One Step Ahead

One of the problems with self-editing one's life via the blogosphere/facebook/twitter, etc. is that our tendency to focus on the positive often makes us look more impressive than we really are.  On Sunday, I blogged that I was heading out for a 9 mile run after the previous week of crazy-long work days and late night company dinners, walking around Chicago all day Saturday, and then driving 5 hours back to Cincinnati.  I conveniently forgot to mention that the 9-mile run never happened.

I got less than two miles into Sunday's run, and decided I was much more tired than I had thought.  I probably could have sucked it up and made it through if only for being tired, but I couldn't ignore the problem with my new shoes. 

I got my new running shoes for my birthday, and after a week and a half I realized they just didn't have enough support for me.  I exchanged my Brooks Adrenaline for Saucony Hurricanes before I left for Chicago, and just assumed the new ones would work out fine because they felt so good when I tried them on at the store.  (I know better than to not run around the block in them first, so shame on me.)  During my first run in the Hurricanes, I was already noticing that the inner part of my left foot seemed to be striking off of the edge of the shoe.  This means the shoe isn't wide enough. I figured I'd give it a few more runs to see if it got better, but by Sunday's run, they were really bothering me.  So, back to The Running Spot I went.

Selecting a decent running shoe has always been a rather complicated process for me because I essentially have two very different feet.  I sprained my left ankle twice, once while I was still growing as a teenager, so my whole left foot is a good deal wider and my left ankle is much thicker than my right one.  My right foot feels fine in any shoe I put on, but my left foot is a naggy complainer.  My left foot is so high-maintenance that my right foot sometimes gets embarrassed to be its pair.

So, after trying on every pair in the store and and running around the block in all of them, I settled on this pair of New Balance:

Leaving the store, I wasn't completely sold on these, but I was running out of options.  I'm glad to report, however, that after getting back from taking them out for a 5-mile test drive tonight, I'm pretty happy with the way they felt and am looking forward to putting them to a much longer test this Saturday. 

The only major complaint I have is a trivial one:  I ran both my full marathons in an Adidas shoe called Supernova, and like their namesake, I felt like a superstar wearing them!  I was excited a few weeks ago by the idea of running in a shoe called the Adrenaline.  And then when those didn't work out, I was amped when I thought I was going to be crashing into my next finish line in a pair of Hurricanes. 

So what inspiring name do my new New Balance shoes have?  I was hoping for something like "Endurance" or how about "Endorphin"?  Nope, the shoes that I am going to be running are called, drum roll, please... WR760ST.  Yeah, what a letdown.