Barefoot Ted's Adventures: Mother Road 100 Completed 27:38:47

78 Miles Barefoot, 22 Miles Vibram FiveFingers

At the Start (Thanks Robin)

Running Route 66

The Mother Road

The Finish Line

Much more to come as I have time.

Looking forward to adding photos as friends that I met on the course send them.

Send to: ted@barefootted.com

BFT

My goal for this race was very simple: to finish. I had no pre-set time or strategy. I wanted to feel 100 miles of road. This year I have successfully accomplished my goal of tasting both a tough trail 100 mile run and a 100 mile road race. I know what to expect in the future.

Highlights:

1. Hillbillies Bed & Breakfast in Arcadia, OK

2. Drinking my complimentary Choc Beer at 6 am thinking that it was non-alcoholic.

3. Running 78 miles on Route 66 barefoot, the last 22 with my barefoot shoes called FiveFingers.

4. Getting lost...nearly impossible, but possible, with Jon Hulsey. He had a map!

5. Seeing the Carl's Jr. sign at the race finish.

6. The smiling faces and friendly folks found all along the Route.

7. It being so cold at night the water in my Camelbak tube was slushing up.

8. Lots of animals die along Route 66: skunks, armadillos, birds, raccoons, possums, snakes...

9. Meeting up with Louise Mason. Her MOJO helped me tremendously.

10. Running with Tom Christell and having his wife tell me to put on my shoes.

11. Getting a ride back to the airport by the Canadians John, John and Vincent, whom I met briefly at the Round Barn the morning of the race. Thanks.

12. Crossing the finish line with Fred Davis.

13. One can live off Hammer Gels and HEED if one chooses to do so.

14. Big thank you to Cynthia for making some KILLER pecan bars and date bars from scratch for the pre-race POWER. I fed on them all day Friday as I made my way to Arcadia. Thems were GOOD.

My email to the race director:

Howdy Thomas

Thank you for your crazy vision of putting on the Mother Road 100.

That was one unforgettable 24+ hour dose of Oklahoma that I will never forget.

I want to say thank you to all who made this possible. It is truly hard to believe how well everything went for a first time mega-event. Congratulations.

I have some incredible stories. As you know, I ran barefoot. I ran 78 miles barefoot and was feeling great out of the Bristow check-point.

Then we started going along those old sections of Route 66. I must admit, they were by far the biggest challenge for a barefoot runner, but still doable.

Just as I was coming up to the turn where Red and Sharon's BBQ is located I ran into Jon Hulsey who was looking at course maps. I figured this guy knows the way. By the way, out of Bristow, I passed at least 20 runners. I was feeling REAL good and running kept me warm.

Well Jon and I made a terrible mistake. Instead of going up 181st, Jon thought that we had yet another parallel section of old road, so we went left. There were no arrows pointing one way or the other, so I accepted his logic.

Remember I told you how I hated the old road, well this road made the old road sections that we ran on seem like butter. I was in agony, but figured it wouldn't last long as I cursed the texture of what I thought was the old route. On and on and on we went, up and down hills (20/20 tells me that would have been unusual for the Route). Each step draining me. Well, what seemed like miles later, the road finally became a field! We had gone terribly wrong. It was very depressing. My goal of running 100 miles totally barefoot was crushed. Now we had other problems. We were lost, we were cold and we had to go back on the same road. I had to put my back-up shoes on and accept my fate.

Finally, we got back to the intersection of 48 and 181. The police car with the Doc had been looking for us, but Jon was not able to explain where we had gone wrong. We were messed up. I was shivering uncontrollably and luckily got into an official's car and blasted the heater.

From that intersection, we were driven to Taturs by a race official. At Taturs, the Doc took care of my foot and Jon and I regained our composure. It took some persuading, but I was convinced that it was still doable. After sucking down a couple Hammer Gels, we were off again. Much worse for the wear, but not defeated, and I wanted my name on that shirt!!!

Thankfully, the motor started running again, and I was able to make it home. A Carl's Jr. sign never looked so good.

BFT

PS. I just finished doing some Google Earth measuring. It turns out that the road Jon and I took dead ended after 1.8 miles (so 3.6 miles out and back), plus, we tried to take another road out and had to turn back, so that added yet another 0.2+ miles. Finally, the road we were on was MUCH more difficult than the highway. At times it was turning into a sandy, rocky, hilly nightmare. My wife said that my favorite dog, Hercules, was whimpering for no reason around the same time I was suffering. I do not exaggerate when I say that that was the toughest stretch of running I have EVER done as far as pain goes.