The Running Circle gets smaller!

If any of you have read my blog for a while, you'll know that I've 'been around the block' a few times with shoes. I've had a very open relationship with shoes. I have had a very difficult time remaining loyal to any brand, but I wish I could be.  I thought I had it nailed with the Saucony shoes that I bought just before being diagnosed with the stress fractures, but with less than 200km on them, the material and padding on the inside back of the heel of both shoes have already worn through to the plastic.

I wrote to Saucony, they suggested bringing them back to the original place of purchase, but it's been too long since they were bought prior to my injury, but were just not being used.  So Saucony has now said to ship the shoes back to them for further inspection. Hopefully I'll get a replacement, but who knows.  Glad they're willing to help though!

I won a pair of shoes from Runners' Lounge this year, and ordered the same pair of Saucony's, again thinking these were the pair.  I ordered the exact same size, but these came from the US. Glaven, was there perhaps something I missed in the conversion of shoe sizes that perhaps I wasn't aware of?!  These shoes feel sooooo much narrower, and now I have a ripe, huge blood blister on the side of the ball of my right foot, which I'll spare you by not posting a picture.  It hurts, and rubs in my shoe with each step. Sigh. I've already run 78km/48 miles in these, not sure if they'd stretch any more to accommodate my foot, and they're not getting any more comfortable.

So, I went to a local Running Room store a few minutes up the street, which has recently turned into a clearance center due to changing locations.  I figured I'd go check out what they had, in the off chance that there would be a few that might work for me.  I hadn't brought my orthotics, so was testing out a bunch of shoes, and with each one, he said my ankle did funny things. Before making any purchase, I told him to put them on hold, and that I'd be back with my orthotics to see if it made a difference.  Went back about an hour later, and started the whole process again. The guy was great though, very patient, and super helpful. I narrowed it down to 3, then 2; and got stuck.  It was between a Brooks Axiom and a Pearl Izumi SyncroPace. 

I have a picture of both, because I bought both! They both felt great, I ran around the store a bunch of times, one on each foot, switching them up; could not decide, and for $59 each, why not! I probably would have paid about $120 at regular price for a pair anyway!  Yay for bargains.    :D

So after getting my shoes, I went to the gym, threw on the Brooks.  I wasn't planning on running yesterday, and after all the laps in the store, I'm sure I ran at least a mile!  There, I said it again. But I really wanted to check out the new kicks, so I ran about 1 km on the treadmill, just to warm up before weights.

My attire for the gym was a pair of pants with pockets to hold my ipod and gym card, and a long sleeve tech shirt that I purchased for charity at the race I ran in August -- turns out the shirt was the previous year's race shirt.

The gym was completely empty until a gentleman walked in, who I thought was there to workout, but got behind the desk.  I went to try my free trial of a H2O massage, which was great! I can get an unlimited number of these for $20/month! 

Once the massage was finished, I went back to the front, and the gentleman points to my shirt, and says, I ran that race! I proceeded to tell him that I ran it this past year only, but that I want to do the 30k this year.  Turns out that he was one of the pace bunnies for the 30k and is the owner of the gym that I just joined!  Not sure he liked the fact that I asked him if he wore a tutu during the race (it's a Shakespearean theme run... so everyone is in costume).  He shyly answered yes, in front of another one of his staff members who was giggling by this point! Ooops! Sorry that your secret is out! :)  Just funny how big yet small the running community can be!

Merry Christmas to you all, and your families!  Safe travels, and cherish the time spent with family and loved ones!