I had the most amazing running experience of my life today. Julian and Alex Romero orgainize this guerilla style marathon running the LA marathon course every year at Thanksgiving. The one and only Ken Bob was the mobile Aid station in the car and sometimes running with us as his wife took the wheel. Those guys actually ran to the starting line!
I joined the group near my house..I figured I'd jump in and run a few miles until I couldnt keep up. Alex's marathon PR is 2:40 and Julian's is 2:47. There were 9 total people including the Ken Bob aid wagon in our clan. The only barefooters were Alex,Julian, Ken Bob and myself. I was in hog heaven! These are all the guys I have read about and looked up to and here I am running shoulder to shoulder with them!
I couldnt believe how light Julian, Alex and Ken were on their feet. Very gentle, yet fast and effortless. We got kinda lost at one point and I was having a blast so I didnt care. We ran some gnarly terrain and had some good hills in there too. When we make it the Beach, its a beautiful day, I am running with Ken Bob on my right shoulder and Julian is directly in front of us... as we hit the beach I am at mile 12 and the pace keeps getting faster it's sitting at 7min pace at that point. As we get to the boardwalk and hit mile 13 for me its mile 35 for them!! We decide to race the last mile back to the pier...we pick a starting point and we hit it and we are off and flying! Alex is immediately like....gone...Julian right behind. I am pushing at a 6 min pace and watching them disappear towards the pier. I am huffing and puffing and choking on my own spit at 6 min pace at mile 13 ... I finish, we all finish, joy!
I end up with 14 miles and Julian and Alex end up with 36 and the others 37! Those guys actually ran to the starting line!
Everybody there was so talented I felt so lucky and happy to be around such talent and such interesting folks!
The bonus was at the end Ken Bob gave us all Running Barefoot tye dyes!
Happy Thanksgiving!