Los Angeles Marathon XXIII - RunMarathon

This was my 20th marathon and 10th barefoot since 2005. It was my slowest by a wide margin.

It got pretty hot at 82 and my feet had not been conditioned adequately for running on chip seal. The asphalt heated up and became a little uncomfortable after 3 hours.

My calves were, however, in terrific shape thanks to a lot of calf presses down at the gym.. Still I lost endurance by mile 15 and it became a struggle in the heat. Kept looking for open fire hydrants and water to splash in. Spent a lot of time with the other 6 barefoot runners just dorking around and working the crowd. It was clear by mile 5 that this was going to be a slow day because of the heat so we just had fun.

Pretty satisfied with my conditioning except I lost endurance by mile 15. Need longer runs; still I was not wrecked at the end and will probably start running again tomorrow.

Run barefoot outside more if the winter had been milder. Do more 15 + mile runs.

Hung out with other barefoot runners


Bad surfaces and temps


Drop back pickup was a disaster but other than that is was very well organized