Barefoot Running

So barefoot running seems to be all the rage right now (perhaps Zola Budd wasn't crazy after all) and I've been looking into these amazing 5 toes shoes that are supposed to re-create the effect and feeling of barefoot running without actually having to pluck the courage up and pound the tarmac in bare-feet.

You can find these shoes at the website below, as well as many others that I actually quite like the look of.


Vibram Five Fingers


My favourite is the Bikila version, although I quite fancy a pair of the after training / travel shoes. They'd be great on an aircraft. If anyone has tried these shoes or uses them regularly I'd be keen to hear your feedback on them. Please comment below.


On the running front. Things are going well. Since acceptance in to the Marathon on Wednesday last week I've been out a number of times and have clocked up 42k's in 6 days. That's a marathon distance! I just need to squeeze that all into a single 5 hour time period now. 


On the beers done front, I've been quite good there too by not being out mid-week at all in the last two weeks and only having beers on Friday and Saturday. This weekend I'm hoping to put a bigger run in as well. Perhaps stretch out to a 15 or 20k run and see how things go.

I've been accepted!

So over lunch today I checked my e-mail and to my surprise, thinking that I'd missed out on the Tokyo Marathon for 2011 I received the below e-mail:


"Dear Mr. James Hardcastle
ID No : 00976-000

We would like to announce that an additional selection has been done in mid-November to choose extra qualifiers for Tokyo Marathon 2011.

Congratulations! You have been selected as a runner for Tokyo Marathon 2011."

So that is it. It's all back on! After having slacked off on the training thinking I wasn't going to get a place I'm now going to have to turn up the intensity to full volume. With only 95 days left to go it doesn't leave a lot of time to prepare. With that in mind I headed out for a quick run this evening. I wheezed, puffed and hauled myself around a new 8k course. It was my first run in 10 days, my first run from my new house and my first run with a winter jacket on.  A lot of firsts but I better get used to it.

Now, where was I with the kilometers run to beers done ratio.......

Still nothing heard

So 105 days to go to the Tokyo Marathon and still nothing heard from the organisers on these mysterious extra 1,000 places they are supposedly making available and also on the 2nd lottery draw for those places that weren't confirmed in time from the 1st lottery draw.


I have still been getting some training runs in but perhaps not quite enough for a full marathon. Last week I competed in the FIT For Charity 10k with a run time of 1hr 4 mins. Slightly disappointed as I thought I would have been quicker than 1hr, however the 1st 2k's were very slow at almost walking pace due to the number of people. The run itself was a great day out, starting in the National Stadium in Tokyo and looping out of the stadium and around 4 times for a total of 10k. Over 6,500 people turned up for the day and I think somewhere around ¥67 million was raised for various local charities.


I'm thinking of entering the Zushi half marathon which is 1 week after the Tokyo Marathon and on the coast. It might be a nice run to participate in and it won't need the full commitment to run as it's only a half marathon. I'll wait to the end of the month to hear from the Tokyo Marathon organisers and if nothing heard will see if I can enter the Zushi half marathon.


On a side note using Nike+ Sportband I've completed over 500km's and I got a nice congrats from Paula Radcliffe:


Paula Radcliffe Congrats



Somehow I don't think that was a personal message to me! I've also created a new challenge on the Nike+ website to run 501 kilometers in 2011.


501 in 2011



This supersedes my Run 365 in 2010 which I completed last month. Upping the level a bit for 2011 and we'll see if I can complete this challenge. If you're a runner on the Nike+ website click the link above and join my challenge to see how you do against me. Starts 1st Jan, see you there.