I finished my first marathon! Here I am crossing the finish line of the Jacksonville Bank Marathon with a chip time of 3:26:14.


Photos copyright brightroom, Inc.

I received a nice finisher medal and t-shirt. Some people may wonder about wearing minimalist shoes for 26.2 miles, but I have to say that the lightweight Inov-8 Bare-X 150 shoes were just great for this race.



For those interested in more detail, allow me to describe the events leading to an event that I can only describe as the "Full Body Cramp"...

I'm still catching up on race reports...

Lloyd Clarke Sports put on a great 2012 Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot 10k race here in Gainesville, Florida. The weather was perfect with temps in the 40s at start time.

I slipped on my New Balance Minimus Zero MT00 trail shoes and took a few strides and remembered just how much I love those shoes. The MT00 is an extremely lightweight, zero-drop shoe but possibly has some durability issues, so I have been saving mine for races only.

I improved over the previous year's Turkey Trot by 43 seconds and since I ran smarter this year, the race was so much more enjoyable. The plan was to go out under control, just try to stay nice and smooth. I think I executed well, felt strong through the 2nd half of the race, crushed mile 5, and had a great finish kick. Just like the previous year, the final mile required weaving and dodging to avoid the Fun Run walkers and little kids who were finishing along the same course... but this year I was ready for the obstacles and it didn't really slow me down very much.

I finished in 39:44, was 7th overall, and earned first in my age group. Mile Splits: 6:20, 6:37, 6:36, 6:34, 6:10, 6:17, 1:10 (average 6:24 per mile).

Official results posted here: http://www.halfmiletiming.com/Datafil...Trot12.htm

I caught a photo of the light up board showing my finish time and overall place:



Bobby Burk with some of the Lloyd Clarke Racing Team members (Stephanie McGrail, Dan Clark, and Meredith DeFranco) helping to hand out the awards:



Here is a picture of the really nice race t-shirt with my New Balance Minimus Trail MT00 and finisher medal:

Earlier this year I received a pair of Samsons from Altra Zero Drop Footwear to review. I never managed to put together a formal review until now, although I did share my feedback in various places around the Net such as Barefoot Ted's Minimalist Runner Google Group, my twitter feed, and the social running site dailymile. Over the last year I have been too busy running to spend very much time blogging. A few weeks ago I had logged over 200 miles in my Samsons so I figured it was time to sit down and write the review.

Here is what my Samsons looked like fresh out of the box:



I had very high expectations for the Samsons. They were going to be the perfect minimalist shoe, similar to Vibram FiveFingers, but without the VFF toe pockets.

Here is what my Samsons look like after 200 miles of running:

On Christmas Day I ran from Old Man's Cave to Cedar Falls to Ash Cave along the Buckeye Trail in the Hocking Hills. It was a cold day (32 degrees), with lots of icicles hanging from the rock formations. The trail section between Old Man's Cave and Cedar Falls is technical with rocks, roots, and stone stairways to navigate. I was glad to have my Altra Superior trail running shoes. The section between Cedar Falls and Ash Cave is not technical but has some serious hills leading up to the fire tower. The fire tower is open for climbing, and after reaching the top there is a very nice 360 degree view of the surrounding Hocking Hills region.

I didn't carry a GPS so I'm not exactly sure how far I ran, but the round trip is somewhere between 10 and 12 miles. The Buckeye Trail is well-marked here, just "Follow the Blue Blazes...".

Pictures from the Old Man's Cave section:





Pictures from the Cedar Falls section:

I'm a little behind on posting my last few race reports. I ran the Tom Walker Memorial Half Marathon on December 1, 2012, just a few weeks before attempting my first marathon.

This race was a Florida Track Club event and this year the FTC provided pace groups. The two ladies leading the 1:30 pace group (Meredith DeFranco and Stephanie McGrail) are some of my training buddies, so my plan was to stick with the pace group for the first half of the race and then push it in to see how far under 1:30 I could get.

Here is the 1:30 pace group early in the race:


Photo by Florida Track Club

I followed my race plan and came through with a nice personal best!

Coming through the finish line: