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It's simple, I love running and most of all I love running in bare feet!  While I did start in shoes like almost all runners, I quickly moved into barefoot shoes.  Then, after about 5 years of road marathons I took the plunge and threw the shoes away altogether!  Since then I have run two road marathons in bare feet without a scratch.  Rocky trails were much harder and after about a year of trying I couldn't get past 25km without doing damage so I'm now back in minimal Vibrams which seems to be the perfect compromise.  I still do grass oval speed work barefoot which is awesome.  Fast forward a couple years I have completed two 100km ultras in Vibram V-Trails and while my feet were mostly fine for that distance, my goal of completing a 100 miler is not going to happen in such minimal shoes.  Research led me to Altra's Lone Peak shoes, which so far have been amazing.  Zero drop and barefoot feel might be the next compromise I need to reach my goal.  Guess we'll see!

 

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Sunday 15th April 2018
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By JP

It was the anniversary of meeting my mate Duncan, a.k.a DD, so we thought it best to do a last minute sign up for NewRun.   Last minute being we were both pretty trashed from racing the previous week.  As is typical with DD we planned for this to be a shirtless run but I had no idea he was planning for this to be a shirtless and budgy

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Category: Road Events
Saturday 7th April 2018
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By JP

My first official trail race!  Since committing fully to trails after Melbourne Marathon last year I had eagerly looked forward to my first event.  I did enter the lottery for Six Foot Track but with my typical, non-existent luck I failed to win a spot although around 70% of entrants do get in.  This actually worked out for the best

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Category: Trail Events
Saturday 17th March 2018
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By JP

Well, it was a bloody hard decision to give up on this barefoot trail quest but I after the last couple weeks of injuries I feel it's time to let it go. 

In the last couple weeks we've seen the last of daylight saving time and the mornings have been quite dark so a headlamp has become a necessity again.  This fateful

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Category: Training Runs
Sunday 18th February 2018
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By JP

What better way to spend a Sunday lunch than running around in your undies.  I for one couldn't think of a better way so I signed up for Cupid's Undie Run 2018.  Although much effort was expended I couldn't convince any of my friends or colleagues to join me.  Not even the lure of supporting such a great cause as trying

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Category: Road Events
Tuesday 6th February 2018
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By JP

Well, it's been a few months since my last barefoot trail update and man has it been a roller coaster!  Plenty of highs and lows but my love of trails is growing significantly, which is awesome.  Road running is officially dead to me! Well, I will still run a few events here and there but trails are definitely the focus.



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Category: Training Runs
Wednesday 22nd November 2017
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By JP
So for the last few months my coach, Melissa, finally roped my in to running some trails with the Night Owls & Possums (a branch of the Wooters).  Turns out trails are awesome and the Wooters are a great bunch of people.  This has only taken place on Friday nights and I have been running in
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Category: Training Runs
Sunday 22nd October 2017
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By JP
So somehow I got roped in to wearing ladies, green hot pants for this race.  I don't know how these things happen but as I love a good dress up, it was game on!

As normal, everyone met at my place for carpooling to the start line.  Before we left I donned on my awesome hot pants

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Category: Road Events
Sunday 15th October 2017
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By JP
This was my second barefoot marathon in 4 weeks.  What could possibly go wrong, I thought?  In any case, I'm here and I'm going to have a crack.  I've spent too much time in bare feet not to take advantage of it.

The morning of the race I was up early because I had

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Category: Road Events
Sunday 17th September 2017
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By JP

Twelve months ago I set a goal of running a barefoot half marathon by the end of 2017.  Unfortunately I achieved this in April of 2017 so that goal needed resetting to a full marathon.  Well, five months later it's now September and I think I'm near enough ready for a marathon in bare feet!  What could possibly go wrong...

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Category: Road Events
Sunday 11th June 2017
Date:
By JP

Up until this point my barefoot running had been going awesome.  I was up to a 24km long run totalling a 50km+ week, all in bare feet and feeling great.   I was just back from a couple weeks off so super keen to get back into it but fate had a different plan... 

On my way over to Johny's house I was walking

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Category: Training Runs