New Items

First things first...I was on my way home after a run a few weeks ago and thought my passenger car seat looked a little ridiculous!  Do any of your passenger seats look like this??

Random runner stuff

The seat had countless water bottles, shoe inserts, my garmin charger (??), and my bra since I changed in the car (the umbrella has no relation to being a runner.  It was raining a day or two before this).  When I need to drive someone somewhere, it goes something like this... "Uh, hold on..."  While I throw everything to the floor in the back.  I've since cleaned most of that up, by the way.

Now on to the fun stuff...new stuff!  A few weeks ago, I was one of the winner's of Maggie's "Super Awesome Raffle for the American Cancer Society".  I was the #2 winner and that came with many cool things!  A few of the items I won were...

I won the shirt that Maggie is wearing in the picture above "I heart fast women"

Injinji toe socks

I won the purple socks on the right

I won these three Bani Bands

I have wanted to get one of those "I heart fast women" shirts that Maggie sells for her charity so I was super excited when I won one!  I wore it for my 16 mile long run the other weekend and it felt great!

Maggie wears the Injinji Toe Socks.  I had thought about trying them but never bought any because frankly, they seemed weird and was afraid to spend money on them.  Maggie swears by them but what works for one, doesn't always work for another.  But Maggie has some really cute ones in her normal running stash!  So I was super excited (again) to win a pair of these to try them out.  They were just the normal "generic" kind but that didn't matter to me.  I haven't worn them on a run yet.  I tried them out last week at my bootcamp class and at first, it just felt like I had stuff between my toes (I guess I did though...).  They didn't bother me during the workout at all and I forgot I was wearing "different" socks.  Maybe I'll try them on a run this week and see how they go!

The Bani Bands...well, I was super excited to win these (obviously!).  Haha!  I guess I was just super excited to win anything!  I finally tried one of them out on my 4 mile run on Sunday because it was raining and thought it would keep my bangs out of my face.  It was really comfortable.  I messed with it a little in the beginning but after I got used to it being there, it felt good.  Never slipped off my head, not once!  Loved it!  Most bands slip right off my head and really never wear any of them for that reason!

The next new thing...shoes.  I've been always having trouble finding the "right" shoes.  I never worried much about it until starting to train for these marathons.  I don't have great feet (hello bunions...super sexy) and my arches fall inward.  My ankle on the left side tends to fall inward as well (which is why I need a stability shoe), while my right ankle remains neutral (hence I should really wear a neutral shoe on that foot).  BUT...you can't buy a stability for one foot and a neutral for the other and therefore, I was fitted for a stability shoe.  The shoes I've been running in lately are Nike.  But I've been all over the map as far as trying different brands of shoes.  I knew I didn't like my Nike enough to want to run 26.2 miles in them.

So a few weeks ago, I bought a pair of Saucony.  It was a horrible shoe shopping day for me and I tried on at least 5 different pairs of shoes!  I went to Road Runner (where I bought my last pair) and had 25% off that day (for being a VIP member).  I ended up buying the Saucony pair just to get something, when in reality, I knew I wasn't going to like them.  The good thing about being a VIP member at Road Runner is that you have 90 days to return the shoes.  And they tell you to wear them, dirty them up, make sure you like them or don't like them...and then you can return them if you need to!

When I tried the Saucony pair, I wore them for 8 miles and they felt too big and my feet were slipping in them.  And by the end of the 8 miles, my ankle and shin were bothering me.  I was afraid to try them again and just wanted to return them fast!  The marathon is 6 weeks away and I needed to find my marathon shoes!  This past Friday, I went back to return the Saucony's and was in and out in 10 minutes!  I ended up with a pair of Brooks that felt pretty light on my feet and really comfortable.  They ended up matching the 25% off I got the first time too!

I decided to wear my Brooks for my long "cutback" run of 12 miles last weekend.  I'm pretty aware that I should start out with a less mileage run for my first time wearing new shoes just in case they don't work...but like I said, I'm anxious about the marathon being 6 weeks away.  Luckily they felt pretty good during my 12 mile run.  I'll wear them for my 9 miles during the week and see how that goes.  If that goes well, then I will wear them for my upcoming 18 miles this weekend...(ugh...why did I chose long distance running as my sport of choice?).

My new Brooks

Um...they are purple (bluish-purplish) too....and purple is my favorite color.  I think it's fate!  Marathon shoes?  Maybe!

And if you didn't notice, I'm wearing my CARA shoe tag all the time now too.  It has my emergency contact information on it and since dislocating my shoulder while running in July, well, I now realize that I'm not immune to emergencies!  Better safe than sorry!