The photos are a joint effort by VAN 1, I know who took some of them, others I don't recall. As well as runners, they are great picture takers too- it was a very talented bunch.

What is Cascade Lakes Relay ???  CLR is a relay that goes from Diamond Lake to Bend, Oregon- a 216.6 mile relay race in which you have 2 vans of 6 runners each. You pass a snap bracelet through all the runners in van 1 and then through van 2  each runner will have 3 legs to complete and the distances can be varied, the terrain is always different and it is almost always at an elevation of 4,000 ft.

I don't quite know how to start this one. I feel helpless in using words to explain all that this relay meant to me, or how it challenged me, or changed me. Going into it I was clueless as to how difficult it would be, and pretty stupid in my training- I haven't run over 8 miles in, well maybe 4 months. I just thought I would run 3 chill legs of 7.5 miles, 6.5 miles and 7.5 miles, and I figured the pace I had quoted the team captain even would give me a little cushion to not worry in the least and just enjoy the run. I was very wrong. It was still very fun, and I miss it now- most of the ladies and I were strangers when we started and true team mates when it was done.

GO RED CAPES!!! Our team was The Just Us League- we wore capes, and it was fun.

I started my first leg of the relay-leg 3, in the heat of the day and at about 4,000ft elevation and no gain during the run to speak of. I didn't have my Garmin (running watch) so I wasn't sure as to how far I had gone or what I had left. I probably dumped a gallon of water on myself and wished I had more. It was miserable and I kept feeling really slow- but at the end of it I was right on pace. I realised then that there was no way I could keep that up for the next two legs- that realisation was gut wrenching. You see, being lazy when you are only running for yourself is different than taking it easy when everyone else is working really hard. I knew I had to give it all I had and that that wouldn't be much, and I was worried it wouldn't be enough.

See below for during and after. During the smile is genuine, the second shot has me questioning my sanity.  The look in my eyes can be translated "I can't go another step and I am only 1/3 of the way done. Can I cry now?"

I loved the team. I really wanted to help them, and knew they were there for me as well. It was an amazing experience.

The scenery, well- look for yourself. It was a gift from God. He is such an artist.

After we all had run our first and second legs we spent the night sleeping in La Pine at the local high school, in the gym. Runners were coming in at all hours of the night while their van 2 was running, they were also heading out at all times of the night. Clanking happening, alarms constantly going off...it was an adventure in sleeplessness. We got there at 2 am, left around 5 am- I don't think I slept for more than 1 hour. It was nice to lay down though.

I was again the 3rd runner from our van and at this point I didn't know if I could actually run. My stomache felt like I had swallowed rocks mixed with air bubbles, my legs were not moving well, I was hungry and natious all at once. My little toes were numb and in pain intermittently. It was sure to be fun. I took off and was feeling pretty good for the first 2 or 3miles but then the last 4.5 miles of my run just were a climb, it wasn't even a steep climb, or much gain, but I was hurting. After I had already run 2 other legs, my own legs had nothing to offer and I started to falter.

I looked up ahead and saw the van stopped in the middle of the road. As I ran by Janine jumped out (the same runner who had just handed off to me after completing her last leg) and said, " I am going to run with you, unless it makes you feel bad-then I won't".

I can still barely talk about this leg. My last leg, and where my friend Janine Arthur gave me so much more than she knows, so much more than 4 extra miles she didn't have to run.

You know how some things really speak to your heart, this did it for me. Janine is not  my hero because she is a great runner, or because of her dedication to her training- which was why she was a hero of mine before, now she is even more a hero in my book because she had already done her duty,  because she has nerve pain in her feet and quite possibly could have been in more pain than me--and still she stuck with me, I don't have words of gratitude that could express how that spoke to me. She already had run her race and then she helped me run mine.  She didn't ask me if she could run with me, she knew I needed it and she just did. A true friend is something rare these days, and I have one.

I finished my leg, stride by stride and then I was done. I passed the baton snap bracelet on to Heather, and she passed it on to Natasha and then Olivia did her crazy climb leg (notice the smile on her face, she is a trooper!!).

Once we were down to the last leg we awaited our last runner close to the finish, and then we all crossed that together. It was amazing. We did it!!!

We took 2nd place in the women's division and arrived the 34th team out of the 175 including all male and co-eds. I don't think I'll be able to resist it next year, it was a true adventure.

We ran 216.6 miles in  30hrs. 51min. and 10sec.

Yeah for Team Just Us League!!! GO RED CAPES!!!

Share/Save

Here is a trail run I'll take you on. Starting in Corvallis, Oregon at the Oak Creek Parking lot and heading up towards Mulkey hill. For the exact directions go here. It is about 7 miles there and back. Climb up 1,217ft, and then 1,217 ft back down...well worth every step.

The trail goes up and up and up. I wore a camelpack and realized early on that my dog needed the water much more than I did- also that he needed a summer shave when we got home, as it was just too hot for him to run with all his winter wool.

I decided to give Julius some water, with the intention of drinking after him.  When I saw the insane amount of floaties he deposited in the water after he was through and saw him eat horse poo all the way up I decided unless I was in extreme need of that water I would just let him have the rest. I was never in extreme need.

There was finally a tiny downhill after the whole way there of a climb- it is about 1200ft of a climb in just 3.5 miles. If it sounds easy, you either are a much better trail runner than I am, or you are clueless.

Then, the view. Wait for it, wait for it....Woah.

It is much easier to run up a trail, when your eyes are distracted by beauty.

The top of Fitton Green, God made beauty that I couldn't stop admiring. And it was a great spot to catch our breath!

I highly recommend this run up to Fitton Green, and even if you can't go that far there is a way to drive up most of the way and just see the beauty. Somehow though I wonder if something you work hard for is much more beautiful than something that comes easy.

What could be more beautiful than admiring this sight and knowing that the whole way back is DOWNHILL!? A beautiful feeling.

Believe it or not there are more pictures, if you are interested see my Running Set on Flickr

Wanna run??

Share/Save

I've been on this minimalist endeavor for a little over two months, and I have had significant ups and downs in my learning to run, or remembering how to run, as some put it. When I started trotting around in the Minimus they felt so much like regular shoes (from being used to my huraraches) that I threw all the caution of stretching and starting slow to the wind and embraced my inner minimalist runner. Oh, the joy of running better, learning to lift rather than push off- lovely. But like you will know if you have been doing this for any length of time, go slow, little baby steps are much better than nursing a too tight calf muscle or other injuries. So like I said, these are a dream to run in, and that dream ended quick because I was not cautious-I was in love.

They felt so good, so quickly that they gave me a false sense of security. I ran 2 miles at a time for the first couple days and then jumped right into 7 miles,5 miles the next day and 7 miles the day after- no rest, no stretching= no brains. I was the cause of my own demise. Since that last 7 mile trail run in my lovely NB Minimus- I have hobbled, hopped, ibuprofened and iced my way back to health. It only took two and a half very slow non-running weeks to do it. It isn't the fault of the shoes, it is that they feel so good and make you feel so free that you just can't stop!!

So my injury was all my fault, I didn't stretch my calves, I ran three longer-than-I-had-been-running runs in a row, and also ran with a fast runner and so could not concentrate on my stride and it was just the combo of all this silliness that reduced me to a limper (and non-runner) for the better of two and a half weeks.  How did it happen? Because of tight calves (a problem with many minimalist runners, especially the newbies), no stretching and daily running there was an inflammation of the bersa of the heel. I still don't completely understand what it is, but I know it can hurts!!! I initially thought the heel pain was from my over-striding and the impact of the landing on my feet, but as the swelling has gone down and the pain became more localized I could tell exactly where it was coming from and then I knew my problem. Since then I have really stretched and re-stretched and completely stretched again that calf area on both legs- each time I could literally feel the pain get better. Oh, the lessons we learn!!

This clip saved me!! (Thanks Jonah :) All minimalist and barefoot runners need to do these stretches, no excuse:

Back to the Minimus Trail shoe.  Since my recovery from this self-induced injury I have run in my Trail Minimus 3 times so far and  at a way quicker pace than I had been. I have been delighted with no pain, NONE. When I think "lift, lift, lift, lift" instead of "pound, pound, pound" while running I know I have way better form and this all combines to give me a run that I am ecstatic about each time. When I don't push off with my feet but think "lift" instead it feels like floating rather than running. And if I just make sure I stretch those calves and re-stretch them I know I will float on these shoes for months to come.

Final first month impression of my New Balance Minimus Trail shoes: they are da bomb! They are light, bend with my foot, are wide enough to fit my wider forefoot and fit snuggly at my narrow heel and I have no heel rub. The upper is very durable, I would know since I got lost in some thistles and walked through a wheat field in them and they are just as good as new). The interior does feel dreamy-so soft and comfy, BUT I recommend wearing socks if it is a pretty hot day because when you sweat in them along with the friction of your toes- you will end up with some pretty gnarly blisters. On cooler days where my feet won't drip sweat no socks has worked just fine. The soles are made of vibram rubber (yes the same material used on the Vibram Five fingers- minus the ape toe look!) so they are extremely durable. They even LOOK good! People stop me all the time to ask what they are and then want to buy them just for wearing with jeans! They come in really good colours so that would be easy to pull off. Personally I think they need to run in them, but that is just because they feel so good when I lace them up that it would be really hard for me not to.

FLEXIBLE SOLES AND UPPERS: Love it!

Lss <=> mor: so, so true!

Note: If you have never tried minimal running shoes before I would recommend starting in an even more minimalist shoe than this. I would recommend the huaraches for your first shoe so you can feel the wrong and right way to run and then go to these from there. If you run in these with poor form you can injure yourself, as you could with any minimalist shoe- purchase at your own risk, and remember STRETCH!!

Previous Minimal Running Posts:
*Huarache Running
*The Brutal Truth of Minimal Running and My Newbie Self 

Share/Save

What you see in those pictures, is an ugly sight. It is the feet of an untrained huarache-wearing minimalist newbie runner. I did 2 whole weeks where  every thing was going very well,I even ran up to 2.5 miles in my Invisible Shoes (or huaraches). Then I suffered this minor setback when I ran in the rain with my Invisible shoes and the strap rubbed between my toes causing a blood blister on each foot. I was trying to grip the pavement while running on a downhill stretch and that caused the blisters on the toes. I used to love those downhill stretches, now I avoid them.

When I came home from this run I was pretty discouraged: I wanted to just know how to do it, I wanted to be an automatic expert since I am a runner. That may be one of my biggest hurdles though, that I have taught myself wrong for years and years. How do I unlearn practiced behaviour that is almost second nature? I guess it is by practicing a substitute behaviour that will become second nature in time.

One thing, more important than the rest that I learned is that I haven't arrived yet. Surprise! Blisters are a sign that something that is going on above the feet is out of line, posture, knees not bent enough, landing to hard, landing out in front of your body, leaning, pushing off- or maybe all of the above. From what I have read the blisters on the toes are from pushing off rather than just lifting and letting the foot fall. The blisters between the toes are a combo of getting the tension right on my huaraches, and that I am landing out in front of my body putting much more pressure on that segment of my foot than should be there, also the sooner I put my foot down the longer it is on the ground- and the goal in minimal running is to keep it super quick, like running on hot coals.

For now though I am here to stay because I love this whole process, as long as the injuries remain surface level I can hack it. But it is a slow refining process, and although that is some of the fun, I want to see some progress as well. It is like the brutal honesty of a best friend, you know they are right- but it hurts like your skin being ripped off, literally. So I will work on the things I have found to be true and go from there, day by day.

I went out two days ago and ran a block and turned around and got my running shoes on. Bad day. Since then I have considered that I maybe would benefit more from just going all out barefoot and seeing if it is just the Invisible Shoes that are more of the problem for me. I am having a really hard time gauging tension on them,especially when the blisters are already there.  The plan for now is to try absolute barefoot running  and supplement with some new New Balance Minimus that are on their way.

EDIT: I will have to do another review on this Huarache running sandal, as I have learned a bit more and run in them often now with no pain. Because the responses to this post, I took off about 30 minutes ago and dared to run on my blistered feet to see if it would work out. I knew I was overstriding, I am short and I think it is something I have done for a long time, so I wanted to see if that was the biggest of the problems.

Drum roll…….

I ran for 25 minutes and there is no wear on my feet at all, they are completely comfy and I am one happy runner. I wore my trusty Invisible Shoes and thought about the things I needed to work on: not pushing off- but lifting, bending my knees more, and most importantly (at least as far as the blisters go) not overstriding- but setting my feet down right under my body.

I have no calf pain, my blood blisters (that were there from my previous missteps) were not affected at all.

Thank you Steven for going the extra mile, it really helped me out! I was so concerned about getting the tension right that I wasn’t paying attention to my form problems.

In the meantime I have finished reading Barefoot Running Step by Step by Ken Bob Saxton and Roy Wallack, and highly recommend it. It is by far the most informative barefoot running book have found. Quirky always, but informative. Maybe I should review it in more detail in a future post. I am a book reviewer after all! :) I've also been searching youtube for good videos on barefoot running techniques- thinking maybe by seeing it it will come more naturally.

Hopefully my next running pictures won't have any blood or blisters in them.

If you still don't get the whole barefoot running thing, or if you are interested in a little more info watch the following video: Barefoot Running NY Times.

Any suggestions?

Share/Save

I ordered a kit from Invisible Shoes. They send a square of 4mm vibram rubber material (to cut your own shoes from) and the chord. Then you can head to their website for  instructions and videos as to how to get all set up, and for the runner to figure out what form of tying works best for them.

I have run in my huaraches twice so far. Each time I wear them for the first 10 minutes of my run and then switch to another pair of shoes (that are also very minimalistic-cross country flats) for another 3 miles or so. The idea is to eventually work up to using them for the entire run. It is amazing how much running without support improves a lazy running form (which describes me perfectly). I can already tell a difference in how I am running.

In the past I have boasted of  a good overstride, landing on my heel thus enabling a longer stride, I thought it was a good thing. I thought that it made me run faster, that overstriding would be more effective and use less energy long-term. That really is not true, the only thing I would win at by overstriding is a race to see how FEW steps a person could take from point A to point B. Overstriding is a widespread problem, that causes injury in the joints and feet.  Shoe companies are adding more and more padding to the heel of their shoes so as to put a big band aid on the problem, but it would be better if we who do it would just learn to fix it.

But why these weird contraptions anyway? Are you really surprised? I mean I am a dreaded runner after all! Ha. I have been interested in barefoot running for a little while, maybe mostly curious about it but not interested in changing something that was working for me. Lately though it has intrigued me more and more.  And then the only thing that kept me from it is that each time I did a search I found myself annoyed at the price tag on these supposed minimal running shoes, or vibram five fingers! Should barefoot running and/or minimal support running really cost as much or MORE than the others? That just doesn't sit right with me. The cost of barefoot running should be nothing or close to nothing.

For those reasons I chose to try the huaraches. They are modeled after what different indigenous tribes have run in for a long, long time. If they work, these would be much better than buying the other shoes....so for now I am just trying them on for size, and we'll see how my toes hold up.

The best part of all? When I run I feel like an ancient runner in a Greek marathon- I can almost see these running sandals sprout wings.

At least they are cute, right?!

Share/Save