Planet TLLTS

Today was my second day back to running. I’m taking it easy with my back and all and I must way it’s not as smooth going yet as I would like it to be. So I am running East down West Mercury Boulevard, not too far from my house approaching two young men when I hear this screaming. But is it screaming? I cannot tell. I don’t see anything looking around. But then I hear it again; the traffic is still a bit heavy, it’s almost past rush hour. I see what looks to be a man from some utility company on the other side of the road and a mini-van oddly stopped in the left turn lane on the West bound side but nothing more. So I start to turn back to my run when I hear someone scream “Rape!” The mini-van is laying on the horn and that is when I see the utility man is not from any utility company as he is over top of someone in the grass across the highway. A few seconds later he is up but appears to be calm but the person on the ground looks distressed! What do I do?

I didn’t know, it was weird. The guy is calm, there are 6 lanes of busy road between us, a van laying on the horn, two guys approaching me and a man and a woman approaching the scene from the other side of the road. The guy was backed off a bit. I could not tell who was on the ground: A Man, a woman, a Kid. It looked like a kid. Was there an assault going on right on the side of this road in broad daylight? Was it some kid who was out of control and that was his father? Again, this guy did not look agitated, he looked calm. The man and woman approached and the guy backed off. The two men approached me and asked what was going on. I knew about as much as them; but all the while I kept thinking I should call the police.

We crossed the road and learned it was a woman who jumped out of this guys truck after he apparently became violent. She had proclaimed he had assaulted her a few days ago and was in jail for a bit but when he came home he continued the abuse. She came up from Georgia with him and had no family and he was preventing her from using a cellphone to call them.

The two guys I came across with contemplating throwing this guy a beat down but he sauntered off to his truck and left. We further assessed the situation trying to help this woman out when the guy returned. The two guys went to speak with him I hung back. He got out of the truck and was a bit verbal. At that point I’d had enough and called the cops (something I should have done from the beginning). He took off, the cops arrived a few minutes later and I gave my report.

It was a scary thing, that it was. Standing there trying to figure out what is going on, wondering if I should get involved. If nobody did, where would this woman have ended up? Afterwards I really felt bad for holding back, for not rushing to the scene sooner or calling the cops. But I have to admit, I was uncertain and a bit scared at the prospect of confrontation with this guy. I mean come on, if he is really assaulting a woman in broad daylight, around rush hour, on the side of one of the busiest roads in the area; what am I going to meet on the other side? Some guy with a knife? A gun? But what about the woman? If I hesitated too long what about her?

What I should have done immediately is called the police. Regardless the situation, better they arrive sooner than later. If things had taken a turn for the worst the police would have been on the way. Waiting could have proved fatal.

I love superheros, that I do. Comic books, movies, all that; but when it comes to real life it’s a scary choice to interfere in someone else’s tragedy; very scary. It would have been so easy to just turn away and keep running. No it wouldn’t have been, it would have haunted me.

She plans on pressing charges and I hope she does. I hope my report helps and I hope she gets the help she needs; maybe a lift home. I wish her well and I hope I am never in this situation again. But if I am, I will learn from today and make sure help is on the way from the start.

Last night was the first significant snowfall of the year down here and the first actual real accumulation of snow since we have moved down to the Hampton Roads area. Coming home from the movies it reminded me of being back North. The snow was heave and must have left about 3 or 4 inches on the ground. Yeah, I know, pittance compared to most every where else to the West and North of here.

This afternoon I went for a nice 5.5 mile run. The ground was wet in a few areas as the snow was melting (mostly melted it was) leaving behind puddles slick with leaves and such on the roads and sidewalks. The first part of my trek had me running through some grassy areas that were pretty marshy, so it was a nice little wetting of my feet to be blasted by the icy wind. Actually it was not that bad as they dried very fast. After a bit I barely noticed it. I kept the rest of myself warm though.

The body glide is working perfectly. I am not chaffing on my inner thighs nor is there any nipple burn lately and it does pretty well on the tops of my feet to avoid blisters from the haurache knot. The stuff is pretty expensive though for a standard deoderant size tube – around $8.00 at Sports Authority.

The wife suggested trying to find socks with toes that would allow me to keep my feet a bit warmer in the winter months when wearing the hauraches. She even considered making a pair for me, or trying to. I was concerned though as I can see these being more of a problem if they got wet than just being in barefeet. I suspect that have waterproof, toed socks out there some where. But more than likely they cost a pretty penny.

Happy day!

Winter is finally starting to rear its ugly head here in Hampton and I was never one to keen on running in the cold. But, alas, it must be done, the alternative is to stop for the season, but as the Shamrock 8k Run is coming up in March, and I’ve a lot of friend entering, I want to keep going.

Last Thursday was my first full night run in the Huaraches and I found it quite pleasant. Running at night limits my courses to staying near the roads and street lamps but that is not too bad. Those are the easiest surfaces to run barefoot or minimal on. But I don’t think I will be doing any night time barefoot running, that is too dangerous. I can barely see the glass that litters the Hampton roads and sidewalks during daylight, so why chance it.

Tonights run was both cold and dark but fun none-the-less. I find that the longer I run in the huaraches the more prone the knot is to rub the flesh from the top of my foot. This can get a bit painful. I suspect I will build of calisus though. Oh, tonights run was almost 5 miles, 4.7. Had I known the distance before hand I would have run around the block one more time or something to make it an even 5 at the least. Well, tomorrow is another day.

After work this morning I went for a run over at Sandy Bottom National Park. Trillium is a wonderful trail around the entire park. Unlike Noland, which is one long circle, Sandy Bottom has a bunch of trails springing off from the main trails which allows one to expand the main run very easily without having to double back. The only problem with Sandy Bottom is that it is very rooty and very rocky and that makes for a very painful run in Huaraches, let alone barefeet. The first 1/3 of Trillium is through the woods and along the back path. Roots criss-cross the path. This time of year the bedding of fallen leaves makes it neigh impossible to avoid them, so I spent that third of the run going it very slowly. Stepping on a root can be rather painful, especially if it hits right in the arch.

The last part of the first third and then the remaining trail poses additional problems: Rocks, sticks and acorns. Those are also nicely hidden under the myriad of colorful leaves. I am not sure what is worse, stepping on a rock or stepping on a stick. Both are quite painful. I won’t even get into it about acorns.

I made the entire course, but man my right foot in particular is very soar. I think I may hold off on Sandy Bottom until the spring and stick with the roads and Noland until the leaves are gone. Having to spend so much of my concentration ferreting out these painful obstacles makes it very difficult to get into the run. On those few times I was able to just go and enjoy a nice pace I was very quickly reminded that the be here now of Sandy Bottom in the Fall is the now of the two feet of ground in front of you and no where else.

This weekend I got to take my Huaraches off road for some trail running. Saturday was a nice morning run on Trillium at Sandy Bottom National Park in Hampton. The leaves had blanketed the ground making it very tough to see what I was running on and believe me, running over a root is not very comfortable. Still the Huaraches held up very well and running barefoot like this would have been extremely difficult. I made the loop plus some for about 4.5 miles if I recall correctly. I really enjoy Sandy Bottom, there is little traffic and a lot of wild life.

Sunday morning I hit the trails around Noland park, a five mile loop. About 5.2 or so if you make sure to take all the extensions. Noland is usually pretty busy, but that early in the morning I was surprised how little traffic there was. After completing the first look I decided to do another in reverse. Believe me, but the 8th mile, my feet were hurting; but I managed to make it non-stop.

Noland has the added benefit of hills, which is something you don’t get much of in this area. But their hills are also accompanied by stops where strips of grating have been placed to reduce errosion. It can be a jarring run if you are not careful There were fewer roots to content with but a few spots where the path was covered in broken oyster shells. Lucikly I could run in the grass along the side.

I don’t think I will make 10 mile runs a regular event just yet. I still need to build up a bit more. Probably drop back to 7 or 8 for a bit until I get my feet and calves up to speed.

Finally, I somehow destroyed my phone in the ordeal. I put my phone in my bag with a nice large tub of vaseline to prefent chafing and nipple burn and my water bottle. At the end of the run the phone would no longer recognize the sim card, which was ruined (I got a replacement) and now the keys don’t work right. I’m not sure what did it? The water did not seem to leak. Was it just getting knocked around? Was it drenched in my sweat? Who knows. I hope to have a replacement by tomorrow (insurance plan hooray!).

Alas, I we were offered a phone upgrade at the AT&T store but that would lock us into another 18 month contract. Our contract is up in July and I’d rather jump to Verizon or something and get an Android phone. No way I am dropping bucks on an iPhone.

Today I finally got to take my haurache sandals out for a run and it was very interesting. You don’t get that same feel of the surfaces as you do with barefeet but you can feel the textures of the ground, particularly when running of pebbles and such. I find myself not paying as much attention to the road in front of me because of this and I’m not sure that is a good thing. I noticed I had to focus on my form a bit more as I tended to sway back to old habits.

I Hope to try mixing it up a bit by going barefoot for a distance and then putting on the haurache’s. I cannot wait to take these on a trail run.

Whoohoo! My Huarache kit came today and I set about getting me some fancy footwear. The 4mm Cherry Vibram sole is wicked! Man was it a chore to cut out though. I used a utility knife and it had me sweating like a pig.

I admit I was impatient and did not wait to go to the store to get some hole punches, so I set to cutting some holes myself. That was the worst. I think the next time I do this I will definetly have hole punches; that took longer than tracing the foot, cutting the vibram and stringing the leather laces.

Well for a first time try they are interesting. They may look a bit crappy but hell, I did it baby!

If you are interested in trying to make a pair yourself you can get kit over at Barefoot Ted’s shop. Kits range from $25 to $35 US or you can buy custom made huaraches starting at $60. If you elect to go with the kit make sure you get the right size sheet of vibram. They come in 9×11″ or 11×12″

Have a good run!

The feet are taking on a nice hobo sheen these days. Thursday I went for my longest barefoot run yet, 1.5 hours around the Foxhill area. I don’t know how far I went but I did get lost, ran in a circle and finally ended up home before it was completely dark. I do not like running in the dark, especially barefoot; it is very hard to see what is before you.

Today, Saturday, I went for my first run off road: Nolan Park. It’s a 5.3 mile run and I did it all barefoot. Running on sand, gravel, and oyster shells is a bit different. On top of that, Nolan has a lot of small hills which is very different from the flat lands over here. All-in-all it was a great run. I am not sure how long it took me, but it was fun.

I noticed that when running on the road people are always offerring me a ride, like my car broke down or give me that what the heck look. Running on the trail, with other people I got a lot of “Hey, doesn’t that hurt your feet?” Queries, but a lot of thumbs up and alrights! One guy, while passing me, asked if I read Born To Run, which of course I did. We got to talking about the book and barefoot running for a bit; which was cool.

Well, here is to a relaxing recovery for the rest of the night.