Mad woman on the bridge

Ran a lovely 6.3 miles today across the Old Severn Bridge. It's a bit noisy with the cars hurtling past on one side, but on the other side it's uninterrupted views up the River Severn.

Having said that, I spent most of the time deciding which stretch of path I might do barefoot on the way back. Most of it was fairly smooth tarmac but with a healthy spattering of gravel.  Chose the spot I thought would be best. My feet would not be visible from passing cars, and I wanted to avoid a downhill incline as I think that would be harder on the feet.

On the return leg, I paused at said spot. Looked at my feet, checked there were no cyclists approaching, and promptly bottled it! What if CCTV picked me up and saw me remove my shoes on a bridge where the barriers over the edge are nothing more than waist high railings? I'm sure they would think I was a jumper and send screaming lights after me.

So I ran on in my trainers. What a wimp I am. Will I ever pluck up the courage, or should I just stick to my trainers? After all, they've served me well so far ...

A quarter of a mile

Ran to the end of the road and back this morning, barefoot.  Went out early (with hangover in tow).  I'm still trying to overcome my obsessive fear of being spotted.

Was seen by a fellow runner having a sneaky smoke at his front door though, so I made some banal comment about not having any trainers, and then a minute later made another one on my return!

Three and a half minutes of barefoot in total.

The pavement is essentially smooth but with a sprinkling of gravel stones here and there, so a few spikes to contend with.  I concentrated on relaxing, keeping a fast cadence and relaxing again.  It seemed to work - a few sharp ouches, but nothing that bothered me too much.

I ran outside!

On Friday, my OH and I went for a 5 mile run - in our trainers.

I think I've blathered on about running barefoot so much, that when we got back, he suggested we both take off our trainers and run to the end of the next street.

It's only about 300m all in, but we did it.  I felt like a naughty school girl, running outside without my shoes on.  I tried to relax and maintain a fast cadence.  Actually, it wasn't that difficult - I naturally took very small steps, and unlike when I was running in my FiveFingers, I found that my foot went down ball first, then pretty flat straight away.  This would obviously help avoid a recurrence of my stress fracture, which I believe was caused by running on my toes in my Fives.

The pavement was fairly smooth, just little bits of gravel here and there, but they didn't hurt at all.  Not sure I'd have said the same if we'd gone much further, as it gets a lot stonier further down.

So, I've achieved my first outside run in bare feet.  I've lived to tell the tale.  I'm working on building a reputation as the mad woman who runs barefoot.  It's a start.