7 Miles Down

Saturday was a great day. My buddy and I meet early to do our run with the goal of 7 miles. The weather couldn't have been better: mid 60s and overcast with a sprinkle every once in awhile. We paced ourselves well at 9 minute miles and actually hit it. We didn't have the typical run fast early and drain towards the end.

The Nike+ recorded the run as you can see now as my furthest run. I'm finding I'm running out of tunes on my play list, as we're now running for over an hour. Next week, we're doing 8 miles, which should be doable.

I hit Fleet Feet in Lincoln Square today and bought some shoes, socks and energy snacks. The service was great. I can't even remember the last time I went to a shoe store and actually had someone fit me to my shoes (maybe 15 years ago?). I got a great consultation which included observing my running style to find the shoe that works well. It was awkward running to the corner and back 5 times, but it's apparently normal there. Much better than going to Sears in February and picking up a pair that said New Balance because I heard runners prefer them.

The shoes I ended up with were Nike, which was unexpected. I thought they were not so great, but I'll find out soon enough when I try them on the trail. These are the shoes, Air Structure Triax+. They've got the build in Nike+, which means the pedometer chip goes into the soul of the left shoe. I guess Nike got me eventually to buy that...

I found out my feet are wide and you could tell on my old running shoes that my feet were spilling out and pushing out the top of the shoe. The new shoes are wide and roomy, but I don't slip. I haven't had any blisters yet and I'm hoping to keep it that way.

After the run yesterday, we ran over to the Cell to catch the cross town classic. Let me just say, it was a great day, as the Cubs won and I reached my mileage goal. Go Cubs!

Do we look tired?