A Marathon and the shoes that fit like a foot glove

Well, I guess I’ve spent too much time with my wife over the last year as it seems that she is starting to rub off on me. No, I’m not going to start sewing cute little projects or learn to bake cookies with whole grain flour. It’s much worse than that… I’m going to run a marathon. Yeah it’s pretty crazy I know, but I guess it’s going to happen.

I wasn’t ever a fan of running up until the end of my time in the Army. It’s much nicer being able to choose if and when you are going for a run, and also how far. Rather than running the standard 4-5 miles for PT in the morning I can now run however fast or slow I feel like, whenever I want. Lately I’ve been getting lazy concerning my workouts and I felt like I needed something to focus on and motivate me to get up and active. After we ran the Ruckus in Pittsburgh, where Sonya broke her hand, I decided that I needed to sign up for another race and keep the momentum going.

Now a marathon may not seem like the most logical choice, but I guess it was more of an “If not now, when?” sort of reaction. So I now have my training plan set and will start to put the miles in, in earnest. The marathon is on October 16^th in Columbus if you wanna come watch. I wouldn’t recommend it though, I’ve been to a couple races as a spectator and it’s pretty boring. You only get to watch and cheer on the person you came there for once or twice during the race. But come on down if you want. I’ll be running the full 26.2 while Sonya clocks in another 13.1 miles in the half marathon.

Along with deciding to run the marathon I made another running related decision and bought a pair of Vibram 5 fingers. Now before you think that this is something dirty (I’m talking to you Dar) these are actually a pair of “shoes” that have much less padding than normal and force you to run with a more natural gait. I like my Nike Free running shoes that mimic barefoot running, so I decided to give these a try.

They definitely feel different, and I can tell a difference in my running style as well. You take much shorter steps and land on your midfoot instead of your heel. I can really tell a difference by the fact that my calves are on fire by the end of the run. I have only worn them a couple of times so far, and I’m working to ease myself into them, but I don’t think I’ll be wearing them for the marathon quite yet. Stay tuned to the blog, I’m sure Sonya will post some interesting stuff concerning the race, and I might put something else up as well.