Author: Tara Cuslidge

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A second chance, a second try, another marathon

I hate it when bloggers make signing up for races a big deal. There’s a bit of the “I-just-signed-up-for-a-race-and-have-to-make-a-big-deal-out-of-it” moments when you come to a blog and the title of the post is “an announcement.”

So this is not an announcement. Not even close. It’s a mere statement of fact.

I signed up to run the California International Marathon on Dec. 2.

A second year of it. The 30th anniversary. Another marathon to try to bring down my time. I failed miserably in San Diego, despite months and months of extra training.

I “accidentally” ran a marathon at the Brazen six-hour endurance run in early July. But it wasn’t based on time and with the heat, I struggled at the end.

CIM presents a perfect opportunity to run a net-downhill course and revisit the route that, let’s face it, I don’t remember much of after mile 18. I’m hoping to remember it all this year. I’m also hoping to run better, both in how I feel and in how fast I run. So I signed up. I’m excited, but also nervous. I’m lining up races until then, especially since I’ll be training for the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Jose Half Marathon and the Nike Women’s Half, both in October.

I also, because I’m crazy, signed up for a half marathon the weekend after the San Francisco 1st Half Marathon. The Brazen Summer Breeze race is “flat and fast.” And I did it because I’m taking the week off of work. What a better way to take a vacation, right?

I didn’t think this year would be full of races, but life, and some other stuff has kind of changed things for me. So I’m looking forward to running hard and long into the next couple months. I’m looking forward to getting to the start, and finish, lines at CIM in December too.

And so the training begins…

 

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Another chance at Nike with Team Somersaults

Last year, I was devastated when I didn’t earn a spot in the Nike Women’s Half Marathon in San Francisco. It was close to home. It was for a fabulous cause. It was in one of my favorite places to run.

After the April drawing, I basically gave up any hope for running Nike.

Until a blog referred me to a contest on the Somersault Snack Company’s Facebook page.

The Sausalit0-based snack company was sponsoring a contest to win free entry into the Nike Women’s Half Marathon. I’d tried the company’s snacks before at other events. The sunflower-based treats were delicious. (I’m really in love with the newest flavor, cinnamon.)

Entry was simple: I basically wrote a little manifesto following the prompt of the race.

“I run to be healthy…” was my statement and I talked about beating diabetes one mile at a time.

I was excited when, a couple weeks later, I was sent an email telling me I’d earned a spot on Team Somersaults.

The whole experience was amazing. I was invited on a run in Sausalito, which has amazing views of San Francisco. It included a pretty significant hill, but was an overall great experience. I was given an awesome jersey, which I still have. And I love wearing it because it has cute little sunflowers on it. Plus, the snacks are great, so I really don’t mind representing on my runs in Tracy. I also have cute little clips and rocking sweat bands (which my brother even borrowed for this year’s Bay to Breakers race).

I also loved running into other members during the race and cheering them on. It was a very positive experience.

Why is all this important? Somersault Snacks is yet again offering those who didn’t make it in the race the first time around to win an entry into the sold-out, highly coveted race.

That’s right, you can head over to the Somersault Snack Company’s Facebook page and enter to win a chance to run 13.1 or 26.2. All you have to do is “like” the entry, fill out the entry form and create a running mantra with the writing prompt provided. That’s it. Somersaults makes it pretty easy to win.

Then you could possibly get the opportunity to be one of the 25,000 women (and men) running in the Nike Women’s Half Marathon or even in the full marathon. Plus, you’ll have the chance to meet and interact with a really excellent group of women. (I should add in that the company didn’t ask me to write this blog post, I feel compelled to because of my great experience last year.)

I’m not entering, but not because I don’t want to run with this amazing team again. I was fortunate enough to get an entry in the random draw earlier this year.

But I encourage anyone who wants to run Nike to head over to the Somersault Snacks page and enter to win. If you win a spot, you won’t regret the chance to hang with new friends and likely get some amazing snacks in the process (seriously, yum). Good luck!

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Cropped confessions

This is a confession, but one I don’t feel bad about and one that people might think I’m crazy for admitting: I wear cropped or capri pants for my summer runs. I vary between longer and shorter versions. I rarely, if ever, wear shorts. I own one running skirt that I also rarely wear.

I love crops. I have about 10 pairs. This summer I’m particularly favoring longer ones, the ones that hit around the ankle. I don’t live in a particularly cool place during the summer either. It’s been hitting the 100-plus temperatures here lately. That makes for some miserable running at certain points of the day.

Surprisingly, though, I don’t get too hot in my crops. If I’m not wearing a tank top, though, I feel like I’m burning up. (That’s for another post, though.)

There’s another really important reason, though, that I wear crops.

Despite more than two years of running, calorie counting and eating (mostly) well, my thighs touch.

You can kind of see my conundrum here. My thighs are in the same area code all the time. To be fair, when I weighed 135 pounds in high school I still had pretty significant chafing. My legs are much more toned now too.

So when I wear shorts, I chafe. No matter how much Glide I apply, I still chafe.

That means I’ve come to love capris to the point that I’ve tried multiple different pairs.

As I mentioned before, I’m favoring longer ones this summer. The pair I’m wearing today (above) are Nike Relay running capris. I purchased them from Nike.com earlier this year. At the time, my running pants were getting too warm to wear, but it still wasn’t nice enough for my short capris.

At $58, they weren’t as pricey as some of my other ones, but they fit the purpose. They are just black, tight pants basically. No frills outside of the Swoosh symbol. They are lightweight too.

The Nike capris were also my first pair of long capris since actually moving to running clothes at the beginning of 2011. I’m not even kidding. I used to run in cotton tights, basically, all the time. Then I finally moved into better clothes when I started doing half marathons (just the right time).

That led to more capris, I’m kind of embarrassed to confess.

I found the Lululemon Run: In the Sun Crop soon after. A photo of the side mesh areas is at the top of this blog.

These crops, at a whopping $88, are basically ten steps above the Nike ones. They are made of Lululemon’s Power Luxtreme. They have Circle Mesh in places were a lady is prone to sweating too. And they are smooth to the touch. I kind of fell in love in a way that I didn’t with the Nike capris.

I loved these so much, I purchased a second pair after getting some cash for my birthday.

In this photo, the crops appear more black than gray. But they are gray, with a wide waistband. The inner is more of a black color. The color here is called “deep coal.”

There’s a closeup of the waistband detail. These pants, as I mentioned before, are smooth and comfortable. I especially like the mesh sides that really breathe when I run. In fact, on the hottest days of the year, I prefer these crops. I wore them for the marathon in San Diego and the endurance run.

When I run, I literally feel as if the wind is coming through the mesh.

There’s another close-up of the mesh sides. The best part of these pants is that the mesh crunching doesn’t spread out where it’s straight. It actually looks pretty cute when worn.

I also recently purchased another pair of Lululemon crops which I’m kind of on the fence about still.

The Run: Inspire Crop II are beautiful in design. They are more basic than the Run in the Sun crops, not nearly as fancy on the sides. And they are a little bit longer as well.

The Inspire Crop II’s are basic at the top. You can see at this point that I have a bit of a love for basic black. I’m not big on branching out to new colors. The only area I am is in my shirt selections, which explains why I am big on buying bright colors lately, especially for running. Case in point are more Lululemon shirts.

Love the “ray” color from Lululemon.

The Inspire Crop II’s are also detailed near the bottom of the crop. They aren’t cheap, though, at $86.

The biggest difference between the Lululemon crops and the Nike capris come in the stitching. Lululemon pays close attention to detail when it comes to the stitching. The Nike ones seem to rise a little more than the Lululemon ones. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s enough that I notice more when I’m running in the Nike capris.

Plus, the Lululemon ones seem to “whish” in the thigh area a little bit better. (That’s really important. I may have fat little thighs, but I really don’t want sweat accumulation down there. I know, too much information.)

For me, crops are the only ways to go. Even if it’s warm outside, one of these pairs has become a go-to all seasons.

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Milestones

I had some computer issues this week, or at least I thought I did. I thought I had a virus that wouldn’t let me connect to the Internet, but it was actually an issue with our wireless router not connecting to both my computer and Netflix on our television. Lame.

So I’ve kind of taken a week off from the Internet. But I’ve been running. Just not as far or long as I’d like.

I did get in an eight miler on Saturday, but my legs felt heavy most of it. That’s a huge change from the past couple weeks when I’ve felt like I could run miles and miles and not stop.

I think my legs still need to recover from the Brazen endurance run last weekend. So I’m giving them a chance.

On another note, I reached a pretty awesome non-running milestone this week. My 2002 Camaro, which I purchased new, hit 150,000 miles. It’s been a faithful car for me for nearly 10 years, so I was excited to get to that point. I didn’t get “the” moment, because I was driving back from an unscheduled but necessary work assignment, but I got the mileage shortly after.

I remember the milestones in my car much the way I remember my first 5K, 10K, half and marathon. You get to that point and ponder what’s next. You wonder if it’s an end, or just a beginning.

Then you plan another milestone. Or at least I do.

For me it usually also means planning another race. My calendar on this blog only lists races through the Big Sur Half Marathon. Those are just the races I’ve registered for. I’m considering some additions to that schedule in the coming weeks. (By the way, registration for the Big Sur Marathon opened today and the organization has already listed it as more than 70 percent full. That’s exciting and all, but the 21-miler was brutal to me this past year, so I don’t think I’m quite ready to tackle the marathon. Maybe the 21-miler again, but that doesn’t sell out nearly as fast as the marathon.)

Another milestone? I’m taking my first vacation of the year in two weeks. Six whole work days off. I’m also preparing lessons plans for my third year as a community college journalism instructor. I’m excited to be starting again, but I’m also worried because I know it’s a lot of work in addition to my full-time job and I’m exhausted by the end of the semester.

More running in my future too…if only to help keep me sane while doing all of what I just mentioned.

 

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Going long at the Brazen Dirty (Half) Dozen

I want to say I didn’t set out to run a marathon during the Brazen Dirty (Half) Dozen six-hour endurance run. But I knew it was a possibility. I knew I could run a marathon in six hours. I had before, even though my last experience in San Diego wasn’t pretty. I also knew I’d never attempted such a distance on trails, which in many cases tend to increase my time thanks to not-so-secure footing and rolling hills.

But I was confident in my ability for this one.

I’ve had some really good runs lately. Those were mostly on flatter ground or on the treadmill, but I felt strong going into the run. My goals were pretty simple. I wanted to attempt eight laps. And I wanted to run the entire time.

I wanted to run the entire time even if it meant slowing down on certain areas and not pushing myself super hard on others. There was one specific hill that I power walked up every time and I was really glad I did by final two passes around.

I’m happy to report that I made both goals basically. I made it eight times around the 3.37-mile course. And I ran 5:52:21. I probably could have made the .7 loop around too once more, but figured I didn’t want to chance it, since they were starting to countdown and I was pretty tired.

My morning started out at 4 a.m. when I woke up to get ready to make the trek to Point Pinole Regional Park. We arrived at about 6:22 a.m.

It was a beautiful, foggy morning.

The bathroom lines were nonexistent. And with two bathroom locations on the course, I didn’t have to worry about ever needing to wait in line. Though two or three bathroom stops during the run added to my time. My brother came too and we tried to get his packet early. No go. They weren’t giving them out for a couple more hours.

Danny went back to the car and fell asleep. Thomas also took a nap. (Important note for later.)

The race got started right on time after some announcements. I should note that there were probably less than 200 people in total racing the six and twelve hour runs. I think there were more for the six than the twelve, definitely.

There’s another photo from the start. We all stared together. By the second loop, we were all pretty spaced out, which was one of the appealing features of this race for me. I wanted to do a race without a lot of pressure. I wanted to be relaxed after the experience in San Diego. This was perfect.

I started out strong. I found my pace pretty quickly and I just kept moving. And moving. And moving.

My splits were all across the board. I ran all over. From 11:22 to just under 16 minutes.

There’s more detail of it here. I don’t think I was inconsistent though. It’s a timed race where individual laps are counted. That includes pit stops, like water bottle refills and stopping to look at results. I also stopped at the aid stations. My average moving time, according to Garmin, was 12:40, which isn’t bad at all, especially since I kept repeating the course. There was a A LOT of course fatigue for me at the end because of that.

My shirt here says “Run Happy.” I kind of feel like that was what I was doing all day.

This was at the top of the last hill on the loop. I ran up it nearly every time. In fact, I was doing pretty good running up nearly every hill. I paced down as I went uphill, with small steps to make it through. I was also incredibly conservative with the downhills, including a fairly steep one on a single track near the point of Point Pinole (also the best view).

I wore my long-sleeve shirt the first three laps. I wanted to take it off sooner, but Thomas was still sleeping. He didn’t show up with a new bottle until I was finishing my fourth lap. And he didn’t bring my back. I was a little upset. It had everything I needed it in, including sunscreen, which would come in handy later.

He kept refilling my bottle, so every two go rounds I would refill it.

Each time we’d pass under the Brazen arch. Later a second arch would go up for the 5K/10K. I ran the 10K last year and thought the endurance runners were crazy. And then I became one.

And there were great, changing signs throughout the course. Fat cells burning? You bet. According to Garmin, I burned 2,855 calories. I did five Gu in Vanilla Bean flavor. I also had Thomas constantly refilling my 20-ounce Amphipod water bottle. I brought my own Gatorade, because I knew it wouldn’t be available on the course.

I wish I would have taken a photo of an aid station, specifically the one at the arch where volunteers had everything from mini peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to oranges to chocolate candy. The other aid station, at 1.7 miles from the arch, was staffed by Mountain House runners who encouraged me on each go round. I looked forward to getting to that aid station every time.

All the volunteers were so encouraging. Including the “woo” guy taking photos. In the six hours, he showed up three places along the course.

The second time I saw him, I told him I was glad he moved because he was so encouraging.

That’s me saying “hey, you moved!” and telling him I was glad to see him. He then said he’d be moving again and I thanked him for the support. He caught that too.

Notice that these photos are vastly different from the ones I posted for the Rock ‘n’ Roll San Diego Marathon a couple weeks back. I wasn’t miserable during this run. I wasn’t in pain. I was having a really good time. I was taking my time. And I was loving every minute of the nearly six hours I was running. It was awesome. It was probably the best run I’ve had in a long time.

And I think it had a little something to do with my shoes.

My shoes that are now covered in dust. Check out my legs post run. I was sunburned during the last marathon, covered in dirt for this one.

And yes, I ended up at the end running a marathon. Slow and steady, finishing, according to my Garmin, with 26.7 miles. I’m still waiting for final results to post on the Brazen site to see what the timing company has recorded.

Another one with my jiggly arms. I’ve slimmed down everywhere on my body except my arms. Swimming was helping that, but I haven’t picked it up again since my swimming school shut down. So my arms just flab around when I run. Gross, I know. Look how slim my legs are though! Silver lining I guess.

It was during the lap that I’m photographed in above that my brother Danny whipped the competition during the noon 5K. I’m not even kidding. He finished fifth overall. He also was first in his age group. I’ve only ever twice finished in the top three in my age group and that was during incredibly small races.

Danny was wicked fast.

So he was waiting at the end with Thomas when I finally came in on my last go round. It took him 23:58 to run one lap. It took me much, much longer, but I was trying to pace myself to get through all six hours. (Not making up excuses at all, I was slow and steady.)

At the end, Danny was presented an awesome medal that the announcer referred to as a “piece of poop.”

Is that not the coolest medal ever for a 5K or 10K? I would have been kind of jealous if I hadn’t also earned a pretty awesome medal that also doubled as a coaster and bottle opener.

It even has backing on it so it won’t scratch the table. That on top of the awesome hoodie I received instead of a shirt and I think this is the best distance run I’ve ran so far. I know I felt great after I finished. And that was really important to me after the disaster in San Diego.

Plus I got to spend the day with my husband (who wasn’t all that great at crewing, so much so he said next time Danny could crew for me and he’d go to the nearby shooting range) and my little brother, who got a second age-group medal that I didn’t take a photo of.

I sent my mom that photo as a “proof of life” for my brother. Danny ran his first half marathon with me in 2011. After we ate and got back to my house, he had an accelerated heart rate. He ended up in the emergency room in the hospital down the street. I felt horrible, so I didn’t ask him to run with me again until Bay to Breakers. I sent her a “proof of life” photo after that too.

You can tell I changed shirts here. I had to. As it became hotter (probably why I slowed a lot near the end), I became more and more sweaty. I smelled so bad after I finished. I immediately took off my tank top and put on another shirt. Yeah, it was that bad.

We hung around a little, mostly so I could regain my bearings. Running for that long kind of wears the legs down. Surprisingly I’m not feeling half bad a day later. As we left, the 12-hour runners were still going strong.

I admire that. I honestly don’t think I could have gone six more hours. My toes were starting to blister (just from repeated pounding), and my right hip was starting to feel a little pain. But I had no IT band issues. My shoes were wide enough to not push my feet into a curve. I was happy the entire way through.

A good day? Yes. A good run? Yes.

It’s funny that taking longer to go a similar distance than I did just over a month ago came make me feel better, but this run wasn’t about the distance as much as it was covering all six hours. It was about finding my stride and sticking to it. It was also about finally meeting a goal I set for myself.

And I did. Success. Finally.

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Prepping for a long run

A couple months ago I signed up for a six-hour Brazen endurance run thinking to myself “six hours doesn’t sound so bad.” That was before the horrible marathon in San Diego. That was also before I started hitting my stride a couple weeks ago and ran nearly 40 miles in one week. Some good. Some bad. All running.

Saturday is the day. The six-hour endurance run begins at 7 a.m. My brother will run a 5K at noon as part of it. I’m hoping for over 20 miles. Each pass around is 3.37 miles, which means I need to at least do that six times (for a little over 20 miles). My second goal is to, maybe, go the marathon distance again. I’m not completely sure I’ll get there, but I am going to try.

Today, Matt from the Mountain House Runners was nice enough to pick up my race packet for me. I was super stoked to get it early since we always tend to run late on race day. I’ll say, it’s a pretty sweet deal for the entry fee that I was given an awesome zip up hoodie with this year’s logo and all.

The back has the clock that made up last year’s medal. I ran the 10K last year as part of this event because it was at 11 a.m., which meant I could sleep in and go. So I have one of last year’s 10K medals, but I also saw the endurance medal, which was pretty awesome. That’s not what made me sign up. I haven’t run a Brazen race in awhile. I wanted to do something with them again.

The endurance run seemed like a good idea. (I laugh now.)

The front has the logo that’s on the Brazen website for this specific run. The zip up is high quality too. I think I’ll get a lot of use out of it.

As I gather my race items, though, I’m trying to think about all I need to get me through six hours of running. I know some things for sure.

There will be two aid stations, each stocked with all the conveniences that I’m accustomed to at Brazen races. That means fruit, gummy bears, oranges, water and, likely, a sport drink. I know the stations will be well manned, if only because there will be people out running a 12-hour race too. I also know there are bathrooms along the course. I remember last year there being three, one near the start, one about a mile in and one closer to the end.

So there’s not a lot of questions about that.

But I wonder, too, what I’ll need to make it through.

I’ve started gathering items to pack away for my husband and brother to provide to me while they “crew.”

The first is sunscreen. A second is body lubricant/glide.

I’ll likely need to reapply the sunscreen numerous times. The spray bottles are great because you don’t have to worry about missing certain areas. I can just have someone spray me all over. It will be quick too.

The lube/glide will be for those areas that need reapplying after awhile. This includes my fat little right arm, which always seems to chafe. I don’t need anything for my legs because I’ll be wearing capris. I also have some powdered Glide for in between my toes.

I don’t typically run in a hat, but I figured I’d pack my visor that I picked up at the Big Sur Half Marathon last year so I wouldn’t be too hot. This is also about sun protection. Most of the trail is covered and nice, but we do hit the sun here and there.

I’m also planning on taking a stock pile of my Gu supply.

True story: I usually keep that much Gu in a bag in my closest. I once realized I ran out of Gu the night before a run. That run happened to be the Big Sur Half. It was too late to go buy any new Gu. I had no options. So I ran without. And it was a horrible, horrible run. I was miserable the entire time. And hungry. Finally, at about mile seven, the volunteers were handing out Gu on the course. But they didn’t seem to have any Vanilla Bean, which is kind of my favorite.

So I stock up. All the time.

I know, though, that Gu wouldn’t get me through six hours.

I’m also bringing something more substantial. I’ll pack some natural fruit rolls. Some chocolate covered raisins. And my favorite type of Luna bar.

Love those.

I’m nervous about this run, but excited at the same time. I think it will be a nice, low key way to get in some distance. I also think it will be a fun time.

Six hours seems like a really long time, though.

I hope I can make it.

 

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Running free

Today is Independence Day. It’s a day when the country celebrates the freedom granted to those living in the United States. It’s also a requisite day off for most people, myself included.

But I’m not running today. I did an eight miler on Tuesday and am preparing for a six-hour endurance run this weekend. I’m thinking less time on my legs would be good. But I want to run. I really do.

Because something changed a couple weeks ago.

I was heading out to Mountain House for a run with Jennie and kind of running behind. I grabbed my water bottle and headed out the door. I was less than a mile from the park when I looked down and realized I forgot my Garmin.

Crap, I thought.

This can’t be good.

I’ve run races upon races, ever since my first half marathon, with my Garmin. Every outdoor run I do, it comes with me.

I nearly called Jennie and cancelled. I didn’t know how we’d run without knowing how far along on our six miler we were. But I decided we’d figure something out. I did text her to warn her.

She was right. I knew the route. In fact, I made I route. We weave through one area where the houses are still being built, then we hit the community’s perimeter. I don’t know the exact locations of the mile markers, but I know approximations.

So we set off and just started running. I was anticipating the same leg aches I’ve been getting recently, specifically tightening of my calves. We got nearly a mile in and a pace that was comfortable, but not fast. No pain.

We kept running, picking up speed here and there. We chatted and ran. It was breezy afternoon.

And I suddenly felt so free.

Six miles later, the sun was setting and instead of paying attention to my Garmin I was paying attention to what a nice day it was. There’s something to be said about running just to run. On that day, it didn’t matter how long we took or what our splits were, we just ran. It felt amazing.

I’ve picked my Garmin back up several times since then, but I’ve maintained the same kind of feeling. I don’t know if it’s the new shoes (though those are amazing too, enough I may buy a new pair to horde this weekend because East Bay has a sale), or something else, but I’m a different runner.

So I’m leaving my Garmin home a little more now. It sits on my desk at 100 percent charged.

And I’m adding up a higher mileage count too. Last week I ran 38.5 miles. That’s the highest number I’ve ever run in a week. It felt amazing. I logged a total of 117 miles for June, including the not-so-great marathon.

So today I’m celebrating a little. By not running. But also by knowing that I’ve had the two best running weeks I’ve had in six or seven months in recent weeks.

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About that heat

It’s been a tad warm lately. And by warm I mean, “it’s not hot enough to not run outside from time to time but let’s be real and stay on the treadmill.”

I know my limitations. The hooter temperatures make me not want to run. I get cranky. I want to quit. I basically start out hoping for seven to 10 miles and then stop at four.

On the treadmill, I know I get the distance. And, lately, I’ve been upping the resistance to simulate outdoor running.

The problem with treadmill running is the monotony. I’ve let my mind wander enough times and nearly fell off the deck to figure out some time back that I needed to do something to keep my mind occupied.

I started with music on my iPod.

Then, last summer, I got an iPad for teaching. And we got Netflix. And Hulu Plus.

And now, I spend most of my treadmill runs watching videos. Usually two, which gets me anywhere from eight to 10 miles.

My latest obsession as the mercury rises is The Walking Dead. Netflix has the first season available on instant streaming. I got through the first six episodes pretty quickly during my runs this past week. Having something I’m interested in to watch even helps with mileage, which stands at 33 miles this week, though I’m hoping to hop on for some more after I’m finished cleaning my house and blogging.

Plus, I’m waiting for season two to download onto my iPad.

Believe me, the distraction makes the runs go by faster. It also helps me keep pace. I know I’m at my goal pace if I can finish a certain number of miles before the episode is over.

Of course, the treamill makes Netflix a little wonky from time to time. That means the first four minutes of my run I’m trying to get Netflix to reconnect to the Internet, despite the fact that I’m only 40 feet from the router.

The mill runs are also helping me train for the event I’m doing this weekend: the Brazen six-hour endurance run.

I logged 117 miles for June, which I figure is a good base to run six-hours straight. I’m looking forward to it, to test my endurance, but to also see how far I can get. If I can run a marathon in around 5:20-5:30, I’m hoping the event will be my first ultra. That’s pretty exciting to me, considering I’m using it as a “training run” for the San Francisco 1st Half Marathon later in the month. (I’m not nearly crazy enough for the 12-hour race.)

So I’m beating the heat, staying indoors and keeping cool on the treadmill, with a little help from The Walking Dead.

My hope is that those three words aren’t needed to describe me during my six-hour run on Saturday. After the disaster in San Diego, I need a good run.

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Undergoing site maintenance

I haven’t written in a couple days because I’ve been performing some very necessary site maintenance.

When I started this blog last September, my running buddy Sam was kind enough to let me “borrow” some space from her on one of her servers. I built this site from the ground up there. It’s blossomed there.

But it’s also time for me to be a big girl and move to my own hosting client. So I’ve spent the past three hours moving content and download databases to move to new server space.

I just switched out my name servers for my URL. That means the switchover should happen anywhere from two hours to 48 hours from now. I’m crossing my fingers that I figured all of this out right. We’ll see. I usually deal with content management systems in my daily life. I never, ever worry about the 15+ plus year domain my job’s site runs through.

It also means I’m blogging this one last post on the borrowed space and then copy and pasting it over to the new servers.

This means nothing for my readers (unless I take the site down), but if there are some glitches in the next couple days, that’s the reason.

And for what it’s worth, I built this site off a template. I basically “fancied” it up. When people come here, they often ask who designed my blog or who built it, etc. It was me. It’s not perfect, but it’s more than just a typical WordPress install. It’s all me.

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A better fit

A couple weeks ago, I blogged about my second marathon slump in San Diego. There were a lot of reasons it all went bad, but one of them was shoes. Before I could even write my race recap, I went to my local Fleet Feet store. I’ve purchased my last three pairs of shoes from a great sales associate who takes her time with me, answers all my questions and understands my needs when it comes to shoes.

It was because of all this I was hoping the Saucony Hurricane 14s that I purchases earlier this year would be the new shoes for me. Instead, I realized more than 100 miles in that they weren’t. I was still getting blisters. I was in pain. I was trying to make them work.

They. Weren’t. Working.

So I went back to Fleet Feet, shoes in hand, and admitted what I had known, probably, since before the marathon: The Hurricane 14s were hurting my feet.

The sales associate shared my pain. Only weeks before, I had posted that they were totally working for me on the store’s Facebook group.

Then they weren’t.

She could see it in my thrashed feet. The shoes were making both fleet arch slightly, meaning my baby toe was pushed under my other toes and the inner side of each of my feet was being rubbed raw. My feet looked like a disaster.

I tried on three more pairs of shoes. Another pair of Sauconys. And a pair of Brooks.

Finally, another pair of Nikes.

The LunarEclipse +2.

I don’t want to say it was love at first site. It wasn’t. I had spent so much time in shoes that were consider more functional than pleasing that I’d never had a pair of “pretty” running shoes before.

These were definitely pretty.

I was worried. I think I had ever right to be after the Saucony disaster.

Then I went on my first run. No pain. No rubbing. No “breaking in.”

They fit me in a way that was comfortable, yet functional. I felt fully supported, but they weren’t bulky like my Equalon +4’s had been. The pair was also much, much lighter than any of my previous running shoes. But I was still cautious. I kept running, already putting more tan 40 miles on them and I haven’t had one issue.

I did a hot day outdoor run in them and they didn’t slip and slide. I remember at mile 3 looking at my running buddy Jennie and saying: “I’m sorry I ever cheated on Nike.”

And I am.

The LunarEclipse +2’s are stability shoes. But they are also slightly wider than the Sauconys. They also seem a tad bit longer. The biggest difference, though, is in the upper on the area near my baby toe.

The Hurricane 14s had a hard, yet flexible plastic. My Nike Equalon +4’s had a “bunion control” area. That area would expand based on my foot movement. The Sauconys wouldn’t expand. In fact, they would push my toes in. The inner side would push my feet in even more.

The new shoes, though, have a much more flexible upper.

That is the specific area in question. Even though that thin detail band goes across the area where my little toes go, it doesn’t bind them in. It lets them be much more flexible and move with greater ease.

Even better? I’ve had multiple pain free runs with these shoes. I seem to be able to go and go and go.

I’m hoping this means I found my “new” running shoes. These definitely are a better fit.

I’ve passed my Saucony’s with 100-plus miles on them, still in very good shape, to my mom. She has a job that requires her to be on her feet a lot, so they’ll likely be a good fit for her. She has much more narrow feet than I do. (I have flat little feet that don’t bother me all that much but are apparently bad for running.)

I’m considering this a costly mistake. The Sauconys were $140. The Nikes were $135.

But I’d rather trade in the shoes that were making running hard and unbearable for a pair that makes me enjoy it again. It’s made all the difference.