Hey, looks aren’t EVERYTHING

Well, I’ve learned the lesson once again that looks AREN’T everything. Sigh…
This afternoon, I went to what I thought was the place for me to pick up the one I’ve been waiting for. Well, after trying on and running in the new NEW BALANCE trail shoes, I, dejectedly had to admit that it just wasn’t a match! My face fell and my enthusiasm waned as I handed them back to Woody, the shoe guy. “They just don’t feel right”, I said. With an apologetic expression, he took them back into his hands and ppback in the box. He then had me look at another suitor. Normally, I would be quick to just walk away; if I can’t have the ONE I wanted, I don’t want to look anymore. 
Well, Woody was patient and gave me all the fine details and strong points of this alternate, which was not as handsome looking as the NB, but not a dog either. I could feel my heart open again as I slipped inside each shoe. Ahhh…much better. A much better fit. I knew it immediately. Just to be sure, I ran around the parking lot. Smiling, I walked inside and told Woody, “yep, they fit”. I was tempted to walk outside and through downtown decatur and show off my latest companion, but I held off. They were not my first choice, but hey, who says the first choice always works out the best anyways?? Here is my newest companion.

In other news: I ran a very small 5k Road Race this morning with a gal pal from the office. She is getting into this running thing and we decided to run the race together. Well, not same pace, but together. You know what I mean. My initial thoughts were I would run with her to help her pace, but then we decided at the start that I would start with her and see how I felt. (cause I have not been running much/still recovering from 50k). Anyways, the morning was a crisp, grey, fall day and the very small Doraville 5k Road Race began without much fanfare. The course was an out and back on an almost entirely flat stretch of road. Hey, that is fine by me after all the hills in the 50k!! We ran 9 minutes for 1st mile which i knew was faster than her training pace. She said she was felt good. I got some water at the aid station and decided to run solo and took off. The turnaround was at 1.5 miles and I could see my pal was not far behind me. GOOD JOB to her! I kept accelerating and accelerating. My breathing was fast and my quads were beginning to burn some. I had on my very lightweight and “fast” Nike shoes. It felt sooo good to be going fast after months and months of training sloooow. As I was running and passing people, I thanked as many of the police volunteers as I could. The last little stretch was the last turn and all downhill. There was a guy in front of me I thought I would pass as I flew down that section. He didn’t seem to be running hard, but as soon as he heard my footsteps, he accelerated through the finish line shoot right before me. Still, a good finish for me in 26:12, pace = 8:27/mile. As soon as I crossed the finish line I turned around and went to cheer on my pal. She had just turned that last corner and I started encouraging her and clapping. “c,mon! Full sprint to the end.” I cheered. She picked it up and finished strong. She finished in approximately 27:40, which was her best time yet. We both finished 1st in our age groups and got a cool medal. Not bad for a Saturday morning.

Cheers!