TheDailyRunner.com

Baring his soles: Missouri man cruises through marathons shoeless

When winter temperatures in the Midwest head into their single-digit death spiral, Rick Roeber goes for a run wearing tights, a turtleneck, sweat shirt, hat and gloves. But that's all.

Yes, he skips the shoes.

Roeber runs barefoot, and has been doing it that way since 2003. He's logged more than 13,000 unshod miles, including about 40 marathons. (In the first, he wore flip-flops for six miles because it was 110 degrees on the Boston streets, and his soles weren't conditioned yet.)

As of Thursday, he'd put in 558 consecutive days of running barefoot; even a little Arctic air mass doesn't stop him. Snow might, but frigid, face-numbing weather, no way. Roeber's personal best is running outside when it was 6 degrees, but he's had to resort to a treadmill a couple times since his streak began on July 28, 2007.

"I can't go when the snow is over my ankles because then my feet just can't warm up fast enough," he said. "But that's pretty much it."

The 53-year-old from Lee's Summit started running barefoot because he was having trouble with his knees from "running stupid."

Click here to read the rest of the story

Connect with me on

Report from Krispy Kreme Challenge: When eating on the run isn't fun

Here's a funny article I read today that was written by someone who did the Krispy Kreme Challenge.

If you see me, do not offer me a doughnut. I mean it.

I'm OK if I never again smell that honey-glazed scent that wafts out of the Krispy Kreme store anytime in the near future.

And I'm absolutely OK if I never catch the scent, sight or sound of partially digested Krispy Kreme doughnuts tossed out on Hillsborough Street, rejected by some determined runner's system.

N&O reporter Sarah Ovaska shows her empty box of doughnuts. She ate 10.

Yesterday, I took part in what must be one of the most ridiculous and bizarre challenges out there -- run four miles, eating a dozen doughnuts in the middle.

I've run four miles, so I thought, "I can do this."

And I like to eat.

But I soon realized that the real hole in my training was the doughnuts.

I'd never eaten a dozen doughnuts at a single sitting.

But I do like a good challenge every now and then, and what better to do than match myself up against a bunch of college-aged students to prove to myself that I've still got it.

Well, I wish I could tell you that this tale had a happy ending.

Click here to read the rest of the article