Naked Foot 5K Race Recap

I ran the Naked Foot 5K in DC yesterday and had a BLAST!

As you know, I won an entry from Andrea at the MF Dre (thanks again Andrea!!) so I headed up to DC on Saturday night for a little race action. 

The Naked Foot 5k included an entire weekend of "natural running" festivities and clinics (including free foot massages, "foot-painting", awesome raffles, a free kids 1K), but I was coming from out of town and was tight on time, so I was only able to make it for the event on Sunday morning at 9am.

What to wear?

The race was focused on running naturally or barefoot, but I have NEVER run without shoes on, so I figured it wasn't the time to start.  I've taken my Altra shoes for a couple runs, but nothing more than 1 mile at a time, so I figured it wasn't the time to do 3.1 miles in those either.

So I settled for my 4mm drop Saucony Kinvaro shoes, I figured those were sort of natural-ish, but with plenty of cushioning.

Pre-Race

I met up with Amanda from Miss Zippy before the race and I felt like I was meeting a blog world celebrity.  I've been following her for a while and she always impresses me with her running knowledge, speed, and motivation.  It was wonderful to met her and she was just as genuine and kind as I'd imagined.  She's amazingly tough, she ran the entire 5K COMPLETELY BAREFOOT!

The Race

I had ZERO strategy going into the race, other than to push myself.  I haven't done speed work since my marathon in May, so I thought this would be a good excuse to get in some faster miles.

This was not an uptight race-race.  Most folks seemed to be doing it for "fun", which I enjoyed because it took off any pressure.

The race director described the course as an adventurous, fun, twisty-turny "cross-country" course.  It took us through the woods, a winding muddy path, followed by an open field, some concrete, and a couple foot bridges.

At times I felt like I was on an obstacle course when I was jumping through the woods, but it really was fun!

The only part not fun about the course was the HEAT.  I am a sissy and I thought it was super hot and humid.  Made me feel like I was working way harder than I actually was.  But nothing you can do about that, so I just went with it.

The race was over before I knew it (wow, 3.1 miles flies by!), I was huffing and puffing.

Results

Not sure what my time was because I didn't stop my Garmin at the right time and they don't seem to publish the results.  But that's more than fine with me, after all it was not a PR sort of road race.

I finished either 2nd or 3rd overall woman, woohoo!

Not sure if it was 2nd or 3rd because the race folks didn't seem to keep track of it and Tappan thought that there was one girl ahead of me and at the end?

For my overall placing, I ended up winning a $50 gift card to Hudson Trail Outfitters, a local outdoors store!!

Pretty sweet shirt.
Thanks HTO for the $50 gift certificate!

I was impressed with the folks who ran the race barefoot.  I did see more than a few people limping around at the end though, so hopefully no one got too injured.  Hopefully it was more of just chafed/blistered skin, but a couple appeared to have legitimate issues.

I really enjoyed this race, it was a nice change of pace.  It was organized by a young-ish couple from Colorado and it felt very cozy and local, which I enjoyed.  

It attracted a diverse crowd of runners, including a girl who ran the course WHILE HULA-HOOPING.

Thanks to the Naked Foot 5K team and to Andrea for a memorable race!

Do you prefer local cozy races or giant races like the Rock 'n' Roll series?

I enjoy small and local all the way!