Barefoot Running / Open Swim Clinic

Can I just sit with those two things for a minute here.

I am about to do a post about A) Barefoot running and B) Open Water Swimming and I am almost in tears (probably not surprised) over how awesome it is to be writing about something so physically challenging. If I can just go back down to memory lane a bit.

That’s a picture of me 6 months ago when I had just ran for 5 minutes for the first time ever in my adult life. It was the second week of the c25k program and I was ecstatic beyond my wildest dreams that I, Tara Martin had just run for a full five minutes without stopping and without throwing up. Fast forward to a few months later and I had not only graduated from the c25k but I had found something that I really love doing: Running.

A few months ago I purchased my first pair of Vibram Five Fingers and I can tell that my running has improved though as a new runner it’s hard to tell whether it’s the VFFs helping me or just the natural progression of becoming a better runner.

Last week I went running at Chambers Creek Golf Course.

It’s a beautiful 3.5 mile course with every type of running practice you can imagine. You park either at the top or the bottom of the valley and off you go. I go pretty regularly and last week was no different. I get to running and about halfway through the course my feet start to become uncomfortable in the vibrams. I don’t know what’s going on but I do know that I’m stuck at the bottom of the valley and my car is at the top still 2 miles away. I take them off to see if my feet will feel better and a thought struck me…

Yep, I ran barefoot.

Barefoot. Nothing but my feet touching the ground. To say it was awesome would not do it justice. I can only explain it with one word: freeing. Vibrams in hand, I started running the rest of the course (2 miles) and I was determined to finish naked from the ankles down. The first thing I noticed about running barefoot is my eyes started to naturally scan the environment in front of me. Granted this is probably a billion dollar golf course I’m running on so there is no threat of syringes or broken beer bottles. The next thing I notices is all the pain across the bridge of my feet disappeared almost immediately. The third thing I noticed was all the crazy stares I got from people. I thought I was getting stared at a lot when I was wearing my VFFs…nothing compared to what I got running barefoot. One of the questions that kept getting thrown my way was “Doesn’t that hurt?”…and to tell you the truth, it didn’t really hurt at all. My feet were a little tender from getting used to running on the asphalt but in all honesty they adapted pretty quickly and soon I was running just as fast without anything on my feet as I was if I was wearing my running shoes or VFFs. I ran the same course last Friday (with Godfather) and halfway through I went barefoot again just to confirm what I felt the first time.

Yep, I like running barefoot!

Yesterday’s open swim clinic was probably one of the scariest things I’ve done physically in my entire adult life. Don’t get me wrong, I love to be out in open waters. In fact I spent many a days out in the same lake I was in yesterday. My idea of open water swimming includes a floaty device of some sorts that can hold a beer can in case I got thirsty.

This is lake Washington. This is not the lake in which the swimming portion of the triathlon will take place. Normally this is a great place to frolic in the water. Not so much yesterday. You can’t see them in the picture but in about 10 minutes post shot, there will be about 150 boats coming in trying to find a good spot to watch the Blue Angels fly over head during practice. This means two things during my open water practice: Lots of waves and lots of panicking on my part. I’m a strong swimmer…in the pool. I am not a strong swimmer in open water surrounding by speeding boats and crashing waves. I won’t lie to you. There were many times throughout this practice I had the fleeting thought of not competing in the triathlon at all. But that’s the good thing about practicing in the extremes as we were yesterday. You can bet your sweet ass it won’t be like this race day. I talked with another women who has completed a trek tri in the past and she said the water will be calm at 7 in the morning and there won’t be a boat in sight. What I experienced yesterday was just about the worst possible scenario and I survived.

I swallowed a lot of water. I panicked when I couldn’t catch my breath. I got kicked a few times. Sighting was difficult to do with all the waves coming in. However I learned a valuable lesson: I can do it. And I can do it well. We swam about 250 meters out into the open water and when coming back had to sight a very small (but very yellow) buoy. Out of about 50 swimmers only a handful came in directly in front of the buoy. I was one of them. Once I got used to my environment I just did what I came to do: Swim.

Oh I also learned another valuable lesson: I need to buy a wet suit. Yep, as a noob I was just about the only person wearing a swim suit. I don’t know the first thing about wearing one but from what the swim coaches told me it’s going to help a lot. Hell if I can do this in a swimming suit, you better believe I can do it in a wet suit.

I think the most important part about this experience is knowing I was able to talk myself out of being panicked. The mind has a way of freaking out in these kinds of situations and wants to find the easy way out as soon as possible. Unfortunately the easy way out in this situation is either to quit mid swim or never even attempt. Lucky for me I refuse to let those be my options.