Ran the Marine Corp Marathon Sunday doing the first 20 miles in shoes
and then switching to Bite sandals at mile 20. Just before mile 24
my brother took the sandals and I ran the last 2-2.5 miles barefoot.
I had trained for and preplanned this arrangement, having suffered
from swollen and painful feet in the 5 other marathons I have run
this year. This was my first barefooting in an event; but I've been
training 55 miles a week with about 25 of those barefoot.

Some observations:
1) I did not expect the reaction from the crowd... apparently the
throngs like to see some thing different: "Go barefoot Guy!" became
the loud,crowd chant. The marines recovering the champion chip at the
finish line wanted me to enlist.

2) My time for the last 2 miles improved by 2 minutes a mile by
switching to barefeet and they were the most comfortable miles.

3) The first 1/8th of the barefoot mile found myself more on the heel
as my foot adjusted to the difference. Then I shifted a bit forward,
got comfortable and moved faster.

4) In my previous marathons this year my feet hurt after the race and
really bad the next day. This time I felt like I could run the next
day if my thighs didnt hurt so much.

I think barefooting has a future for me in events and am planning to
up the naked miles to at least 6-10 in the Las Vegas marathon in Dec.


BTW... I was not impressed with the sandals and this marathon was a
PR for the 7 marathons I've run.