Recently, Allison ran her first half marathon in Vibram Five Fingers KSOs, her second-ever half marathon. She created the blog, AllisonsBigToe.com for the express purpose of documenting her 16 week training for this event and transition to running in Vibram FiveFinger shoes. She will be posting a detailed breakdown of her experiences in the race with video footage on her blog, but she gave us a preview of the story.
Read Allison’s race report preview, see race photos and watch her video after the jump!
Camarillo Half Marathon / October 3, 2010
My first half marathon in FiveFingers was a big success for a few reasons:
- 13.1 miles was further than I have ever run in FiveFingers, and I finished injury free, ready to run again after only a couple days. That’s not to say I did jump back in to running; I’m enjoying a well-deserved week off from the road. But I’m pleased that the soreness I experienced in my hip flexors, ankles, and calves dissipated within two days after the run.
- I beat my last half marathon time by four minutes. My official time for the Camarillo Half Marathon was 2:16:22. This course was a flat course while the previous half marathon I ran was hilly, but I’ll still pretend I was faster because of my great feet and the improved form of running barefoot-style 🙂
- My husband got great video and photo footage of me along the course. He also traveled by bike and took lots of video with my iPhone from behind and beside me to capture my FiveFinger form. He carried a tripod that he could attach my phone to in order to get the shots around corners. After analyzing the footage, I can see I wasn’t leaning enough from the ankles the whole race, and my strides were too short. I was letting my feet strike ahead of my hips, and I know that’s why my hip flexors were sore. When I sped up at the end, my form was much better. For the future, I would like to do speed work on the track to get my quads stronger so I can support running more quickly for longer distances, as I think this will eliminate the soreness I got from improper form. Here’s to the next journey, whatever it may be!
Allison
Thanks for the preview Allison and congratulations! We will be watching your blog for your next adventure.
As an added bonus, here’s the video that Allison’s husband shot of her running the half:
2 replies on “Allison’s Big Toes are in Vibram Five Fingers KSOs”
Congratulations! Way to rock the run. You looked calm and relaxed the whole time in the video. Way to go!
Congrats on your race, Allison! On a side note: this video is great example to show how photos of VFF runners can appear like they are heel striking when they really are not. If you pause the video back and forth throughout the video and look at her foot strike, it will appear like she might be heel striking in the “still frame” but when you play it live you see that the foot does not heel strike and instead makes a last split second adjustment on the landing. I had fun playing with pausing back and forth to prove that video is the only real way to get a true “picture” of whether someone is heel striking or not, (as still photos don’t show the full landing, only a glimpse of the footstrike) and this video is good evidence of that. I like this video because it shows a good foot strike in motion, which in photos can appear like a heel strike.