Running on sand

sjiektallgirl

I've been pounding the pavement this past year and have a few half marathons done and dusted. I'm training for a 25km race in March, but I got "accidentally" entered into a 17.5 km beach race in Feb. (the Discovery Surfers Challenge in Gonubie SA on 18 Feb)

Problem: how do you run on sand? I live inland, and although I'm quite a master at dodging potholes and the occasional tree root, I last ran barefoot on beach sand when I was still a teen.

Any advice will be welcome!

ajwcyclist2016

I'm not a runner but my guess is sand gives you extra resistance when running. My guess would be go swimming but run in the pool to give the extra resistance for some sessions.

BrianKMcFalls

If you're not going to be able to train barefoot, then don't attempt it barefoot, would be my advice. When I run at the beach, I wear some older running shoes and run near the water line where the sand is fairly hard.

Bluepegasus

Just run on the grass in training more than running on the road, that will at least give you a feel for what it's like running on something more resistant than the tarmac. Running on the beach isn't too hard if you stay on the wet sand, but obviously you won't be able to go at the pace you would do normally.

StealthHealth

IMHO - I'd ditch the 17.5k beach race to be honest.

In my running heyday I picked up a painful hip flexor injury from running on sand.

The repetitive, minor slip motion is very, very hard on the hip flexors. For untrained runners this is less of an issue - they are much less likely to put in long or fast runs during training, for those who regularly train on sand is is also less of an issue since those runners will have gradually built up the strength required to run on sand. But, you OP, you are in neither of these situations and should proceed with caution or risk injury which may put you out of the March 25k.