Barefoot in Death Valley

He did it... 26 miles on a rough stretch of washboard rocky road in Death Valley. My friend, Chris and I met up in Vegas and drove to Death Valley in our rented 'SUV' - well, it was supposed to be an SUV, but it was "unavailable", so we took the Hyundai Sonata offroad, which was remarkably comfortable as an offroad vehicle - perhaps much more so that the Santa Fe we were to use. All in all we did just under 100 miles of washboard roads which were in better shape than years past.

Perhaps he is the first person to run a marathon in Death Valley without shoes... he was well recognized everywhere inside the park after the race - "how are your feet" - "they're great thanks"... "Are you the barefoot guy?"... Apparently, there is a small, but growing number of barefoot enthusiasts... He says his feet held up good until mile 20, at which point the callouses began to wear away in a few spots...

Fruits of our labor... an image from the Racetrack where large rocks plow thru the mud without witness only to be frozen in time awaiting the next rain. They have attached GPS units to these rocks to track their movements - apparently a 700lb rock actually vanished w/o a trace some time ago... Chris' theory is that the lakebed swallows these rocks when it's very soft... I tend to agree as there is not a lot of rocks on the edge of this playa.