Jogging on cushions

I got an e-mail early Wednesday that shamed me somewhat. It was from my brother Danny and the subject said "run."

I hadn't, and I had said I was going to run the day after my new shoes arrived.

Sure enough, he wanted to know if I'd gone running that morning and how the shoes worked out. I responded "No :(" and I could feel him shaking his head some 40 miles away. I felt like telling him that I was on my way to Disneyland and that I would be walking for about six hours and that I did not have my new shoes on but I wasn't going to just sit around all day... but I went with the short answer instead.

So this morning, I made it a point to run. I got up at about 4:35 or so and it took me about 10 minutes to shake off the sleep. It was closer to 5 when I finally went outside. I waited until Tiffany got up to go on my run.

The first thing I felt when I stepped outside, aside from the cool early-morning air, was my new shoes. They were comfortable. Very comfortable. I hadn't even taken a few steps when I knew that my runs were going to improve. I rounded the corner away from my street and felt the cool breeze on my toes. My old shoes didn't come with AC, but apparently these did.

Now, one thing that irritated me this morning was my iPod. I inadvertantly helped myself train for the Mud Run in another way as I will run that course without the use of the iPod. It had no juice so I wasn't able to use it. So I got to experience a two-mile run with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company. I would have given anything to listen to those songs that I'd skipped over on Saturday.

Such as it were, my run was a mental challenge more than anything. My mind wasn't trying to get me to take shortcuts but there were times early on that the time before me was going to be long when really it was going to be somewhere around 20 minutes or so. I need to invest in a watch because I didn't time my run. I left the house sometime around 5:03 and got back at around 5:23 but the times were from different clocks and that's not exactly the most accurate.

There were times during my run that I was able to increase my speed and the new shoes helped. When I made myself run at a brisk pace, the shoes did well to absorb the increased pace. And the only place I felt discomfort when I got home was my calf, which is still a bit tight. It'll go away, hopefully.

So my new shoes were a hit, already worth the $79 I spent on them. Well, that wasn't a 79-dollar-jog but I know the investment was well worth it because I know I'll run and run and run in those shoes, and hopefully they will feel as comfortable as they did this morning.