back to bAsics

Two weeks before the NM Marathon Plus in September I bought a new pair of shoes. They happened to be my first Brooks, and it took me a day or two before I realized I didn't like them. It was, I thought, too late to return them, but I could buy another pair before the next marathon, and reserve this pair for hateful runs. Or something.

The next marathon came much too fast, and two weeks later came the next, and I never made time to go to the running store again. In hindsight it is unconceivable that I ran four marathons in shoes I don't care for.

Last week I bought Asics again, and they felt like home. Some life is still left in the Brooks, and I might take them out on select muddy days - I wore them during hours of rain and wind storms, and they are particularly dirty and disgusting anyhow.

By contrast the Asics look eadearing as if they might sprout wings at my ankles any time now.

I did not overly relish the prospect of a Thanksgiving 5K. Here was one day to sleep late and remain sheltered from the cold. But I know that on a day of gratitude a little race is apt and sensible, and if I would not run I would feel lazy and slacking afterward. So I signed up in my customary reluctant mood, and showed up at the start line, like last year, at the last minute. The morning was so frigid even breathing hurt. I almost died during the first uphill mile, until eventually the exertion became bearable. I did not really check my watch, and the electronic display over the finish line was broken, but I somehow felt I finished in about 30 minutes. I had forgotten I could manage that kind of pace. Shivering, exhausted, and awaited by tasks at the stove, I did not wait for results.

But I checked them out on the website today, and to my surprise I scored 28 min 48 sec. A pace of 9:16, it's nothing, I know, but for me it's breaking a record, the first PR in all my months of running. I had given up on that. Any distance I have run so far, the first race always garnered my best time, and it went downhill from there.

So many things have happened in the meantime, I cannot go beyond subdued excitement. But still, it's a PR, my only one.