New Shoes

This past week something HORRIBLE happened. My wonderful VFF Classics developed a hole in both shoes at the second toe. What in the world? I have read that people run forever in these things because they are hard to destroy. And well, it's not like I am running 60 or 70 miles a week in them.

And of course, this was less than TWO weeks before my half and I had already decided I just couldn't face doing a half in 'real' shoes. Heck, I have only run in them once since early April. Regular shoes make you feel like you have logs instead of legs. I'm slow enough without that as an extra problem.

So I started calling around to see if there was a pair of Bikilas in my size anywhere. There was a wait list of around 250 people at the main place that sells them in our county. YIKES! I guess that wasn't going to be the place I could just walk into and buy them. I called REI and they pretty much told me good luck on finding anything as they are just too popular. But then the REI kid told me where he had tried on a pair and I immediately called them. Over 50 miles away there was a pair of Bikilas in my size (or so I thought). They also had a pair in my friend's size, a friend who is on the list with 249 other people.

They usually won't hold things but I told them if I drove an hour up there with 5 kids and they sold them I would be so bummed. I promised to get my kids in the car ASAP and they said they would hold them.

I don't know how many people reading this have been in a running store. (I'm actually guessing the percentage is quite high due to the very low readership of this blog. I'm the main reader so I count for quite a bit.) But there are things to touch there and more things to touch there. There are treadmills quite often which SCREAM to be touched. Please touch me little child. I know your mama tells you to never touch me at home but just give me a little pat on the heart rate monitor. So I wasn't super thrilled to be taking them but I couldn't get a sitter on such little notice. Instead I popped them in the car and headed over to my friend's house to get her dinero for her shoes. As I was leaving she said to me, "Your pants are too big." I knew that but I wasn't in the mood to squeeze into the next size down when I had been eating junk food and feeling its effects.

So off we went. I pleaded with the kids to please be good as we neared our destination. And luckily, they were great. (Well, after a few wandered over to touch the treadmills.) I tried on 'my' pair of Bikilas and then the next size up. The next size up just seemed big. I wasn't quite sure what to do though because I had kind of come to the conclusion that my Classics wore out too quickly because they were too snug and my toes were making them grip where they weren't supposed to. The girl offered me the treadmill and I had to turn her down.

Why?

Two reasons came to mind. Reason one is that I am slow and well, I usually feel like a poser. I feel weird enough buying real runner stuff when I plod along. I've gotten over running in front of strangers that are sitting on their keesters while they drive eating a double burgers. I haven't gotten over waddling in front of real runner people. Reason two is that my pants were just too dang big and I didn't want to try to keep them up (no belt on) while testing shoes, while trying to keep the kids out of trouble, etc. etc. You get the picture. If only I had switched into something more athletic instead of baggy jeans.

So I took the small ones home and then put them on to wander around the house.

They were too small. And as the day wore on and got hotter my dang feet got even bigger and the shoes shrunk (or something like that).

So the next day we headed up again and I got the bigger pair. I'm so much happier with them. I'm hoping I can do the half this next Saturday in them.

And I'll never go to a running store in jeans that are too big again.