Yellow Running Shoes

My body woke yesterday morning anxious to embark in the 18 mile
journey. I had prepared mentally and physically all day on Saturday
to make this long, slow run a successful one. I prepared my tunes,
got my watch ready, filled up my mini water bottle that clings to my
hand, and filled a plastic baggie with Blok chews. I spent ten
minutes stretching while I enjoyed a cup of coffee, a chocolate chip
Cliff bar, and an entire bottle of water. Finally, I laced up my
sneaks and started out the door prepared and confident.

The first mile I couldn’t help but think about how crazy I really must
be to spend the next three hours running. Who in the heck runs for
three hours?! I thought to myself. Because I’d been anticipating
and excited for this run all week I’d come to the realization that I
am a little cray-cray. The first half of every long run seems to be
the hardest mentally and the easiest physically for me. By the time
I hit the halfway mark yesterday, my body shifted into overdrive and I
finished the second half of my run strong. This is also because I
paced myself well. I started out at a 9:30-10:00 minute mile and
boosted to a 9:00-9:30 minute mile during the second half finding that
my body would have boosts of energy and I’d catch myself in an 8:40
minute per mile pace at times and have to bring myself back
remembering that I still had eight miles to go.

Several times throughout this long run I imagined myself crossing the
marathon finish line and I couldn’t help but begin to feel emotional.
I had to quickly turn my mind to other things(yellow running shoes) so
I would not look like the crazy runner that I obviously was sobbing on
the trail as I crossed paths with other peeps.

I spent a portion of Saturday searching for new sneaks and if you’re a
runner you know that it cannot just be any kind of sneaker. I was
looking for Nike Lunar glide 4’s. To my disbelief, there was not a
store within a 50 mile radius of me that had these in stock other than
Dick’s Sporting Goods and the only ones they had were bright
yellow(yes, I legit called EVERY sports store in the area). I’m a
black sneaker kind of gal and have never been one to go for the
bright, flashy and loud sneakers. On Saturday, I opted to not get the
yellow running shoes and instead check out Zappos.com for the black
and pink or black and purple ones that fall into my “shoe comfort
zone”. To my double disbelief, Zappos.com had several other colors to
choose from but all were out of stock in my size. The only ones
available were bright, flashy and loud. I spent some time during my
run thinking about yellow running shoes and how those would look on my
feet when I blaze 26.2 miles next month. Did fate want me to have
yellow running shoes?

I completed the 18 mile run feeling very strong. I finished confident
and clear minded. After my 20 minute ice bath followed by a hot
shower and 20 minutes of stretching, Aaden and I took a ride to Dick’s
Sporting Goods and we left happy with a pair of yellow running shoes.

Time: 2:51:16
Distance: 18.05 miles
Pace: 9:29 per mile