Ode to a Shoe: out with the old, in with the new

You served me right,

you served me well.

Your poor little soles, 

I put through hell.

Me and my old TSLAs. Ah, such innocence. The whole world was ahead of us.

And so I retire another running shoe. My electric blue, sweat-stale TSLA trail shoes are kaput. We ran hundreds of miles together, nearly 137 this month alone. They steered me through my first 50K. But now their jaunt is done and it’s time to rest. May they run the trails beyond the veil for eternity.  

As you’ve probably surmised from my poetic eulogy, I bought new running shoes. 

Earlier today, I went to the Fleet Feet on J Street in Sacramento. Boy was that a 21st-century shoe fitting experience! Maybe I’m a caveman, but the concept of taking a 3D scan of my feet tickled (and impressed) me quite a bit. The machines scanned the works: foot size, heel to toe length, ball width, ball girth, arch height, instep height, heel width, you get the picture. In fact, you can see a picture below. 

The whole experience was awesome. Shout out to Cortney for helping me select new trail shoes. I went with the Altra Lone Peak 4.5. They felt comfortable while I jogged in the store. But I’ll report more on them later, after my first long run. That'll be the true test.

And that should be soon! 

A few days ago I received a nice email, a reminder of pre-corona times. The Shamrock’n Half Marathon was scheduled for March 15, 2020. Ultimately, the race was postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, but now it’s back on and in virtual form. 

So between today and November 15, I need to log a 13.1-mile run. My PR for the half marathon distance is 1:57:08. It’d be nice to beat that.