Sprint Triathlon in Vibram Five Fingers KSOs

By Britt on Aug 19, 2010 | In user stories | 5 comments »

Jason doing the East Fork Sprint Triathlon in his brown KSOs.

Jason, a Vibram Five Fingers fan, recently ran in the East Fork Sprint Triathlon in his brown KSOs and sent us this report:

I have enjoyed your site for a while now and love to see all the different things that people do in their Five Fingers, I have a brown pair of KSOs and wear them constantly. This past weekend I raced in them doing a Sprint distance Triathlon, it was great. This race was 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run in that order. The swim was in East Fork Lake in OH and the bike and run were through the rather hilly park including one steep hill coming up from water level to the high ground. I got lots of shouts from the crowd about my shoes and other racers actually talked to me about them during the race.

I wanted so bad to swim in them but the race event people said that it wasn't allowed, so that meant barefoot swim and leaving them at the transition point. The KSOs did fine in the cycling for me I didn't use any straps on the pedals or anything like that, this was my first race so I just wanted to finish and in a decent time. I did figure out one trick on the cycling, after a few miles I would shift my foot to different positions on the pedals, i.e when I really had to pedal hard I would use either the balls of my feet or use the heel and when I was just pacing I would rest mid foot..Overall it was an awesome experience and the KSOs made it so much better. I am planning on another tri event race in Oct, where instead of swimming we canoe, and the run is a trail run, and you can bet my KSO will be getting me around on that one to, unless of course I start collecting other models.

The whole experience was amazing and doing it is KSOs just made it that much better. At the end of the race, my wife even suggested we get Classics for our upcoming anniversary gifts to each other. I think I converted her as well. If I keep with racing, I am going to have to try some Bikilas. So far my KSOs have done days at Disney, hiking trips, hunting trips, crossfit, and now a triathlon. The amazing thing is over a year in them and they look new still.

Jason, thanks for the race report. Over a year and they still look new, that's great! Perhaps you read our Definitive Guide to Cleaning Vibram Five Fingers.

About the Author — Hailing from College Station, Texas (Home to Texas A&M!), I grew up running cross country. Believe it or not, I gave Justin the name for this site back in early 2009 but I didn't jump on the toe shoes bandwagon until a year later.
Britt has written 169 articles and 67 comments.