Healing your foot injuries through barefoot running

I've been trying some barefoot running this summer to alleviate my various leg injuries accumulated over the past winter (plantar fasciitis & hamstring issues etc). Even a little bit or barefoot running on sand or grass seems to help a lot. I'd definitely recommend anyone to try it for a couple of hundred meters at least. For longer distances you could wear minimal sandals or shoes - there are lots of various brands and models available these days. Most of them are overpriced, so I'd err on the cheap side.

Michael Sandler of runbare.com found the benefits of barefoot running literally accidently.

A recent Competitor Radio podcast: http://competitorradio.competitor.com/2011/06/michael-sandler/

GoPro Manana Ridge

GoPro on a stick - what a great idea. Fantastic video. Manana Ridge trail is in Oahu, Hawaii.

Western States 100 Final Mile with Kilian Jornet

The final mile of Western States 100 mile trail run with the Spanish winner Kilian Jornet.

Check out last year's champ Geoff Roes congratulating Kilian Jornet just before the track where the finish line is. Geoff had a bad day and dropped out of the race around mile 55. They will have a chance to race together again at UTMB in August.

Europeans conquer Western States 100

At last Europe's number uno ultra trail runner Kilian Jornet of Spain (23) was successful Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run, perhaps thanks to his new flexible handheld water bottles.

It's a downhill course, and it always gets hot down in the canyons. Last year he dropped to third place due to dehydration issues. Now this time his performance was solid all the way through, as far as I could tell from the webcast.



Here's Bryon Powell's pre-race interview with Kilian. Notice how Kilian mentions the course is too flat for him, but he wants to race it anyway because it's such a historic race (it was the first '100-miler').

By the way, Bryon also competed himself, and did very well too: at the time of writing this, he was within 10 miles of finish, placed 32nd. I just finished reading his ultra running guide book 'Relentless Forward Progress'; if you wish to run ultras like Kilian (or Ellie), read it!





Here's a video made by Kilian's main sponsor Salomon. I don't currently use any of their equipment, but I must say they have done a great job supporting this young dude.



I missed Kilian's victory on the live stream video, but I did catch Ellie Greenwood (32) crossing the finish line as the first lady in 17:55. Someone said they saw a bear during the last four miles, and Ellie said she was the one who chased the bear up a tree!

Ellie lives in Canada, but she is a Scot originally. She was 4th at Comrades Marathon in May, but has never run a 100-mile ultra trail before. She won Canadian Death Race in 2010 though, which is 125 km. And she has won a bunch of other shorter races as well.

Congratulations to both Kilian and Ellie, Europe's biggest trail running stars!

Cristoph Strasser wins RAAM

Cristoph Strasser of Austria just won solo Race Across America 2011 in 8 days 8 hours. The route finished for the second year in Annapolis, Maryland. The race started in Oceanside, California as always.



What a class act. After 8+ days on the saddle, with only about 70 minutes of sleep per day, he stays positive and relaxed while riding pretty fast. Very few people would be able to do even half of this, let alone be in such a good mood.