Pumped up Kicks

To begin this post, this 8th week of training, I have provided a link to the song "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini to get you into the theme of the week. Are you ready? 

New Shoes

"Hey I put some new shoes on, And suddenly everything is right, I said hey I put some new shoes on and everybody's smiling."( Catchy song isn't it?)

I really did get new shoes this week, and here they are!

This purchase could lead me to talk about running shoes, different kinds of shoes, or the people who think that true running should happen without shoes, but I'm not. Runners go through many pairs of shoes, so each new pair usually isn't really a reason to sing. Except for me, today.

Why?

Well, it isn't because I got them for a good price ( which I did), or that the fact that they only had my size in stock of my favourite shoe ( which is true), or that I managed to get the shoes with my kids in tow AND they didn't destroy the store ( which actually happened).

It also isn't because yesterday when I took them for their first run, the rain actually stopped.Which, honestly, with the rain that we have been getting lately, seemed like a miracle brought on by my magic shoes. When I looked out the door before I went, it was pouring rain( as it has been for what seems like a eternity), but after I ran for about 200 meters, the rain completely stopped. and 200 meters later, the sun was shining.  It was like that scene in Forrest Gump, when Forrest describes all the different kinds of rain in Vietnam ("Little bitty stingin' rain,..and big ol' fat rain. Rain the flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath"), and then suddenly the rain stopped and the sun came out and then they get ambushed.  It was just like that (only without the ambush).

The real reason I am singing about my shoes  is because on the drive home from the store,  I realized that these are the shoes that are meant to take me across the finish line of my first marathon. These are special shoes.Never again will I have a first marathon.  Last week, I finished my 9th half marathon in good shoes. But this week I head to the marathon, and these are the shoes that will (knock on wood) help me get there.

And, when I listen to Paolo Nutini's song, "New Shoes"  I don't think of his, probably materialistic, intent, instead I think, "This is right. This journey is what I am supposed to be on." And, because of that, I am "smiling" just like in the song.

This week's training took me 41 kilometers. There was no LSD run because of the race,no Tuesday run because of family commitments,  but I did some hill training on Wednesday, and went for a fabulous 10km run in my new shoes on Friday.

Tomorrow I will run the farthest I have ever run in one day with my new beginning shoes (26km) and I am looking forward to seeing how my body reacts because, (sing it) "I "don't need an excuse, Cause I'm wearing my brand new shoes."