Tail Winds, a Southwest US regional outdoor sports magazine, has a cover story about Max (Brycer1968) and my 109 mile uni ride of El Tour de Tucson, as well as a story about my barefoot running.
I’ve embedded and linked the story on a page about it on my blog:
http://www.distanceminimally.com/post/428805564/tailwinds201003
Cheers,
Z
Great article and great achievement …and cold beer.
john
Awesome cover shot! It really makes you guys look fast.
I notice you’re wearing shoes on the unicycle… 
Great ride, great article.
Hey, how do you like the Five Fingers for unicycling?
I’m seriously considering a pair of KSO Treks for all-around active/sporting stuff, including unicycling.
Ha! I’ve got a lot of respect for Gracie Sorbello unicycling long distances (very long distances!) barefoot. I’m a little too nervous about the possibility of a UPD at high speeds and hurting my foot. There goes barefoot running for some time!
The Five Fingers are good. I’m wearing my red Sprints in one of those pictures, giving a little bit of protection but I can still feel the pedals under my feet. I sometimes go on shorter rides with them. The Treks would give that much more protection with less sensation. Seems worth a try!
Awesome cover pic and story!
Great article and a lot of good points that I can take away from it. I’m doing my first long distance ride in August and will be a lot more prepared after reading that!!
I read the article and there is a lot of good info in it. I really like the fabrication work and mods Brycer did before the events. A person can get good advice and ideas so freely here and adapt it to suit themself. I plan to do exactly that when I have some free time in the next few weeks.
Zeke, running 100 miles is amazing and inspiring. I hope you both do the STP, Seattle To Portland Bicycle Classic this year. I plan to be there. It looms in my mind like Everest and I will remind myself that a guy can run 100 miles plus I have a great big wheel to help get this done. The people in Cascade Bicycle Club are really sprung on unicycles at their events. The unicyclists that have gone before really set a good example. At some point in the future I will volunteer for Cascade and pay it forward in some measure.
Great article
Thanks MuniAddict! I haven’t hit the big time like you but it’s nice to get a little attention.
Glad to know you were able to get some useful information from it Wired. Drop me a line if you want to talk more about training schedules for your long ride this Summer.
Cheers,
Z
Brycer is really good at modding these customized parts. I’ve been really lucky to have him around as I’m near useless there.
I look forward to doing STP, but I don’t think it will be this year. I think the Bastards talked about having a tall bike contingent this year, following up on MJ’s successful tall ride last year.
As for running 100 miles, I have to put a bit of shameless self promotion here. In just under 2 weeks I’m setting out to run 24 hours barefoot, hoping to run 100 miles. If I can do it without anything on my feet (true barefoot as opposed the “without shoes” that I am certain I can do) it will be a world record, and I’m doing it to raise money for the hungry in our communities.
Check it out at:
http://www.distanceminimally.com/post/410312094/onedayrunforhunger
Thanks. I enjoyed taking part in it!
Cheers,
Z
100 miles barefoot
Yes, Zeke (boisei) is a maverick among a community of mavericks. . . (and not in the Sarah Palin/McCain sort of maverick)
You neglected to mention the attempt at a world record bit Zeke when you and I talked about the 24 hour 100 mile barefoot bit. That will be an amazing accomplishment. I’m kinda guessing that if any of the Uni-community members are interested in pledging their support of Zeke and his work to raise $$ for the hungry, they could follow that link to find out how to do this?? Yes??
Also, I’ve seen Zeke’s feet after other barefoot events and they were amazingly in-tact. (Not the ragged bloody stumps worn down to the ankle bones that you might be envisioning) And this 100 mile event totally takes it to the next level . . . . . I for one think you should post a pic here of the bottoms of your feet at the end of this event- warts and all!
Brycer
Thanks mate, that would be awesome. I have a thread open here asking just for that Distance Training
One of my mates is a personal trainer so has been giving me tips and has given me a rough plan. May be an idea if I send you my plan and you can make some suggestions, that ok?
Indeed. I’m calling it the One Day Run For Hunger, and the direct link to my fundraising page is:
http://firstgiving.com/onedayrunforhunger
A free thank you haiku to all who support!
Glad to oblige! I have to say, successfully running 100 miles on trails in the Five Fingers and then a barefoot marathon the next weekend without any blood to show for it is part of what lets me think I can do this. A “world record” time on a barefoot 50K (it’s a numbers game and was a soft record, really) with soles of my feet that I was proud to show off afterward helps too. After 100 miles? I don’t know what to expect! But I’ll be glad to share 
The run went well. I ran 104.5 miles in 24 hours and I raised $1045 for the Oregon Food Bank, surprisingly matching exactly my goal of raising $10/mile. There was more gravel than I expected, and it was the worst kind for barefoot running - small and sharp on packed dirt - so I ran most of it in my Vibram Five Fingers. I did get a few truly barefoot miles in though. As promised, here’s a picture of how my feet look after running that distance.
Cheers,
Z
Yup, its official . . … looks like there is something to this barefoot running bit. No photoshopped in feet there.
You take extreme running to a new level Zeke. Congrats again.
Wow! That’s truly impressive. Your feet look great. I would have expected them to look a lot dirtier!
Really Impressive
I sometimes get really busy and lose track of this site and the remnants of a centralized life and out of the blue an e-mail with an update to a thread on here.
I love reading things like this. It is inspiring to see a person achieve something that I don’t feel is even remotely within reach or even possible and then bam, it’s a done deal. You just ran a 104+ miles again…amazing.
I’m glad you take the time to write about this stuff and post it. Figuratively speaking,“I draft” when you and others post difficult and amazing challenges and overcome. So never feel like you are “self promoting” and deny the rest of us the opportunity to draw from an accomplishment and move us forward to our own challenges, which feel much less daunting knowing a guy can run over 100 miles in a day. I struggle to get my mind around a task of that magnitude. Too often we don’t acknowledge and type out our “reaction” after reading something like this. Be certain collectively everyone said to themselves " Holy Crap!"
To be fair, I think you are incredibly modest about it.
