New shoes.

First I want to stress that I'm okay. I guess my post was a little sad yesterday. But I'm totally feeling better. I think that is what I was unsuccessfully trying to convey. I woke up again in the a.m. so I think we are on the up and up.

Yesterday I ordered 4 pairs of shoes. Yes, 4. However three are running shoes and I intend on sending 2 of them back.

I Just finished reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. The book chronicles the Tarahumara indians from the Copper Canyons in Mexico. They are super runners and run 100 miles at a time with only sandals made from old tires. I heard of these people on a documentary, The Runner and then again on NPR after the author visited them in Mexico. So, I was super pumped when my buddy bought me the book for my birthday!

The story of the race is amazing, but one thing I think everyone took out of this book is that traditional running shoes are tearing up runners knees, feet, hips, etc..

When I first started running 15+ years ago, I ran in Nike Pegasus. Then they where discontinued. (I kept them so long that my friends tied them to the back of the homecoming float so I wouldn't be able to wear them any more.) In high school and college my running shoes were fairly flat. In law school, when I started really running distance (not counting high school track or cross country) I found the Pegasus again. They were completely different, but the concept of a flat shoe with no real support was there. I wore those shoes in my 5 mile daily runs and all over Europe. I wore them until they actually feel apart. Then they were discontinued.

During that time I had fractured my leg. It was really minor, but was aggravated by my running. Everyone told me I needed to run in "better shoes". So I went to the OKC runner and they fitted my with the Asics Gel-Nimbus, which I have been running in till this day, 7+ years latter. I ran two marathons in them a ton of other races as well as everyday runs.

3 or so years ago my knee started really hurting. I thought I had been running too much and then working all day in 4 inch heels. I reluctantly gave up the heels, but my knee still hurts.

Born to Run presents research that traditional running shoes, mainly shoes that cost over $100, weaken the muscles in your feet, which in turn weaken other muscles and make a runner more prone to injuries. The research was convincing enough that I went out to buy flat shoes.

I decided on the

I Like:

Free 5.0 V4 by Nike

">Nike Free, mainly because they looked the closest the the Pegasus that I loved so much. I could not find them anywhere! Apparently, they have been discontinued! Never fear, I ordered them on Zappos.com. With 24 hour FREE shipping and FREE return shipping it can't be beat. I also ordered two other pairs to check out,

I Like:

Free Trainer 7.0.IV">Nike Free Trainer and

I Like:

Eclipse NM">Nike Eclipse. Hopefully one of these pairs will be the running shoe of my dreams!