Saturday, just before noon, my husband took me to run the course of the Lake Lowell 10K. I have run 6-7 miles barefoot a couple of times lately on a course with quite a variety of asphalt, but know that the more out in the country one gets around here, the rougher the roads tend to be. Speed work two days prior to this trial run, on a nubby rubber track, had been a little more challenging for the bottoms of my feet and toes than I had anticipated. I suspected that I would have to run most of Saturday’s 10K in my running moccasins.
Besides the somewhat tender state of my soles, I knew that a portion of the road provides lake access for boats. There is always a lot of traffic on the narrow winding road. As I anticipated, we did have to frequently step quite a ways off into the gravel and weeds. The race is scheduled to begin at 9AM, so hopefully there will be substantially less traffic on Iowa Avenue, and along Middleton Road.
At Roosevelt Avenue, I wanted to take off my moccasins for a while. I was faced with a dilemma that I haven’t figured out how I’m going to deal with for the race. I don’t think my feet are ready for the whole race bare footed, but NOW those same feet aren’t used to running that whole way in shoes either! I may have to just stop in the middle of the race and take the Moc3’s off. Fortunately, the mocs are light and fold well. I might even be able to get back to running while putting them in my hip bag. They are also quite easy to slip on and off, but I do still wear socks with them. Maybe I need to get over that?
I ran my regular course today, about 6.2 miles, bare footed for 6 miles of it. It felt good. My feet are happy and less stimulated than previously. However, on Saturday I could feel through my Moc3’s that the race course has much longer rough sections of road than what I have worked up to at this point. It remains to be seen how much of the race I end up running in bare feet.