. Along the way I found a set of original manuscripts by a Navy Chaplain, Ray Willian Stubbe, who wrote the history of the Marines 1st Force Reconnaissance Company. I was so motivated by this manuscript, that I could think of nothing else but getting invited to join this unit, and so began my journey.

On the corner of Marine Barracks 8^th and I streets you could find me on most mornings in an intense callisthenic workout announcing to the world where I was going. I ran, and I swam like I was possessed. My body began to resemble those mighty runners that I watched on ABC wide world of sports running in Kona. My focus was not going to Hawaii but to take the entrance test for one of the most elite fighting units in the world. At the pre-qual event I was selected to move on to the selection test. “The best we have seen in the water to date” wrote one evaluator. I continued to train. Five others from Marine Barracks joined me on this quest.

80 kilometers
Pack full of sand
on a Solo March
Quantico Virginia in February
Snowing
3AM Swimming
2 Miles of Frigid Water
ICE breaking against my head
Leaking Holy Neoprene
Shivering
3 Hours of Sleep
Hungry
Go Go Go
Wait a Minute Bushes
Map is Gone
100 Pushups the Cost for
a New Map
Run, Run, March
Push, Push, Push
Stay in The Woods
Do Not be Seen
I Am First
6 Hour Gap between
The Next Marine and me
Fastest to Date

AARUGHA!

I was in!

Soon I was married and traded in my adventures to be a Family man.

In 2005 I suffered a severe kidney infection and renal failure that put me in the hospital for a week and in severe pain.

In 2006 I could barely run up a hill 500 yards without feeling like I was dying.

Run a Marathon? Not even in my frame of reference.

Run it barefoot? Not even plausible.

Fast forward to 2010 and here I am watching one of the greatest sporting events ever designed. Ironman! It was here in my town – St. George Utah.

I found a terrific spot, with my four of my children, to watch the bike and run sections of the event just above the corner of Bluff and Sunset. The twins where hooked up to their harnesses and were fascinated by the riders screaming down the long downhill section on their bikes. We got there just in time to see first, second and third place finishers for both the men and women pass by us and starting their first loops of the run course.

WOW!

I kept looking over at Steve Hooper with his family. He had the same glint in his eye. You could tell just by his look that he was signing up for 2011. So was I!

I was inspired, I was stoked, but there was a knot in my gut.

If I ran the St. George Ironman, I would have to run it barefoot!

“I want to do this race.” I repeated in my mind, alternating that affirmation with questions such as: “Can I do it barefoot? Can I drop the enough weight? What do the rules say? Will my feet be in strong enough for a Marathon after the run and swim? And so on.”

The feelings going through my body brought me back to when I decided to run the St George Marathon barefoot. I knew I could do it, but at the same time both fear and adrenaline where pumping through my body.

When I got back home I read through all of the official rules and nowhere did it say that shoes were a mandatory piece of equipment.

That night Michelle and I watched Ironman competitors continue to cross the finish line. It was inspiring. Some breaking down into tears as they reached the last 20 yards to cross the line knowing they achieved something extra-ordinary. Chills went up and down my body. Walking back to our car that night my wife Michelle asked me what I wanted to do, knowing that I was aching to compete in an Ironman. “RUN THE ST. GEORGE IRONMAN BAREFOOT!” I screamed!

It was out. I declared it to the Universe, and Michelle said that I had her full support to do this.

The following day – Sunday – I was just beginning the final hour of my church meetings when I could no longer take it anymore. I had to go and drive the run course. So I quietly left the meeting, jumped in the car, drove the 5 minutes to the start of the run course, and then drove the course. I stopped at the Elks Lodge and got out. Super rough pavement – just one short section though, and not any harder than the St. George Marathon – “Yea I can do this!” I said out loud. I met Michelle and the rest of my family coming out of Church. I was smiling from ear to ear. “Yea it’s doable” I said to Michelle.

2011 St George Ironman – I will be there, sans shoes, with a number scribbled on my arms and legs.

Michael Carroll

Some pictures of local heroes, and a link to a story
about the guy (Jeff Rodes) who crashed and finished.

Lindsey Merrill – Local age group favorite ends up with 2^nd place finish

Lindsey Merrill on the bike

Lindsey Merrill – 2^nd place age group

Steve Olson – Another speedy local –Should have been ahead of Lindsey – Hmmm.

Jeff Rhodes is the hero of the day!

So here we are watching the top pros go by, then the top age groupers, and then we see this guy all bandaged up running up 18 in his first loop of the marathon. He is getting huge applause and chills are running up and down my arms and neck. With speeds that we were seeing from cyclists coming down 18 you know this guy has crashed at high speed. Somehow he has climbed back on the bike and made it to T-2 and refuses to give up. Seriously this guy is an Ironman in the full sense of the word. I wonder what he said to the paramedics who patched him up. We could only guess whether he finished or not, my bet was that he did.

This morning I found the full write up for the rest of the story for this champion:

t

http://ironman.com/columns/ironmanlife/kevin-mackinnon-catches-up-with-three-men-who-truly-embody-the-spirit-of-ironman

Dang! I just think about this story and I get chills.

The twins – future triathletes – completely wiped out!

Last Note

From an organizational standpoint I was blown away by how clean the race was. “Leave no Trace” was certainly the word of the day.

When my son saw the edit he said that it looked like you were walking. What the video does not do very well is show how steep the terrain is. As I was finishing my run I smacked my big toe on a piece of lava rock – which would explain the blood at the end of the video. Running in this kind of terrain demands focus. Holding a camera off to one side is just enough to get hurt. LOL!

http://redrocksbluesky.com/fivefingerfinder

This is my first attempt at putting video up on the blog. Let me know what you think?

It has been raining like crazy. My feet finally healed up enough to have a bit of fun. Running barefoot in the mud is the only way to go. YES!

I am standing in my backyard (January 2010) after a mud run and having a blast. Yes those are shoes. My foot had split in three places, barefoot running in mud was out of the question, and so I threw on my old trusty Solomon GTX trail shoes (inserts removed) on. To much fun…

It takes me back to the glory days of Friday Fun Runs in the Marine Corps, except I was covered in mud from head to toe. Yep! good memories both now and then. Urrugah!

Michael Carroll

I would first press, against the wall or my footboard of my bed, alternating pressure on the backs of my calves, achilles, and foot, by pushing my  knees forward and down.

I would then go into a monkey squat and work out any remaining tweaks in my lower body from my knees to my feet by adjusting my body weight left and right, forward and back.

Ok now fast forward to 2010 and my a new season of barefoot training. On my agenda this year are two races; the Sapper Joe 50K, and the St. George Marathon. I will do the first in homemade huaraches, and the latter barefoot. Both are rough course races. To prepare I have been running trails and asphalt that are rough. One thing that is peculiar about the start of this season though is that I am waking up in the morning with none of the soreness and achy-ness that I described above.

Hmmm…

1. I took an extended break about 3 months November to January. Running minimal miles.

2. I feel stronger in my feet, calves, and upper legs than I ever have since I have started running.

3. I have eaten well.

4. I am having more fun running barefoot than I have ever had.

Michael Carroll

Large cracks on the foot are call fissures.

Many of you who have followed my posts have read some of my posts whining and complaining about my right foot. Well for the last two weeks I have not been able to run barefoot at all, let alone walk barefoot.

Extremely frustrating. Many of the comments that have been forward to me about this problem has been to pee on my feet. Still not ready to do that as it stinks up the shower. Yea I tried it once. However I did find that many dermatoligist have been prescribing 20 to 40% UREA in a lotion format. So I trek down to the local Wallgreens and find a bottle of  lotion that contains UREA.

The Result – in two days I am running.

In addition to this I am scrubbing my feet with an activated charcoal soap with a scrub brush after each barefoot excursion, and each night. I apply the lotion in the morning and in the evening.

Regards,

Michael Carroll

As a former heel striker, and a clydesdale athlete, I am used to destroying shoes to the point that they must be discarded into a bin of well loved shoes after only a few hundred miles. Every once in a while I find this bin and pull out a pair of these old shoes and feel the journeys flash back in my mind. Like my first four hour run through the desert attempting to summit Utah peak and how I had to make a cell phone call to get extracted from a nearby fire road. I was out of water, and my feet, could take me no further.

My mileage that I have listed above is a good approximation as I have made it a point to ditch the watch and gps monitors. If anything I have rounded down and have been conservative in my reporting.

I expected the KSO’s to be done at the 500 mile mark and for them to be tossed into the bin of love. But they continue to serve me well. I have been meaning to write this review a hundred miles ago, but just did not feel inspired to do so until now. Most of my mileage on asphalt is done barefoot, but when I head to the trails, I have relied on my KSO’s to take care of my feet. Now having said that it should be clear that this is a love hate relationship as I feel that the KSO and it variants have a significant weakness in their design. The weakness that I speak of is how easy it is to injure your small toe wearing the the KSO’s. Later on in the review I will detail out my solution.

The side view of my five finger KSO’s above make the wear look pretty good and minus, but the front view is a different question.

Now look at the close up shot of the rear side and see how the KSO is coming all apart. If it was not for the straps are pulling everything together the shoe would disintegrate quickly.

So what is happening on the bottom of the sole? It continues to get thinner and thinner. Which for me is good as I am working to perfect my barefoot running and all I need on my trail runs is just a bit of rubber to take the edge off the sharp rocks on the trail. Landing light with good form is why I believe these KSO’s have lasted as long as they have.

If you trail run barefoot, or wear a ultra minimal sandals like Barefoot Ted’s Huarache’s, your small digits are left un-protected, but rarely have I injured them except for a few abrasions from the lava rocks out here. But in KSO’s I have constantly had my small toes injured. I believe this is because the rubber construction of toes insulates the toes just enough that your foot and leg cannot react fast enough to pull back the way it does when just running barefoot. To make matters worse the rubber is sticky so it also wants to grab and hang on to whatever it has made contact with. The rubber protecting the small digits is also angled in such a way that it assists the stickiness factor. In barefooting, or wearing shoes with a complete toe box, your foot wants to operate as a whole unit, but in five fingers, the toe is isolated and the forces of an impact or a snag puts the maximum force on your small toe. Currently my left small toe is almost twice the size as it sibling on the right.

Now having said that, I have been pondering a solution, and implemented it during my desert trail run yesterday to upper and lower graveyard. My hypothesis is that If the small toe was connected to its larger brother next to it, it might have more support to handle small impacts and snags. So I took a needle and thread and sewed the top of the rubber sections of the small toes together. Now in nowise did this change the dynamic of how the shoes performed or functioned. The results after one day of testing — I do believe this will be standard procedure for all future five fingers that I will own.

One more note on this: The next time that I sew the two digits together I will use a stronger thread. Maybe some goretex thread as it is practically unbreakable. As I was using pliers to pull the needle and thread through the rubber I kept breaking the thread as it looped through the needle itself. I would have like to put in a few more stitches and knotted it off, but this was the best I could do with just normal sewing thread.

On the inside I am getting a lot of de-lamination and shredding of the material lining the heal and fore foot areas.

Zoomed in view of the damage.

Conclusion: I am impressed at how well my KSO’s have held up. However, I run completely different than I used to run. Barefoot running is about the business of running light. But you just cannot run barefoot like in any modern running shoes on the market.

KSO’s let me do what I could not do barefoot, but allow me to run barefoot. I am looking forward to Vibram’s TREK shoes to run longer trail marathons in the Ultra-Range. I do not see a change in the design of the toes, so I will sew the pinky toe up.

My only limitations that I see with running Ultra distances in these shoes has more to do with my conditioning than the way the shoes are constructed. With shoes, you certainly can run longer distances, but defects in your strength are well hidden and will only come out as injuries.

I am looking forward to the new minimalist shoes that are coming out on the market and hope to train in them. At the present moment the best tool on the market for running trail Ultra’s is the KSO.

Thanks for reading my review.

Michael Carroll