It was a beautiful morning with the temperature about 42 degrees. I had just got back from running 10 miles with my Galloway group getting our last preparations for the Chickamauga Marathon. I was now warmed up and ready.
Well, I thought I was going to stay warm. NOT! Today was going to be a race that was going to run in memory of my running friend Zack Pruitt who recently died at the age of 14 with a brain tumor. When I ran this race 4 years ago, I ran the 10 K portion of the race and Zack paced me in on the last mile in his socks to help me finish my 1st ever 10K. I was exhausted after that run. I still remember it like it was yesterday.
Zack's family and some of his closest friends showed up to walk in his memory yesterday. It was a day of trying to hold back emotions, yet it didn't happen, even for me.
As I changed into some warmer and drier clothes, I took my socks and shoes off. I tried to warm and dry my feet so that I could put on some mole skin to protect my feet from rocks and glass. Well if you haven't figured it out, I am running barefoot in the race for Zack.
As I approached the starting line, I gathered up with the family and friends for some quick pictures. I was freezing. My mouth was chattering like a 7 year old jazzed up on Mountain Dew. I thought I was on the early stages of hypothermia.
We gathered up to the starting line and I loved to hear people say "He doesn't have any shoes on". That just gave me a reason to let everyone know why I was running this race and to let people know that just because you just in a race, a lot of people forget about the cause of the race.
Boom we off. I decided to walk with the family at first as we left out to go onto the main roads. We had to walk down the cold and wet pavement where the water sprinklers were on at. It was freezing and my feet were HURTING! I got up in the grass to try and warm them up but it was wet also. My mole skin didn't want to stay on. It was coming off so I just left it off. Then I realized that I was the last person on the course. Oh now, I didn't want to hold everyone up today. I looked up and saw my friends starting to leave me so I decided to run slow to try and catch up to them.
As I slowly progressed forward, I caught them and jokingly said "I've got to hurry and up and finish so I can go to McDonalds and get some coffee to warm up". I did not realize that I was not going to stop there. I started to get into a nice slow run. Luckily the road was nice and compact with no rocks and debris.
I started out with a slow running pace about 13 min/mile and slowly got faster as we trekked up the 1 mile uphill. I love hill running. I started passing walkers and then started to catch up to runners and encouraging them to continue on. I would even joke with them and told them they had on the wrong shoes and should change them with me. I loved hearing them laugh when they looked down at me and saw no shoes. As I ran forward others would make the comments about my feet and it gave me a chance again to explain quickly why I was out there which brought on a lot of emotions in some people.
Well we hit the 1/2 point turn around and now it was downhill. I was now at about a 9 min/mile pace and I had not stopped running since the .5 mile point at the start. I was feeling great. My feet were numb to the pain. It was like running as a kid again. I loved it. I know that I had some help from above and that is the only way I was able to get through the pain and cold weather.
As we turned back into Bass Pro Shop, I was running in the 7 min/mile mark and encouraging others not to stop cause were almost there. I could see the finish line and I was thanking Zack for what he had done for today. I love you brother. I hit the finish line and felt like a million dollars. No pain on the little toes. I had family, friends and strangers coming up to me wanting to know about the story of no shoes.
I just hope that I was able to pass along the story and it would help someone out today.
To Bill, Tammy and Kalie: Thank you for allowing me to participate in such a wonderful and emotional event. I had an awesome time that was able to bring back a lot of great memories. I love you all..........
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