Kel, Justin, David, Katie, Christian, Chris, Donnie, Lyle, (missing Tomkin)
Headed out to Hyland today to meet up with members of the
Minnesota Chapter of the Barefoot Runners Society to celebrate
International Barefoot Running Day. The original plan was to kick off the day with a potluck picnic at noon followed by a short barefoot run on the trails in the park. I'd never met anyone in this particular group, but it sounded fun and Hyland Lake is nearby.
Woke up to temps just above freezing and howling winds. Happy flippin' May Day. Got out to the park to find
Christian and Lyle huddled together in the parking lot waiting for the rest of the crew (we were expecting 15). It was windy enough that flags were sticking straight out from the flag poles and there were whitecaps on the puddles in the grass. They'd decided to cancel the picnic that morning because of the crappy weather, so some folks were confused about the new start time for the run. Slowly, a few more people trickled in and 9 of us finally hit the asphalt (yes, asphalt) close to an hour later.
A few in the group were trying barefoot or minimalist running for the first time - everyone seemed to be loving it in spite of the weather! Kept the run pretty short - only about 2.3 miles, but there were plenty of smiles all around! We hung out in the warm visitor center munching on fruit (thanks Lyle) for a bit afterwards before everyone headed off to do their own thing. I had a great time and met some cool new people - now I just have to convince them to get their feet off the pavement and into the dirt ;)
