Pretend this one is about Lady Gaga and try to stay awake while reading it.
I’m going to write about running again and I know what you’re thinking, you’re all “She’s writing about running? Again? What is this turning in to? A running blog?” And the answer is yes, I guess, I don’t know, and maybe.
So.
After surviving one blistertastic week of Couch to 5K (C25K), then deciding I needed to take a week off to let my wound fully heal, last Monday I made the executive decision to start the program over from the beginning. Begin the begin, as R.E.M. said. (Love me some R.E.M.) And I’m happy to report that as of last Friday I completed Week One with no new taxes blisters! Granted, as previously reported, I started having some knee pain, but I figure that’s the price of getting drop dead sexy physically fit when you are thirty-eight years old and roughly fifty pounds overweight. Not so much an “injury” as an “insult” to my knee. If that makes sense.
Anyway, I previously left out part of the story of my blister experience for brevity’s sake (see Mom, I DO know what BREVITY is) and since it’s a topic I would like to address today, I’mma fill in the blanks I left in earlier posts. Because regarding my ginormous, bloody, bright red, four-layers-of-skin-deep blister? I BLAMED THE NIKES.
And not just because they were brand new and not broken in and not one-half to one-full size bigger than my usual size eight-and-a-halves, but also because the heel part came up higher and was shaped differently than other running shoes I have worn in the past. So I took them back to the store for a refund and proceeded to try on the other gadzillion pairs I hadn’t tried on during my first trip, and I luckily found a pair of Sauconys that are the new love of my life.
< — This is what they look like. They are the Saucony Grid C2 Flash. In the past, I have had really good luck with the Saucony brand. The pair of runners I just retired were the Saucony Grid Cohesion NX which I almost exclusively wore to work for over a year, and also wore on the occasional treadmill excursion. Very occasional. Where “very occasional” is defined as probably less than ten fingers in a year’s time.
I think the secret to my success with Saucony lies in the design of their toebox. See, I inherited some seriously wide feet (not to mention freakish big toes of which I drew an astoundingly true-to-life illustration here), a fact my mother and Aunt Patty can confirm, having been forced to limit our shoe-shopping to Trippets and Cinderella Bootery when I was a child, and the Saucony toebox fits my twinkle toes to perfection, allowing the rest of my foot to fill out the body of the shoe as intended, and yes, I’m pretty sure it’s not actually called the body of the shoe.
I did, of course, buy this pair in a size nine and broke them in for a few hours at a time around the house the first day or two I had them. Proving that I CAN learn from my mistakes.
I’ve now C25K’d in them five times and I have to say I am a VERY SATISFIED CUSTOMER.
Which is not to say that everyone should run (haha get it? run? since we’re talking about running? haha? ha? ahem.) out and buy themselves a pair of Sauconys. I’m not suggesting that at all. This is NOT a paid or unpaid advertisement for their brand. I’m just trying to make the point that I believe there exists the “right” pair of running shoes out there for everyone, and that when you find the pair that feels like it was made just for you, you might just feel like you could run forever.
And also? This MIGHT be turning into a running blog. We shall see.
I know the suspense is KILLING you.
