New Day, New Shoes, New Run

Counting today I have 17 days until race day. I'm running out of time to prepare so I have to make the most of the next couple weeks.

Yesterday I bought my first pair of running shoes. I went to Swag's as soon as they opened and requested to be fitted for a pair of running shoes. The lady who worked there asked me if running is all I would be using them for, and I told her yes. I was wearing pants so she asked me to roll the legs up to the middle of my calf and to take my shoes off so that she could watch me walk. So I did. I walked about 5 steps and turned around and walked about 5 more. Then I did it again, and then once more. She said, "8 out of 10 people who come in here have some sort of movement in their ankle when they walk, but your ankels seems to stay pretty straight, so you shouldn't need any extra support in the shoe that you run in."

"Cool," I said. "So I don't over or underpronate?"

"Nope," she said.

If you overpronate, that means that your ankle rolls inward too far when your heel strikes the ground and you probably have flat feet. A normal pronators' foot will roll inward about 15%. Under pronators (or oversupinators) are usually people with high arches which do not allow the foot to roll inward and therefore it does not act as a good shock absorber. Runnersworld.com says that most runners are normal pronators, which is strange since the lady at Swag's says that 80% of their customers are not. Oh, well. All it means is that my feet should be absorbing the shock efficiently when I run. That is good!

Next, she put a different brand shoe on each of my feet and had me go outside and run up and down the sidewalk so that I could compare the two and figure out which one felt better. In the end I choose a pair of Brooks Defyance 3. They weren't the coolest looking shoes that I tried on, but they felt the best. $80. I think they will be worth it.

I tried them out today at Highview Park and really liked running in them. They fit my feet better then my old shoes and were more comfortable. Plus they are lighter. Today I ran 10 min, then walked 1 min, repeat, and finished off with an 8 min run for a total of 30:00 minutes. It felt good to get back out there. I think I'll be ready come May 8th. Until next time...

"I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end, and if it is, I am the only one who can win it." -Steve Prefontaine