Bien and Ben Run Nittany Valley Half Marathon in Vibram KSOs

By Justin Owings on Dec 10, 2009 | In user stories | 2 comments »

Bien (left) met fellow VFF-runner Ben (right) at the starting line of the Nittany Valley Half Marathon. Both ended up finishing the race at the same time, spreading the good word about Vibram Five Fingers.
Bien (left) met fellow VFF-runner Ben (right) at the starting line of the Nittany Valley Half Marathon. Both ended up finishing the race at the same time, spreading the good word about Vibram Five Fingers.
Bien took a photo of the icy grounds at the half marathon. Worried about the cold, Bien wore two pairs of Injinji socks!
Bien took a photo of the icy grounds at the half marathon. Worried about the cold, Bien wore two pairs of Injinji socks!

Above are photos of Bien and Ben taken at the Nittany Valley Half Marathon at Penn State on Here's Bien on December 6th. Here's what Bien had to say about the race:

Hi Justin,

I ran the Nittany Valley Half Marathon at Penn State yesterday and met Ben, also wearing KSOs, at the starting line. We actually finished at the same time too, so it was a great opportunity to take a photo. This a picture of us right after the race, with the frost still on our hats. This is my second half marathon using the KSOs — I did the Baltimore Half 6 weeks ago, and beat that time by a whopping 12 minutes.

The icy cold start didn't deter us from wearing the VFFs. It was great to see that a lot of people already knew about them and both Ben and I helped spread the word about "barefooting" all along the way.

Thanks for all your work on the site!

-Bien

Bien also added that he wore two pairs of Injinjis for the race to thwart the icy ground (see the photo above).

Impressive progress on your times, Bien! And great to hear VFF fans are sticking together and spreading the good word!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
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Tags: kso, running

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Comment from: Chad R. [Visitor] Email
Chad R.Double layer of Injinjis? I wish I'd thought of that. I believe that's the approach I'll use at this Saturday's Thunder Road Marathon.

Great job, guys!
12/10/09 @ 19:01
Comment from: rebecca [Visitor]
rebeccaI wear the Injinji Outdoor Quarter socks with my FiveFingers here in the UK where the weather is absolutely freezing at the moment! I find that these keep my feet really snug!
12/14/09 @ 05:22