Up The Trail We Go

Again with the late entry, but better late then never.... Last Sunday a friend of mine went hiking along with my wife and I up a trail called Wiliwilinui Trail. The trail is near the south eastern part of the island where the H1 ends. You drive up to the trial by entering a gated community. The community is very welcoming of those who wish to hike the trail, even offering a map to the trail head on the back of the guest pass.


The trail we chose to do is a 3 up, 3 down trail. We wanted to do something relatively easy because my wife had wanted to wear her Vibrams hiking for the first time.

About 15 mins from the top of the trail we stop to enjoy the view

We started off at around 12:30 PM. The trail started off pretty wide and had alot of rocks on the path. The rocks were big enough so that they were not to much of a hassle to walk on and they were not stacked next to each other like gravel is. It made for a nice trip up to the top.


Along the way the trail was covered with these fruit like things that fell on the ground making every step feel like I was crushing grapes to make wine. The fruit squeezed its way into each one of my toes, making for a interesting and unique feeling.


Going back to my wife wanting hike in her Vibrams, she has a nasty habit of rolling her ankles whenever we go hiking. I have tried for a couple months to get her to try and go barefoot or in minimalist shoes while we are hiking or running. Finally shoe broke down and got the gray and blue sprints you see in the picture.

At the top

Along the way up the trail she was moving slower then usual, which is to be expected when you are not used having no padding below your feet hiding all the elements of the ground from your feet. On the way down the trail, she was very fast and left me behind a couple times. I kept asking her how her feet felt, and she said they felt great.


Once we reach the top of the trail we had lunch on the ridge and got to view Kaneohe and Kaialua in between the passing clouds which was pretty cool. We sat up there for about 45 mins enjoying the view before we started back down the trail.


I noticed while on our journey that there are quite a few people who hike in five fingers. I seen more people hiking on this short trail in five fingers then I have seen anywhere else. Atleast one person in every group that we passed was wearing Vibrams. Of course everyone commented on myself being barefoot and my wife wearing the five fingers. Those wearing the same said things along the lines of nice shoes and things of that nature.

On the way back down, the day started getting late and the I had to put on my five fingers for the last 3/4 of a mile. The terrain was down hill and filled with rocks and we had to get back to the car before it got to dark out. 

The next day my wife was talking about how sore her calves were from the hike. Its to be expected, that's the furthest she has gone in five fingers, not to mention the steep terrain added to the workout. But she said that her feet did not hurt her at all, I was surprised at that part. As for myself, I stepped on a rock the wrong way, so I took a couple days off and went out again today (5 days later) with no problems.

US Vets 5K Patriot Run

I know this entry is about a week late, but between work and all the other things I have going on in my life, I finally found some time to write about the last race I participated in, the US Vets 5K Patriot Run/Walk


The main goal of the event was to raise money for the homeless Veterans who live in Hawaii so that those who gave some much for their country are not left with no where to turn. This is a big deal to me being a veteran myself (yeah I know that I haven.t posted a little bit about myself yet, I promise its coming soon) and of course I had to run to support the cause.


The day started off as usual, register, pick up race packet, walk around, run, finish, go home. Me being me, I ran barefoot. Once again the only barefoot runner. This time though, there were a bunch of runners in Vibrams. I would venture a guess of about maybe 15 or so runners/walkers.  Some of who even thought that I was pretty insane for running barefoot.


The race was nice and flat paced, with smooth roads for me to run on. About 1.5 miles of it were on a bike path that ran along a body of water and gave a nice scenic view along the way. Because it was a bike path though, it was pretty narrow and I had to do the vast majority of the running on the wet grass so I could get around people.


A few people along the way ran next to me and talked to me about running barefoot, the typical things like "what if you step on glass" and "you feet have got to hurt when you finish this".


It was not really all that bad of a run. The only problem that I had was because of running on the wet grass, my feet got pretty wet and soft making my feet extremely sensitive to the asphalt for the last mile or so. Other then that, it was a great race for a great cause and another barefoot run under my belt.

A Day for Firsts

Running Barefoot Along the Trails

I recently found a website where they keep an updated calendar of all the races going on in my area, and would you have guessed it, there was a trail race this weekend, The Gunstock Ranch Half Marathon and 5K. I had initially wanted to run the half marathon in my five fingers, but due to work I would not able able too. So, I settled on the next best thing. I decided to run the 5K.

This would be the first trail race I ran, and the first time I ran a trial in over 6 years. It was also going to be the first race I have run in my Vibrams. Note the key word, was.

I show up in the morning as a walk on racer. Strap on my Vibrams and go over to the registration site. It was still dark and the fields were not light up, but the ground felt mostly rock free. I sign up, get my number and walk around to warm up my legs and kill some time. As the sun starts to come over the mountain, I see that the field is mostly grass with minimal pebbles and rocks. I ask one of the course volunteers if the 5K trail was mostly dirt roads or dirt and grass. To my delight she told me that the course was mostly pasture and dirt trails. Then it hit me, I am going to run this race barefoot.

I walk to the starting line and walk about 100 yards over the first hill and took a look around. Soft dirt trails and a few rocks here and there. As I walk back to the starting line into the staging area, I stop, take a look around, and then strip off my Vibrams. This was going to be my first trail race, and my first time running barefoot.

Rewind the clock about 2 months ago, I was just beginning training for a military event involving moving very quickly with weight on your back for long distances. This event is called ruck marching or a forced march. Of the many things that can go wrong while performing this event is blisters and one of the ways I was recommended to toughen my feet was to walk barefoot on asphalt. After my first few steps, I realized that my heel was hitting the ground first and I instantly changed my stride to a better feeling one. From that point on I would continue to walk barefoot gradually increasing my distances and the way I strike the ground with my feet. 

Fast forward to 1.5 miles into my first barefoot trail race. I am feeling good, passing people enjoying the run and the feel of the ground under my feet. Every couple people I pass or that pass me would say something to me about running barefoot. Then I see it. Everyone else tries to avoid it as best they can. A smile comes across my face. A nice big patch of mud that consumed the whole trail. As I run through the mud barefoot for the first time ever, the mud filled the spaces between my toes. What a weird, yet delightful feeling. 

Keeping pace with a group in front of me I relied strongly on them to lead the way along the trail as I keep an eye out for obstacles and the next location of my foot strike. I look at my watch and think to myself, I have been running for awhile and I still have not hit the 2 mile marker yet. I kept running focusing on the trial. We come around a sweeping right hand turn and I see another trail with people running on it. People I had already passed in the very beginning of the race. A few minutes later we finally hit the 2 mile marker and I look at my watch, it read 26 minutes. 

Now I have been running along time and I have a very good sense of the pace I am running. Given I was running a little slower then usual because of being barefoot, I know I was not running a 13 minute mile. Later, upon completion of the race, it turns out that a good number of people had missed the turn off for the 5K and ended up running extra like myself. 

The first 2 miles was mostly uphill and soft dirt trails. Boy would I miss that part of the trail. The last mile or so was down hill, completely covered with rocks and pebbles with no place for my feet to find a soft landing spot. It was pretty painful but I thought to myself, you already went this far without putting the vibrams on, you might as well finish it out. And I did. I crossed the line at just over 36 minutes. Meaning the last mile, where I was creeping along and walking in many parts, was a 10 minute mile. If I had stayed on the correct trail, I figure I would have had a finish time of 26-28 minutes. 

After I finished and was standing by the water I heard one person talking to her friend about the course and one said to the other "and did you see that foot print in the mud?", I just laughed a little to myself. 

I have been reading alot about running barefoot/minimalist and I realized how few and far between these type of runners there are yesterday. Of all the people who raced, about 150, only 5 people ran in a "minimalist" shoe. Of these 5, 2 were running Vibram kso's. The other 3 were wearing Nike Free's, which to me are not a minimalist shoe because they have quite a bit of heel on them.

In the category of barefoot runners in the race, it was just me. So I guess you can say if they had a barefoot category, I would have won 1st place.What was my trophy you ask? Well I was awarded 3 blisters and sore feet for 2 days. If someone would have asked me if I were to do it again? I would say "Where do I sign up?"