OK, this is getting out of hand

First post-marathon run. 2 miles. VERY difficult first mile. In fact, after a mere three blocks, I was hunched over coughing and wheezing and my legs were all like, "Whoa! Hey, buddy, waddaya t'ink youse doin? Da union ain't approved dis action!"

But...I got over it. Got to the bank, deposited a check, and the mile home was much more reasonable, if not yet fabulous. Needless to say, I was surprised and dismayed at how hard this really was.




I'm supposed to go on a run with a partner tomorrow in Central Park, a brief run. Frankly, I'm hoping we only do the lower 1.7 mile loop. There's a 4-mile qualifier on the 16th I'll probably do, perhaps as part of an 8-mile long run?

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So. This is kinda getting out of hand:



There are seven pairs of tennis shoes sitting there. Let's see what all these pairs are for:



Those two pairs of New Balance 902s I bought shortly after my last pair of 901s wore out. I've been with 901s since I began running; but about 18 months ago, New Balance changed the model - and all of a sudden, I couldn't run in the 902s. I thought it might have been THAT PAIR, so got a different pair, slightly larger. No dice. Each pair has about 15 miles on them and I can't seem to find anybody who wants them. I may just send them to Shoe4Africa.org. I'm not made of money, but these shoes aren't doing anybody any good sitting here.

The next pair in the picture are the world-famous shoes that helped me run my world-famous record-breaking run at the world-famous New York City Marathon! OK, so maybe only one of those three things is actually world-famous, and the only record I broke was just how slowly I can finish a marathon. But those are the shoes. I don't like them much. They're OK, but definitely not in the realm of being loyal to this model. Through two pairs, I've been less than thrilled. They don't get me hurt, but they don't exactly help, either.

The next pair is the pair I did most of my training in and may have actually been the pair I wore in St Louis, but I think that's two pairs down. Hard to tell, since both pairs have Team Boomer themed laces, meaning I bought them to be seen in public. This pair wasn't bad, but I have thoroughly worn out the soles.

Pair #5 in the picture is my oldest pair of all seven and are now my paint shoes. They are Brooks Adrenaline G7s, the best running shoe they've ever made, in my opinion. They are too worn out for running, but are comfortable as hell. And thus worth keeping around.

Pair #6 is in a similar vein, in that I wore them out, but being G7s, they are too comfortable to toss - this pair lives in my motorcycle saddlebag so I can change out of my boots when at rallies and such.

Lastly is my next-to-newest pair, though the pair with fewest miles on them. After I wore out the older G8s - and was seeing sports therapy to get fixed up from hip flexor strains - I went looking for a new model of shoe to try. At that point, I had five weeks 'til the marathon and figured if I wore them for a couple of long runs, they'd be broken in. Well, one week of wearing and one long run later and I ditched them. They messed up a tendon on the top of my left foot and that has STILL not healed - it's part of what slowed me down in the marathon. Any of my running shoes aggravate that tendon right now - only my rather flat dress shoes give me no pain. How ironic. I really liked this pair of Nike Zooms though because I could use the Nike+ system with them, they feel very good while walking around, and are lighter than the G8s. I wish it could have worked out. The shoes that replaced them are the G8s I ran the marathon in.

I don't know when I'll find another model of shoes that a) I like and b) don't get me injured. In the meantime, I feel like I should winnow down my ever-growing heard of athletic footwear.