Finally

I finally took a chance and began running again. I had not run for 3 and a half weeks when I drove to the trail on Monday for a light 1-mile jog. I walked a mile to warm up and then ran back. And guess what?

No pain at all.

I went out again today for 2 miles, and this time, in the beginning, there was a very slight feeling in my left shin, but it didn't linger and really did not bother me. If anything did bother me, it was my shorts riding up and looking ridiculous.

For this run, I broke out the new sneakers I bought this week. (Decided I should take advantage of the Labor Day sales.) They're New Balance. I was torn between them and a pair of Asics, which looked a little nicer and felt almost exactly the same. The ultimate deciding factor was that the way the Asics laced up, there wasn't enough shoe string left to make a double knot. (And I don't like what happens when I don't double knot my sneakers.) Anyway, they felt great on the run today. They're nice and light, and the front is made of lots of flexible meshy material which gives my toes room to splay out and do whatever else it is they do when they hit the ground. The doctor last week told me that one of my problems was that I needed new shoes. He reminded me that I should get new ones every 500 miles (although I don't think I had reached 500 yet with the old pair...), so I'm going to do my best to track my shoe mileage on this blog.

So after two successful runs, I think that I'm going to do the 10K on Saturday. I was so worried that I wouldn't be able to do it. I had actually been pondering whether I'd be allowed to walk it. Of course, I'm going to take it easy, since I don't want to push too hard. It's my first race at that distance and my goal is just to complete it and enjoy myself. It will be a celebration of being able to run!