new shoes
i had a wonderful run this morning out on town lake: spring is turning the corner here in central texas, i saw many friends out and about, and i ran with a friend from back home who's in town on business this weekend.
i got an easy hour of running in, loosening me up for tomorrow's 20 miler. boston is five weeks out, and although my training has been conservative (low mileage, no speed), my long runs are comfortable and i'm feeling "on target" for pats' day. tomorrow's run should be a good one, provided i get up early and beat the sun.
being within striking distance of a goal marathon (~1 month out), one's thoughts turn to shoes. in the next 1-2 weeks, i'll be retiring my current pair of running shoes in favor of new shoes, giving me a few weeks to break the newbies in for the marathon.
as a function of this process, the new shoes are invariably cleaner, shinier, more comfortable. they'll have the pleasure of toeing the line in hopkinton, the challenge of climbing the hills of newtown, and the honor of breaking the tape on boylston. they'll look good in the photos taken on race day.
in short, they take all the glory.
the old trainers are shelved and left behind. the shoes that facilitated my transformation from a 6-mile base to a 20-mile base. the shoes that sat in an unlit garage overnight, the next scheduled training run their only source of excitement. they'd be lucky to receive a postcard from the new kicks on race weekend, nevermind the thought of actually getting to travel to the big dance.
but they're appreciated more than they'll ever realize. besides, they find consolation in knowing that they've outrun all the neighborhood dogs on a regular basis--those priss raceday shoes would be eaten alive if they ever took a trip down claxton drive.
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