OK I've done it. It was a difficult assignment, but I just couldn't procrastinate any more. I set the alarm early, and against all my better judgment and reptilian instinct, forced myself to get up in the grey mists of dawn's early light and went out ... and bought a new pair of running shoes
I did at least follow the advice of the previously mentioned elite athlete, and went to the store she suggested, and to my amazement, as soon as I unashamedly dropped her name, was suddenly being served by not one, but two senior sales staff for whom nothing was too much trouble, and who studied my gait learnedly and quizzed me at length about my running, my past injury history, what my physio and podiatrist had said, and my aspirations for the year. It was almost a little overwhelming I have to say.
After much enthusiastic trialling and testing (which mostly involved me running up and down a narrow strip of carpet, crashing into people and scaring the children), we short-listed two shoes: the Brooks Beast and the Asics Kayano. After taking out another mortgage on the house and selling my wife into slavery, I walked out with the Asics. Apparently the stock market blipped as my transaction was processed and the banks temporarily imposed a credit squeeze on the business sector of the economy, but all in all I think I got away with it. If my credit rating holds up under the pressure, I may even get to see my kids again...
Of course, being a rest day, I haven't yet tried them out properly, although I probably ran a couple of kilometres up and down that stupid strip of carpet in the store. So they're sitting beside me now, still resplendent in their cardboard box and smelling and looking satisfyingly new. Unlike my old shoes, which are sitting in a dishevelled semi-heap under my chair and smelling as they look - which is a little bit more than just about vaguely disgusting.
I know there are people who buy new shoes every few weeks - some of them do so much running they even
need to, but for
wanna be runners like me, today's excursion was a major part of my running life... and that of my bank manager's.
It's rather sad, really.
But at least it stops me thinking about the cricket...
sob
New Thread, Fresh Start
