New Shoes

I did some checking this week on my running stats, and discovered my Asics were getting up there as far as distance, currently about 768 km. They've been feeling a little flat and hard lately, so I imagine the cushioning is pretty much done after all that. But I quite liked them.

However, that meant another ordeal of buying shoes. I went to the place where I'd bought them, hopeful that that model hadn't already been replace by a new and improved version. No luck. The GT-2130 has been superceded by the GT-2140, which as usual, is a completely different shoe, and a completely different fit. So back to square one.

They did still have several pairs of the older one in stock, piled by the window, and at a discounted price, however the smallest was size 9. A brief moment of hope was dashed as I tried them on. Sloppy heel and a little too roomy. Damn.

So began the endless round of trying on shoes and walking around the store while the sales guy made trips to the back for more. A pair of Saucony's was almost chosen, but there was just a slight squeeze across the arch, which I knew would cripple me within a kilometre. I finally settled on, amazingly, a pair of New Balance 769's.

I've never liked NB's, but have been surprised by them in the past. These ones seemed to have a great fit, but the sponginess was a bit of a concern. Not to worry, though, they actually were completely out of my awareness this morning, before I got to the bluff.

Fantastic morning for a run, or for anything outside, and the rest of the day promises to be the same. I crossed the river at Centre Street as usual. and the first walk break was pretty chilly. Just past the brass propeller, (commemorating some river boat, I think) I heard a countdown on a loudspeaker, and could see a big crowd at the Eau Claire Running Room lined up, and pointed in my direction. A volunteer a hundred metres on said it was something called the CBI Hustle for Hunger. Just as the starting gun went off behind me.

Being a 10K, I was soon overtaken by the fast ones. Surprisingly, after being passed by a couple of dozen runners, I was keeping pace with most of them. It felt very good to be keeping up with the front of the pack at their 10 km pace, although in retrospect, they were probably saving the speed for the last half.

I paced the group for awhile, meanwhile threading through the usual sunny Sunday morning crowd, also out in the sunshine. Lots of traffic out there this morning. I ended up chatting with Julie, freshly back from teaching English in Japan for four years and contemplating training for the Honolulu Marathon in December. Also trying to decide whether to go back to Japan to her boyfriend, or try to convince him to give Canada a try. Long distance relationships have got to be tough. L n K Just before crossing back across the river at Crowchild, I took a walk break and wished her a good run.

At the race's turn-around point, I trundled on through, and kept the pace that I was pumped up to by being in the middle of the race pack. Nothing like being surrounded by fast runners to get you going fast, too.

I was at Angel's Cafe quickly after that. The return trip was pretty uneventful. I passed Peter-Mark, a friend that I see out there quite often, and we high-fived in passing. Uneventful but fast. Perhaps the new shoes had an effect, I don't know. But I was pushing quite hard from Crowchild all the way back to The Stairs.

I took The Path to the top of the bluff, and then the usual finish along Cresent Road to 4th Street. Wonderful run on a beautiful morning.

Distance: 16.42 Time: 1:24:40Average speed: 5:09 min/km. (11.64 kph)
Rest distance: .9797 km. Rest time: 9:00.
Total distance: 17.40 km. Total time: 1:33:40.

Shoes: New Balance 769.
Today's earworm: None - never seem to occur when I'm head down and fast.

Weather: Sunny, -6C to start and finishing at -1C.