Your Candidate?

Thanks to one of my brother's blogger acquaintances I found this fun little quiz. Answer a series of questions and it tells you who your most closely aligned with in this election cycle. I don't know how scientific it is, but it was fun, and hey, it said I was 94.92% aligned with Mitt Romney - Dead on if you know my politics... Let me know who your man (or woman I guess) is.

The Emperor's New Shoes

OK, so I’m not really an emperor (king, prince, or knight for that matter – maybe squire…) but the new shoes sure make me feel different. But so did my purchasing experience…

I have had a pair of Nike’s for about 5 years and they have seen me through many a mile. They say running shoes should be replaced at roughly 500 miles, I think I exceeded that a bit. They were with me when I started my dissention from 275 down to my current 206. I have some emotion tied into them. But after a run that included a good bit of dirt path, I came to the conclusion that my shoes indeed had worn too thin. Every pebble could be felt in the ball of my foot. I don’t know how Shaka Zulu ever convinced his warriors to live and fight completely shoeless… Maybe he was a bit better emperor than me…?

Anyway, with the amount of running I am doing now I decided it was time to get new (and better) running shoes. Nothing against my Nike’s but they were the absolute bottom end of the running shoes - purchased on sale for about $35 bucks if I remember correctly. They were also not designed for my stride or foot mechanics. These are issues that really don’t matter to the fat guy just jogging to get in shape but really do matter to the runner wanting to improve his personal bests or extending his runs from 3 miles up to 6, 10, or more miles.

A friend of mine recommended a runner’s store, Fleet Feet, as a good resource for getting a proper shoe. I had been reading about shoe types, reviews of various shoes, and had a basic knowledge of what to consider. However, I will definitely say that the sales force of this store were far more knowledgeable than your average shoe salesperson (and me) when it comes to running shoes as they were all experienced runners as well. They took a seated foot size then a standing foot size, from this they determined that I have a fairly stiff arch that doesn’t collapse very far with each stride. While this is biomechanically a bit more efficient, it tends to place more shock and stress on the knees and requires more cushion in the foot. Typically people’s arches collapse a bit more and act as natural shock absorbers for the stride. They then had me run on a treadmill with a video camera on my feet to show the amount of pronation (foot rotation related to the collapsing arch) in my stride. There are different shoes for various levels of pronation. Once the saleswoman had my foot particulars she brought out 7, yes 7, pairs of shoes. As a guy, I have never gone beyond 2-3 pairs before saying "good enough for me". She had me try on and run a short distance in each pair of shoes (lacing and tying 14 shoes) with a smile the whole time. Eventually I selected the Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7 which set me back more than I would like to admit (certainly more than I have ever paid for a pair of shoes) but with absolutely no buyer’s remorse.

I know you think this whole entry was about my new "toys" but what really prompted me to write this entry was my shoe buying experience. Whether out of necessity, complacency, or ignorance, I think we as consumers have, as a culture, allowed ourselves to value price over ALL else. When was the last time you went to a specialty shop and paid a little more for what you really wanted instead of just grabbing what was available during your last run to Wal-Mart? I’m not one of those people that think that Wal-Mart is the evil empire as I have NOTHING against Wal-Mart and we do probably 80% of all of our weekly shopping there. But would I have been as satisfied or gotten what I really needed if I bowed to convenience? I believe customer service is undervalued in the retail world today. I genuinely think that my saleswoman wanted me to have a more enjoyable running experience. The subject of price or price range never even came up. I didn’t even know what they were going to cost until I got to the register but I knew that the selected shoe was the most appropriate shoe for me and so I didn’t flinch, wince, or bat an eye when the price rang up. I’m realistic enough to know that this was also due to the financial stability that the Lord has blessed me with but that same exact shoe WOULD NOT have come with the same peace without the confidence provided by my experience in the store. I think buyer’s remorse is the result of poor customer service and not convincing the shopper that they truly have made the right choice.

Have any of you recently made a purchase that was a particularly good (or bad) experience?

Blog Addition - If you care...

I just wanted to point out one small addition to my blog you may not notice if I didn't point it out. If you look to your right, under my picture and profile you will see a quick running summary. I have been filling out a running log on the Runner's World website. Each time I run I fill out a quick form about length, time, type of run, course, etc. and it will keep a log/graphs/personal records for me. I have linked my list of personal records (only those reached in official races since I started running again) and a record of my last 5 runs. If you click on one of the runs it will take you to my training log if you are interested. Here is an example graph of my log since my Stonemill 5k race when I started the log.

I know that VERY few are interested, particularly to this level of detail, but really, this is for me. If I know that my closest friends and family can go and see that I haven't run in two weeks, I will be highly motivated to get on the treadmill at least for a little bit. (We all know I would NEVER make up a fake log entry, right? My wife would turn me in if I did anyway...) If this actuall has the effect of guilting a few of you into going for a run as well... happy happy joy joy.

Stonemill Results and my Saturday Run

I knew if I just waited a few more days they would post the race results from my 5k last weekend but here they are for you to see. Key notes:

• 28th place overall
• 5th in my group - 30-39M as I stated earlier
• I was 15 seconds out of 3rd for my group and the ever coveted trophy
• I was the fastest citizen of Roswell - it helps when there are only 3 of us in the race
• Only 4 women were faster than me and all were in their 20's and 30's (no triumvirate of 12 year old girls this time...)
• The field was slightly smaller than I thought, 204 not the roughly 300 I posted earlier

As for my run this morning - I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew but I think it was a good experience. I ran on the Alpharetta Greenway which starts about a mile from my house and runs 10k (6.2 miles) along Big Creek. I decided that I would start at the Mansell Rd end, run an hour, turn around and run back an hour. At the one hour mark I was just passing the 5.5 mile mark. At this point I should have turned around but the draw of actually claiming I ran it from end to end to end (20k/12.4miles) was too inviting. That extra 1.4 miles made a big difference in the end... I should have turned around.

I completed the first 10k at 1:06:40. I noticed a slower pace after I turned around but I was still feeling pretty good at that point. By the 10 mile mark, somewhere around 1:50:00 I was starting to wilt pretty bad. My shirt now weighed probably 5-10 lbs and did not have a dry spot on it. My jog had slowed into the 12-13 minutes per mile range from the 11 minute per mile range I ran the first 10k in. I started to feel twinges in my calves and my hips started to ache as well. At the ll.5 mile mark I was doing not much more than a shuffle and finally decided to walk the rest of the way in. Funny how the body communicates that it has given all that it has to give. I actually arrived back at the end of the trail at 2:27:32.

Interesting things I learned about trying to run this length of run:

• I actually was running slow enough on the return run that I wasn't even winded - my problems were in my hydration and energy
• When I try to run that far again I will take and energy bar and Gatorade
• I need to get a running shirt that evaporates or sheds perspiration quickly
• Don't run that far less than a week after donating blood (huge type O and AB shortage here in Atlanta right now so I gave last week after my race)
• Don't let my ego define my goals - inside I knew 2 hours and 10-11 miles was as much as I wanted to chew off today.
• 4 ibuprofen work wonders when your hips feel like they want to fall off (kind of like when my wife was in that last month of pregnancy)
• And lastly, even fully 100% dehydrated I am still not under 200 lbs (200.8 at runs end) - oh well.

Now excuse me while I go and sleep the rest of the day until that BYU-UofA game this afternoon...