Alan Thwaits, our very own “AlanT” on the forums, recently completed his first half-marathon, the Run for the Grapes half marathon in St. Catherines, Ontario—in his black KSO fivefingers. I asked Alan if he’d mind I share a bit from his blog post on the race, his second in KSOs (First was a 10K):
Sunday’s Run for the Grapes half marathon went really well. It was second race in my Vibram Fivefingers KSOs and my first KSO-equipped longer distance race (the first was the Underwear Affair 10K a couple of weeks ago). Here are the stats:
Finishing time: 2:07:45
Pace: 6:04
Category placement (men 60 – 64) 7/12
Gender placement: 189/244
Overall placement: 305/451That’s not bad at all, considering that I’ve really only been running in my KSOs for three weeks. Before that, I took about four weeks off training because of injuries I’d sustained from overdoing it when I started running barefoot. But the healing process went well, and my “on the fly” three week training program got me to the half marathon. …
I got lots of interest in the KSOs, all the way from cute comments to serious enquiries. Interestingly, the more experienced runners said they’d heard or read good things about them, and wanted to talk about transitioning from conventional shoes and whether running in Fivefingers might help alleviate long-standing injuries. One young runner said he already had a pair of Fivefingers Sprints, and was just beginning to transition from conventional shoes. After the race, I had a couple of long conversations with runners who said they would seriously consider buying VFFs. I think I might have made some converts!
You’ll have to go to Alan’s blog, The Road to Comrades, for the rest. Also, check out why he runs while you’re there.
Thank you Alan for both your contributions on the forum and for sharing your experiences running and racing.
