Beach running conjures up images of the initial scene from Chariots of Fire, with the Olympic team briskly and beautifully running along the beach, seeminly with no effort, and theme song playing in the background. Not so in real life. I am at the beach this weekend, and decided to go for a nice 6 or 7 mile run. Here are the problems with beach running:
1. beaches are sloped, in some cases fairly severely, causing some discomfort on the feet and knees.
2. sand is soft! and not meant for running. To overcome this, I ran right at the water level, avoiding the incoming surf, where the sand is somewhat firmer, though still very inconsitent.
3. People fish at the surf line. A few times, I had to run around them onto the soft part of the beach. Annoying!
4. Beach running is slow! I averaged 9:24/mile for 6 miles. A comparable effort on a road or even trails would have been at least 1 minute per mile faster. Just ran 8:01 per mile for 5 miles on trails a couple days ago.
Other than that, the beach scenery and salt air are great! And being September, with temperatures in the low 60s, it was ideal running temperature.
Mark
2 comments:
What beach?
How about blisters--especially on the the big toes?
Ran in trail shoes, not bare feet, very close to the water line. Did not get blisters, did not even get sore this time.
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