Adventures in Pink

Confession time again.

I bought another pair of running shoes.

That makes my total for the last two months three pairs.

I'm a shameless shoe-hussy. I'd sell my soul for happy feet. Or should I have said sole? I don't like getting out of bed the day after a long run and hobbling like an old lady. I don't like that exquisite pain when my poor little size 9.5ers have to bear the brunt of my full body weight. And I don't like that feeling to linger from one run to the next.

I've been wearing Mizuno Wave Riders for three or four years now and they've serve me well but somewhere along the line my feet have fallen out of love with them. It could be that the natural padding in my feet has deteriorated as all things do with age. Or it might be that the new and improved version just doesn't work for me. (Note to Mizuno - stop playing around with perfectly good shoes to try and improve what's already fine.)

After last week's 28k I knew that I was going to have to make a shift if I'm going to cope with those 30+k runs in my near future so I bit the bullet and bought these ...

Pretty, aren't they?!!

They were delivered to my door on Thursday night (thanks Coach Chris) for a couple of cupcakes and some cash and with a warning that I'd be foolhardy in the extreme if I wore them for Saturday's long run. 

All of you runners out there will know that it's incredibly hard to resist the lure of new shoes. They seem to have magical properties which convince you that you will run faster with less effort and way more style. That you will be transformed from dancing hippo to gazelle-like Kenyan. And, frankly, these powers are all the greater if the shoes are fluoro pink with sparkly bits. The only way they could be better is if they had little lights that twinkled every time you took a step. (Note to Brooks - light-up shoes don't just appeal to the under fives of this world)

Miraculously, I listened to Coach Chris for a change. I wouldn't have if they were the Wave Riders because I've never had issues with them straight out of the box. But I haven't worn Brooks for a couple of years now and I didn't want to risk blisters on a 28k run. No, I used every ounce of self-restraint (which would account for me being unable to resist the chocolate I'd hidden in the top of the pantry) to leave them till Sunday's run.

I chose my wardrobe carefully for Sunday. Black shorts with pink piping, purple bra with pink top-stitching and pink and grey singlet. Even the socks and undies had a bit of pink on them. And at 3:20pm we headed out on our first adventure together.

And it turned out to be quite the adventure. That can happen if you only have a general idea of where you're going. The plan was to run over the river into Chelmer then follow the river loosely to get to the tennis centre at Tennyson and from there make my way to the Brisbane Corso till I got to the Eleanor Schonnell Bridge at the University of Queensland. And I had to get there by 5:00pm to watch my son play football.

I know the first part of that run up to the tennis centre part. But I haven't run the Brisbane Corso for a couple of years and even then it was with the group so let's just say that the details were a bit hazy and thus the adventure began. 

I'll admit to making a couple of mistakes. The first was looking up the route at home then deciding to throw that one out the window and freewheel it. (I just looked up the Urban Dictionary to see if I was using that expression correctly and I'd just like to say that I'm using it in the context of being free of restraints or rules NOT in the context of riding a unicycle while wearing a skirt and going commando).

My other mistake was to assume that any cyclist wearing lycra and clip-ins over that side of the river would be heading towards the Corso. Or that I could hope to keep up with any cyclist. 

I may have made a few wrong turns. I'd like to think that I was taking the scenic route. And that wouldn't have been a problem if I (a) didn't have any time constraints and (b) hadn't needed to make an unscheduled toilet stop. I knew there was a loo in the park on the Corso but I didn't have any idea how far away that was. And that's when I remembered that I had an app on my phone which shows where all the public toilets are and how far away they are. I also have Google maps on my phone which I could have used to get direction from when I first got lost but I like to live by the 'she'll be right' motto (unless it comes to needing toilets in pretty suburban areas that have nowhere to hide) and fumble through as best I can.

There was some walking involved when I found that the toilet was over a kilometre away. And then there was internal rejoicing when the distance proved to be less than expected. I looked at my watch when I got started again and knew that if I pushed it a little I'd make kick off.

And I did! Albeit after running across the bridge on the cyclist-only side with Pink singing in my ear about not wanting to be a stupid girl. Hey, I didn't mean to be a stupid girl either but somewhere along the path I'd missed a vital sign and once I'd gotten onto the bridge I wasn't turning back. Don't judge me Pink!

And the shoes? I think I'm going to like them. I'm not totally sure because me feet were already sore from the day before so it wasn't the best first test. And I'm glad that I listened to my Coach because there was a little hot spot on my left heel which would have been a blister had I run too much longer. Y