Realizations

November has quickly passed us by which means only one thing for me, and it has nothing to do with turkey:  Seattle Half Marathon is this weekend!  I have broken in my shoes decently.  I am watching the weather reports so I know what to pack.  I am doing intense amounts of homework in hopes that I will not be taking it with me.  I am getting adequate sleep so as not to go into this exhausted.  Most of all, I am really excited.  I have been replaying my first Seattle Half in my mind, thinking about the areas where I need to have energy reserves.  I am planning my food for Saturday, and what would be most satisfying, yet not weigh me down on Sunday. Overall, I feel ready for this race.  While not well trained, I am in a wonderful mental place that says, "I can and will do this!"

A small bit of shock came to me yesterday as I was printing off my travel information and my race confirmation.  I read through the confirmation paperwork and saw that it was February of this year when I registered for the Seattle Half.  WOW!  I knew it was early in the year, but to see that the date was early February was very neat.  The major moment came when I continued reading.  Seattle Marathon asks how many fulls and halves you have completed as of the day of registration.  At the time, this number was two.  As of today, that number is six.  SIX!  WOW!  Who would have ever thought that this is what would have come to be.  I look in my living room at my medal display, see all six hanging there, knowing there is a seventh coming shortly, and I am just in awe.  I did that!  Not only that, my race goal time listed on the registration is 3:59:59.  I have also shattered that by more than 10 minutes. 

The rest of this week will include homework, packing, spending time with my family here at home, and then traveling for this race.  As for future races, June 2015 is the only one I have planned at this time.  We will call that "Chewy's First Half" as she will join me for the Seattle Rock n Roll.

Shoes!

Twenty two days until the Seattle Half Marathon, and I really feel like I am reliving last November with talks about shoes.  This time is different though for a variety of reasons.  I have realized a few things over the last month.  I really like a tighter fit on a shoe, and hate wide toe boxes.  I have a cute pair of every day shoes that I don't wear often, realizing only recently that it is the toe box that I dislike.  My New Balance shoes are nicely supportive and great for 5K races, are not appropriate for half marathons and long term use.  Reality is, I need way more support than those shoes provided, and again, wider toe box.  I scoured the internet, asked for the help of others, and now I should be having a new pair of shoes any day now.  This will be my third pair of Saucony Guide 6 shoes, and they will truly be a blessing.  The sad part is they are a soon to be two year old model, and I am hoping to continue finding them here and there.  Or, even better would be that the Guide 8 would be a shoe I like and find comfort in, something that the Guide 7 was lacking.  I guess I should have listened to Chewy and bought the ones I saw at the Seattle Rock n Roll trade show back in June.  Don't tell the 12 year old that she was right. 

Another thing that I have realized is that my knee is unhappy when I am wearing less supportive shoes.  The more I wore the New Balances, the worse the issues in my knee.  Add in a pair of cute worn out loafers, a pair of shoes with okay support but wide toe box, and the running shoes, and my knee would be screaming at me!  Even just one day of wear with any of those shoes was a recipe for disaster.  Out of curiosity, or maybe a little desperation, I pulled out my miled out Sauconys.  They were dead by the end of the Seattle Rock n Roll for distance racing, but have plenty of life in them for puttering around town like normal people.  My knee has been in heaven.  No pain!  No funny weird twinges.  All has been well.  And my feet have felt great as well.  This is why I decided to buy another pair of them.  I really dislike the color of them, white/blue/silver, which would be pretty if they didn't look just so boring.  The comfort makes it all worth it though. 

Every time I am out is another learning experience for me.  As of late, I have finally understood how much shoes make a difference.  My fear now is if I will have enough time to break in a new pair of shoes before a race.