First Impressions - Hoka One One Stinson B Evo

Today marked a change in my trail running, maybe even in my road running. I became a convert... a convert to HOKA ONE ONE shoe design. Granted this was my first run in my new HOKA Stinson B Evo, but the impact, or really, the lack of impact, was so drastic, that I don't see myself going back. Wow... didn't I read that in someone else's review last week. Sorry for the plagiarism. Here is the Stinson B Evo alongside my old Brooks Cascadia.

I'm going to do something different here. First I'm going to discuss the cons of the Stinson B Evo. Then I'll talk about the pros. Okay, I'm done with the cons. Actually the only cons are more about my feet that they are about the shoe.

1. The ankle is cut so high, that the outside edge rubbed just under the end of the fibula on my right ankle. A little tender, but I know how to deal with that.
2. Once during my run I found myself with my left ankle turned outward and realized how thick that sole really is. I can see an ankle sprain as a possibility until I get used to them.

Okay, now I'm really done. That's it. Honestly, that's really it.

Now the pros...

1. They are so light that my legs or hips never got sore or tired from the rocks, roots and climbing. Leg lift up hills seemed almost effortless. Here is my size 12 on the scale topping out at 14.4 oz.

2. That thick sole... you know, the one that makes them look like "moon boots" (stole that one from someone else's review too) is the bomb. I thought for sure I was going to have issues clearing rocks and roots because of the thick sole. But you know what... see #1... they are really light and that was not an issue. That thick sole is cushioning in a major way. I was able to channel Killian Jornet bounding down the hills because I could only feel the rocks and roots just enough to feel them. HOKA has the cushioning down. I just hope they don't lose the recipe.
3. Fit. I have two different sized feet. Left is 12, right is 11.5, primarily due to a very high arch on the right foot. It's always hard to fit them. The left shoe fit my left foot like a glove. The right shoe was a little big, but the lacing system adjusts so well, that I was able to get a pretty good fit on my right foot... sans the ankle rub.
4. Cushioning. Here the shoe shines... oh man, did I just say that. Well, the cushioning is amazing. Like I said before, I could feel the roots and rocks just enough to feel them. The sole takes all of the impact. It gives so much that I found myself running on roots and rocks, especially the rocks, that I would normally try to bound over. But I didn't need to. As a result, I took the brakes off running downhill because I wasn't concerned about pounding a hard object in the trail. That was a blast!

Having said this... the reality is... I'm not fit enough right now to run in these shoes. Yea... I just admitted it. I found myself running so much faster than my cardiovascular system could handle, that I was forced to take walk breaks just to catch my breath... and this is on a loop that I've been running for almost three months. My legs were perfectly happy with the change in shoes. My heart and lungs were seriously complaining. But this is all good. I know the heart and lungs will catch up and my legs will not be taking the pounding they once were during the adaptation process.

After I get some more runs in, I'll do a second eval, and give you my final thoughts.

My Entry Into Triathlons - Ironman 70.3 Augusta

I just want to clarify something before I get into my race report. 70.3 miles is a half-Ironman triathlon distance; 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride and a 13.1 mile run (half-marathon). For those of you who do not follow triathlons, this is not the Ironman distance you annually see on TV in Hawaii. That is a full Ironman and the distances are a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run (marathon). My point is that these are huge differences and shouldn't be taken lightly by the casual observer.

I have often watched and admired triathletes who complete and often suffer through the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawai'i. That accomplishment was something to which I could really relate. Like a lot of kids growing up, I always imagined myself playing in the World Series, but ever since I first saw clips of an Ironman on TV, I had always imagined myself participating in one.

Several years ago Brenda spoiled me with a new road bike for my birthday. I had already purchased a used one on eBay and had been riding it. Once I decided that it was something that I was going to continue to do, we started looking for a newer bike... and found one, a Felt Z35.

My thought process all along was to get strong enough on the bike so that I could do an Ironman. I never really had a plan though, I was just kind of riding and trying to get used to cycling, sometimes riding with friends, but mainly riding alone. I never really made much progress on the bike though. Not surprising since I didn't have any real plan.

In October of 2010, after seeing the Ironman World Championships on TV, again, I was perusing the Ironman website and decided to look at the 70.3 events. There it was, my first triathlon... Augusta. Yes, Augusta was close to Greenville. I wouldn't need to take any time off from work for travel. Recovery maybe, but not travel. I could drive, I didn't have to fly... all of these viable expense management concerns. So I registered... then I told Brenda what I had bought myself for my 2011 birthday. (Just a note for you married guys who are considering doing something like this... talk to your wife BEFORE you register. This is a major time commitment!)

Here it was October and I had registered for the hardest physical challenge of my adult life, but had only an inkling of what I was getting into. As I started reading books on triathlons, I found that they pretty much all scared me as I read about the challenges of training, of bad weather on race day, of the many people who start and don't finish. I also started talking to friends who were experienced triathletes. They were all a great encouragement but there were times that I thought, that they thought, "what was Wayne thinking. He's never done any kind of triathlon and he signed up for a half-Ironman?" By the way, there were a number of people whom I met along the way who left no doubt that they thought that, because they said it to me.

I only told a few of my friends what I was planning on doing. My thoughts were that I didn't want to feel like I had to explain myself to people who weren't going to understand anyway.

After reading several books and talking to a number of friends, I put together a training schedule. No individual session on the schedule was overwhelming. But the consistency I was going to have to demonstrate to accomplish it was. It was going to be a long 12 months...

After the first of the year, I joined the YMCA. It had been about 33 years since I had done any real distance swimming and the longest I had swam at one time then was 1 mile. I knew it was going to take me a long time to get into decent swimming condition, so I decided that I needed to get started right away. Around the first of February I started swimming laps in the pool and quickly found out that, even though I had just finished a half-marathon in December, my level of fitness wasn't very high. Actually I don't even think it registered on anyone's scale. I had deceived myself into thinking that I was in decent shape for a 52 year old... I was wrong. It would be 6 weeks before I started feeling like a swimmer in the pool.

Once things started to warm-up in early April, I started riding my bike, somewhat regularly. I had never really developed any endurance on the bike, so the idea of riding for 56 miles was something I was going to have to overcome. The training schedule for developing my riding fitness turned out to be very hard to accomplish. I had a gradual build-up over the months of April through August. It made sense on paper, but it required me to not miss any sessions during the build-up as each week built upon the proceeding week. Nothing unusual about that, it was just that the rate of my build-up didn't take into account the realities of life; of me having to travel for work and miss entire weeks at a time. I found myself constantly making adjustments to the ride distances on my schedule and by early September was starting to question whether I would even be able to complete the 56 mile bike leg.

Of all of the disciplines, I really expected the half-marathon training to go like clockwork. Why shouldn't it, I'd already run 9 and even though they were not stellar performances, at least I understood the training required. I had been running all winter but in February I started to focus on Augusta. I would often swim at the Y, then head to the track and do a running workout. That all worked very well until late June, when I started having problems with pain near my left knee. It turned out that the pain was from my IT band rubbing alongside the outside of my knee. For two months I stretched and did exercises to strengthen my hips. Nothing worked. Eventually I decided to heed a friends advice and go see a massage therapist. That turned out to be really good advice. After one session the pain was gone and I was able train regularly the last four weeks before the race. Unfortunately, that didn't give me enough time to overcome missing two months of training... and I was going to pay for that on race day.

Managing the logistics of a triathlon are not trivial, especially for a first timer. Brenda and I discussed where she needed to be so that pictures could be taken as I finished or started a given discipline. I had made estimates of when I would be finished with each one of them and all I could do was hope that I was reasonably close and that the family wouldn't have to stand around for extended periods of time and wonder where I was.

My goals for this triathlon were pretty modest. Besides finishing under my own power, my swim goal was 45:00, ride 3:45 and run 2:10. I didn't think that any of these time estimates were unreasonable... and just to be clear, what I mean by finishing under my own power, was to finish on my own two feet at the official finish line and not in the back of an ambulance.

The race officially started at 7:30 a.m., but it was a wave start, so the 50-54 year old men started at 8:32 a.m. The swim was in the Savannah River and even though it was murky, as you would expect, it really wasn't bad. The only things I had to contest were getting kicked by swimmers in front of me and the weeds in which I was frequently getting tangled.

It went by fairly quickly; my final time was 36:06, almost 9 minutes ahead of my goal. Needless to say this gave me a tremendous amount of confidence as I got out of the water.

The bike course left Augusta, crossed over the Savannah River into South Carolina, meandered around the countryside and then back into Augusta. After looking over the map a number of times, it became clear that the last 6-7 miles of the course were all downhill going back into Augusta. That's the way to set up a course!

Riding a road bike for 56 miles teaches you a lot about yourself and the others around you. You quickly find out that being small is of great benefit, since it's your legs that are moving you and the less weight you have to carry, the better off you are. I was constantly amazed at the petite women who just went by me like I was parked on the side of the road. It wasn't that I had not witnessed that before on my training rides... I had just not witnessed SO MANY doing that.

One of the other lessons you learn is how driven you really are. I mean, I often think that I am a highly driven, highly motivated, extremely competitive individual. But on the bike you can do this thing called "coasting" where you're expending minimal effort and still moving forward. It's very easy to just coast down any hill you come across, and sometimes you need to do that to save your legs for the next hill you have to climb. But to coast at every opportunity is probably not a solid strategy if you want to have a decent time. During my training rides I often would tell myself, "never stop pedaling." For the most part, I tried to follow this mantra the entire ride. It would pay off in the end as I beat my ride goal by almost 8 minutes, in a time of 3:37.

So here I am going into the run with almost a 17 minute lead on my goal time. As I was coming into transition and having only a guess on my times, I was feeling pretty good about things. However, once I got off the bike and started running, everything kind of fell apart.

During training you are strongly advised to always run after your rides. Even if the run isn't very long, you should still run. I did this on a number of occasions, but obviously not enough. As I left transition on the "run", our friend and photographer, Lydia Thomas, jogged alongside me to see how I felt and find out how long I thought it was going to take for me to run the half. All I could say to her was, "I got no legs." It wasn't the jelly-legged feeling that I experienced during training. It was the completely dead-legged feeling that I've only experienced once... when I ran my first marathon after only running a long run of 15 miles during my training. I knew then that the 17 minute lead I had on my goal time was going to disappear pretty quickly.

When the tank is empty in your car, you can't really go any further. But when you think the tank is empty in your body, then you just have to find that mechanism to switch over to your reserve. A lot of people don't even know that they have any reserve because they've never put themselves into a position where they have had to utilize it. It's not really a pleasant place to be and I don't encourage constantly visiting it, but today was one of those days.

I honestly didn't like the idea of finishing in a time longer than 7 hours. That had been my overall time goal, less than 7 hours. I went through a lot of emotions thinking about this, most of them tied to my pride and the embarrassment I would feel for taking so long. But in my mind, finishing slowly was much less worse than a DNF, especially since the only reason not to was my pride.

So I set off on finishing Augusta, one block at a time. Thankfully the course was flat. I would run one block and then walk two. It was pretty hot that day, in the mid-80's, but around mile 7 it started lightly raining and the temperature dropped about 10 degrees. This was a gift from God... no doubt about it.

I finally managed to complete the half-marathon in 3:18, for an overall time of 7:54.

I've been asked by several if I will do this again and the answer is a resounding yes. The sense of accomplishment was significant, but the real kicker for me was knowing that I had put my body under subjection, had the discipline to stick with the training and then the wherewithal to finish such a challenging event. For me that makes it all worth the effort... and of course, I really want to do better the next time!

Training for such an event is a serious time commitment, but you're the one with the goal, so it's not really that hard. The hard part is what your family puts up with. So many nights being asleep by 8:30 so that you can be running or swimming at 5:00 a.m. the next morning. All of those times where your family wants to do something but you have to get in a long ride on your bike. Always having to adjust your weekend schedule around whatever multi-hour training session was going on. You can't do something like this without the support of those around you and for that support, Brenda, Jacob and Brooke, I am very grateful. I would also like to thank Lydia and Matt Thomas for supporting us in Augusta by arranging for accommodations and then helping with race logistics and photography. You guys are the best!

July 25, 2011 - The Salvage Process Has Started

I was given the opportunity to get out and ride 40 miles Saturday morning with a group of guys from church. I am very blessed to have friends who want to see me survive the ride at Augusta enough to slow down their normal speed and let me try and ride with them. For the most part it was a good ride and uneventful, at least except for when I fell in the parking lot at Furman University before we left.

North Greenville county runs up to the NC state line and is essentially in the foothills of the Black Mtns... at least I think the range is the Black Mountains. There were some nice climbs as well as some pretty fast downhills. My bike skills aren't as developed as I would like and going downhill can be a challenge for me. There were a couple of times I swung a little too wide around a curve and crossed over the yellow line. Thankfully it was early Saturday morning and traffic was minimal, but I definitely have to work on that.

After we got back to Furman, I got in a short one mile run around the beautiful, main driveway into the campus. After a long bike ride, your legs really don't like the idea of running right away. That is why triathletes practice the transition from riding to running. The two disciplines use leg muscles in a very different manner and it is an odd feeling to hop off of your bike and run.

My plan for this morning was to start my swim buildup again and then get in a 3 mile run. I had previously built up to 2500 yards in the pool and then taken a couple of weeks off from swimming. This week I am scheduled to swim 1000 yards on MWF as I build back up to 2500 yards again.

The YMCA where I swim just opened a new outdoor pool. Fortunately this one opens at 5:00 a.m. instead of 5:30, so I get an extra 30 minutes before work to get in a longer workout. I was pumped about that this morning, but after getting there at 4:45 and finding out that there was a problem with the chlorine levels in the pool, I opted to go into downtown Greenville and run with my daughter Brooke and her friends.

Today's run with Brooke was for 4 miles. We ran out and back along the Swamp Rabbit Trail similar to what we had done last week. Today the group ran a little faster pace going out, so around 3 miles into the run I told Brooke she was on pace to run the 4 miles in 42 minutes, beating her record from last week by 1 minute. Kyle and I got in front of the group and set a 9:30 pace for Brooke to follow. She really did well staying with us. Once we got to the last quarter mile, at the River St. crossing, we picked the pace up to 7:30. We finished in 42:00, 1:10 faster than last Tuesday. I told Brooke last week that she has short legs but a big engine. She proved it once again today.

After the run I headed back out to the YMCA to see if the pool issue was straightened out. It was and most of the lap swimmers had gotten their workouts in and were gone. I hopped into a lane and cranked out 20 laps. I felt pretty slow during the process but kept reminding myself that it had been 2.5 weeks since I had been in the pool and not to get too bent out of shape about it.

It really feels good getting my workouts in before work today. Now I can focus on sanding the drywall in Jake's room after work today.

Have a great day!

July 23, 2011 - Time to Salvage July

As I sit here early on Saturday morning, I see a tweet from last night that sounds interesting. Paul Hand, @paulhand26, an associate pastor at Crossgates Baptist Church in Brandon, MS is retweeting a message about getting up early today and driving to the Heart of Dixie Triathlon in Philadelphia, MS... about an 1.5 hour drive. I reply to his tweet not thinking that he will be up yet, but about 15 minutes later I get a reply.

Here I am in Mauldin, SC, it's 4:00 a.m. and I am passing messages with a Twitter acquaintance in Mississippi. Someone I've never met, but with whom I have at least two things in common. We both are training for a triathlon, my first and Paul's umpteenth, and we are both Christians. The training gives us both a common frame of reference for carrying on a conversation, but the shared faith in Christ gives us something of a bond that just can't be found in life anywhere else. I share Ecclesiastes 9:10 with him and wish him safe travels and mild humidity. Yes, that sounds strange but it's July and we're in the South.

There is one week left in July and I am going to salvage this months training. I was able to get out Tue-Thu this past week and get in some good walks, but the IT band pain has pretty much shut down the running. This morning I am going out on a ride with several other guys who normally ride on Saturday mornings, but who are also trying to help me get back into the swing of things. We are getting in a 40-mile ride from the Furman Univ. campus, so it should be challenging with all the hills in north Greenville county.

As I sit here in the family room typing, I realize that I have forgotten to do something this morning as I got up. Unfortunately my wife Brenda was very rudely reminded of it as my alarm clock went off and here I am downstairs. I got up at 3:15 and my alarm clock was set for 4:45. Brenda was getting up this morning and walking with one of her friends, but not until later in the morning. I'm very sorry Brenda...

Running up the stairs to turn off the alarm clock reminded me of the IT band pain I experienced a little on Thursday. I had gone out for a 9 mile walk but had left the house a little later than normal. I needed to visit the local Hardees around mile 5.5 and it dawned on me as I left the Hardees that I wasn't going to make it back home in order to get Brooke to work on time... that is unless I was able to jog at a 10 min/mile pace back to the house. Surely I could do that.

As I started jogging, my IT band reminded me as to why I had been walking all morning. The feeling is a very localized, sharp pain along the outside of my left knee. It does not occur every step, but does enough of the time for it to feel constant. I intermittently jogged and walked as I proceeded home.

With just over a mile left to go, I stopped and walked along the sidewalk in front of the local elementary school. I knew where the one mile marker was and when I got to it I started back, but running this time. As I felt the pain start, I decided to shorten my stride. The pain stopped. I kept up the shortened stride for a few minutes and then lengthened it back out. Still no pain. So is this why I started having IT band problems? I've stopped jogging and started running and now that extended stride and faster leg turnover has irritated the IT band? If that's the case, then I know I can train at just a slower pace and get in the longer runs.

Being ready for Augusta is my goal. Finishing under my own power is my goal. Wanting to do another tri after Augusta is my goal. Running a sub-2:00 hour half is my goal... well maybe I can learn to compromise some things.

We'll see...

By the way, as I got within a quarter mile of the house, I saw Brooke driving away to work. She made it on time, but that left me without a car... which required Brenda to come back home and take Jacob to work a little later Thursday morning. Sorry Brenda...

July 19, 2011 - OK, I Confess, I'm Struggling

Back in April I talked to a co-worker in Atlanta who is also training for Ironman 70.3 Augusta. He told me then that he thought I was doing fine with my training, but that he was concerned that I'd burn out before September since I started so early in the year. I think he might have been right about that.

For the last few weeks I have really struggled to get out and get the workouts in. I had been doing two-a-day workouts, 5-6 days/week for four months. Then, we started a remodeling project at home a few weeks ago for which I took a weeks vacation to complete. That week I was constantly stressed with trying to get the work done and get in my workouts... not stressed from an energy standpoint, but from a time commitment standpoint. So, instead of putting my workouts on hold for a week and focusing on the remodeling project, I spent the week floundering between the two commitments. Now my workouts have suffered and I haven't finished the remodeling project.

This past weekend several members of my family met in Macon for a baby shower. My niece Hayley Paul and her husband Chris are expecting their first child. Several of her aunts hosted the shower while several of the uncles stayed at a house on Lake Sinclair. I decided that I would try and get back on track Saturday morning with a long bike ride. Unfortunately, the weather intervened and the ride wasn't nearly as long as I had anticipated.

A section of GA highway 212 runs between the towns of Monticello and Milledgeville. Friday afternoon when we arrived at the lake, we were early, so I took a short drive out 212 toward Monticello. After going over a few long hills, Brenda said to me, "you're going to do this on your bike?" Yes, it was extremely hilly. One of those roads where, whenever you topped a hill, you could see the next two hills out in front of you. Brenda clocked one of the climbs at 1.1 miles. I was more concerned about the traffic and the shoulder of the road. She was just shaking her head.

I got up early on Saturday morning and had my Bible study in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes. Then I sat around and waited for the sun to come up. Finally around 6:30 I felt like it was daylight enough to get out on the road, so I got ready and headed out, only to have a crash right in front of the lake house.

I transported my bike on this trip inside our Acadia. In order to do that, I had to lower the seat post and remove the seat. I was okay with that, but as a side note, I realize now that I need a torque wrench for tightening the seat post clamp. I'm not real comfortable taking the chance of cracking my carbon fiber seat post by over tightening the clamp. I know... I digress.

Anyway, whenever I reassembled my bike, I didn't really pay that much attention to the angle of the seat. Then when I got on it Saturday morning and clipped-in with my shoes, I found out very quickly that it was angled upward and that I was in a very awkward position. Needless to say I got a little rattled and before I was able to release one of my shoes and get my balance, I managed to take a fall to my left and landed on my left arm and shoulder. Not too much road rash, but the left shoulder has been sore ever since. I got the seat adjusted, cleaned up my left elbow and tried to get back out on my bike as quickly as possible.

By 7:00 I was out on the road and headed toward Monticello with the intention of riding 30 miles. As I topped out one hill after another, I realized that I felt really great, that the traffic was non-existent and that the shoulder of the road was in good condition. Finally around mile 10 I noticed a bit of drizzle, cold drizzle. Within a few minutes it became obvious that I had ridden into a rain shower as the farther I went west, the harder the rain got. Around mile 11 I found a place to turn around and decided to head back to the lake.

Here is an elevation profile of the ride. It looks pretty difficult and the hills were formidable, but it really wasn't as hard as I had expected. Overall, my only disappointment was that I decided to turn around because of the rain.

This morning as I drank my coffee, I decided to ask Brooke if I could join her and her friends for their morning run. It had been a week since I ran, due to the IT band pain, and I wanted to see if an easy run would irritate it any and if the stretching I had been doing was effective.

It really was a nice morning... a little humid because of the rain we had sometime during the night, but still nice. Including me, there ended up being 7 of us out running 4-miles this morning. The run was fairly uneventful until I decided to try and motivate Brooke a little bit.

I pulled up beside her as we were running along the Swamp Rabbit Trail and yelled, "pick up those feet, soldier!" Much to my surprise, she took off like a rabbit, which in turn prompted me to demonstrate to her that I could and would catch her. Once I was beside her, I yelled again, but this time she swung and hit me in the chest... all in good fun of course.

Once we turned around and headed back into town, I encouraged her to try and catch the runners ahead of us once we got to River St. However, a block before River St. she said she was ready to pick it up and catch everyone... and she did. Once we got through the group ahead of us, I pulled in front of her and tried to pace her back to the River St. road crossing. We didn't quite make it back there, but once we crossed River St., she picked up the pace again and finished today's run in a record for her. Awesome job Brooke!

Hopefully this afternoon I will be able to get in a ~20 mile bike ride. That would make it a really great day, of course I'm working on the remodeling project some before I do that... just in case you were wondering.

July 11, 2011 - Training Log

It's hard to believe... it's 9:50 p.m. and I am still awake. After getting up at 4:15 this morning, you'd have thought I would have crashed by now. But not so... I just came in from a hard effort bike ride and I'm a little wired.

I am glad that it's Monday. Monday's give me an opportunity to get the training week started off on the right foot. Sometimes I need a hard reset and Monday can provide that for me.

This morning I got in an 8 mile walk. I tried to run just a little, but the IT band was painful and I wasn't going to push it unnecessarily. After studying Proverbs 1 and Ecclesiastes 6 this morning, I spent the next two hours walking thinking about the many times I qualified myself as a vain fool and was reminded of the grace of God and how undeserving I am of it.

Even though I really wanted to run hard today, the IT band really didn't want any part of it. As a result, I decided that when I went out riding after work, I would try and go hard for two laps at the Donaldson Center. At least for me it was hard. I ended up riding 14.5 miles at a 17 mph speed. That 2nd lap I had three 15.3 mph miles in succession and that killed my overall speed for that lap.

It was actually a good workout for me, especially for the beginning of the week. Now I have something positive to build on.

July 9, 2011 - Training Log

Saturday... what a wonderful day of the week. You can get up and get outside and enjoy the summer weather and then be done, showered and enjoying lunch by noon.

For the last 5 years I have trained with a group of guys. Running long runs with a group can be a great thing as long as you do the workouts during the week that are necessary to support those long runs. Back in February I decided no more group runs until I had resolved my stamina issues. Essentially I had been trying to run the last few years without doing anything but long slow distance. Those runs are necessary, but they leave your body struggling as you run up a long hill or try to pick up the pace a little bit.

I wasn't really sure if I had gotten to where I wanted to be yet, but I decided to go ahead and give it a shot and run with my daughter Brooke and the group of friends with which she's been training. I knew the pace would be easy, but wasn't sure that my legs could handle 7 miles yet.

We met at 5:15 in downtown Greenville and were out running by 5:20. For the first few miles of the run I moved back and forth between running with Brooke and Elena, or running with Kyle. It was a normal, humid July morning. The pace allowed for us to carry on a conversation. I felt fine and it seemed that Brooke was doing well also.

Around mile 4, Elena and Kyle headed back to where we had parked so they could head home. I dropped back and stayed with Brooke even though there were a few times she had to reel me in. I wasn't deliberately running away from her, I'm just about 5-6 inches taller than her and hence my legs are obviously longer.

It was pretty cool running with Brooke, seeing her stick it out when it would have been easy to walk. Seeing several run/walk groups stop and walk was inviting, but not really what we were trying to accomplish today. Overall I felt good. My left knee and the IT band got sore up to a point, but then it didn't get any worse. I was happy to run on through that issue.

The new shoes I mentioned in my post yesterday were exactly what I wanted and needed. The Saucony Mirage was an excellent choice for me.

Knowing that Brooke has registered for the Spinx Half Marathon and is training properly for it is a relief for me. Going into a half-marathon unprepared does not make for a fun day. Thanks to Sarah Kazian for overseeing Brooke's training and being a good friend... and thanks to Jason for watching the twins so Sarah can run with Brooke.

Great job Brooke Anne! I'm proud of you girl!