So my BFF Kim ran the Murfreesboro Half Marathon yesterday (GO KIM!!) and Dave and I were there to cheer her along. I decided to make a couple of signs the the the sign featured in the picture was my favorite. It came to me like a thunderbolt Friday night. I was trying to think of something funny and since I'm not witty enough to really come up with anything on my own I decided to use something from my favorite tv show - The Office. You can imagine my surprise when Kim approached us during the race and I noticed she was giving me "the bird". WTF?! It turns out she couldn't see what was underneath "Faster, Faster" and her first thought was "Dammit, I'm going as fast as I can. Don't tell me to go faster you bitch". Luckily she got a big kick out of it when she was able to read the entire thing. I have a picture of her laughing and pointing (at what looks like a Dr Pepper can on a traffic cone but I know she was really laughing and pointing at my kick ass sign). I was so proud of her and being in a race atmosphere certainly made me excited about my upcoming race. :)
Working at a physical therapy clinic definitely has its perks. One of the therapists has been asking me how my running is going (on a twice weekly basis at least), and seems to be amused when I say "Don't remind me!" after she conveniently reminds me "Only XX days left, Jen!" I've been complaining a bit about my foot and finally last Thursday she said "I'll take a look at your foot if you want me to". Hmm, let me think about this...free medicine. Sign me up! So she did an evaluation, which consisted of looking at and feeling my feet, watching me walk and making me do a variety of things such as standing on one foot (to see if I had to shift a lot of weight), doing a straight leg sit up while she held my legs down (no clue what the heck this was about but afterward she told me one leg might be longer than the other...wtf?!) and there were a few more things that I can't remember. I felt very self-conscious when she and another therapist were watching me walk. When I get nervous or overly self-conscious, I start grinning like an idiot. So as I was walking away from them I kept seeing my reflection in the floor to ceiling mirrors on the opposite side of the room. I tried to stop myself from smiling but I couldn't. It was ridiculous. I felt like such a retard. Anyway, it turns out my left hip is weak and I walk like a pigeon-toed ninny. Also, my super high arches are causing my foot pain b/c I'm over-pronating and the lateral part of my foot is trying to overcompensate for that. Somehow my weak hip comes into play. Apparently the weak hip always affects the opposite leg/foot. She gave me loads of information which I almost immediately forgot. Oops. She was also so kind as to give me a list of hip and knee exercises to do along with some therabands. Which reminds me I need to do those tonight. Booo.
When she asked me what kind of running shoes I had and I told her Nike she just shook her head and another one of the therapists held up her two forefingers in a cross as if to indicate Nike is the DEVIL (bum bum bummmmmmmm). They said New Balance is what they recommend to people as they tend to have the best support. Since I've had the shoes for over a month I don't imagine Fleet Feet will be too eager to take them back for me to exchange. I don't know what I'm going to do but I'll figure something out. I asked her whether she thought I should still run or not and she said I should try to get some different shoes but she doesn't think I'll hurt myself too badly...knock on wood. I ran thrice this week with minimal problems. I'm leaning more towards adopting a Galloway style for the race. That's how I completed my 10 miler a few years back with virtually no training, and it went pretty well. I'm hoping that since I have a decent, albeit smallish base, I'll still be ok. One good thing is that Kim's half mary piqued her interest in racing. I'm hoping that we can get together a few times a week (after my race) and run. I know that would be really good for the both of us. I still need to work on Dave though...
7 comments:
LOL at the sign!! I think I would also show you the finger if I see that sign without the second line. And then I would have to stop running to laugh when seeing the second line...
About the shoes, I used to have Adidas when I started running and was having knee/foot problems. Then I learned that what I thought were the 'best' kind of shoes where actually bad running shoes. I bought a pair of Asics gt2130 after that and my knee/foot problems went away!
Call the shoe store. I got to bring back shoes after running in them for 3 weeks AND didn't even have the receipt anymore. running shoe stores are really good about that kind of thing.
Keep in mind that medical opinions vary alot. And to say that "Nike" is a bad running shoe is like saying that "Dole" apples are bad for you. A running shoe really has to do with the person that is running in it. However, if you just went to JCPenny and picked out a pretty Nike shoe...then I would have my doubts. But I actually bought my Nike's at a running store and they were fit to my feet. Check out this month's Runner's World- the Nike Pegasus is in it :-) Nike shoes aren't neccesarily bad, but you just need a shoe tailored to your foot, albeit Nike, Brooks, Asics, etc. My doctor also told me that he thought my hips were crooked or something like that. Then he dropped it and said they were fine the next time I came in. Without an x-ray or any sort of measurements, nobody can really tell you if your body is mishaped in some form. Now, the high arches piece could be the most valuable piece of info to pull from that and maybe you could find some shoes to accomodate that.
I hope your runs go great this week! I really think you can pull this one off!
yeah, you can't judge based on brand. though the big difference between nike and new balance is NB still has shoes made in USA and nike's all little-hands-in-asia... I bought a pair of shoes at a fleet feet in Chi, ran in the winter slop in them for a week, and brought them back. They took the return! Gave me full credit. It's always worth asking. Tell them your pronation problem and make them give you 2-3 kinds of shoe to try running around the store in. 26mi is too long to let shopping awkwardness get in the way of good shoes!
make sure to check out the return policy... where i get my shoes they have a 60 policy and i have brought back shoes with 150+ miles and blood on them :) they took them back!
that is awesome you have the PT at your disposal... make sure to take advantage of the info they gave you!
glad going to a race pumped you up :) race day is the best!
Yes, I'm definitely going to try to take them back (hopefully tomorrow). On the receipt it says that shoes and apparel must be returned within 30 days in their original packaging and with a receipt. Obviously they won't be returned like THAT but I'm hoping they don't give me grief about it.
My comments about Nike were meant more in jest than anything else. Rachel, I agree it's ridiculous to make generalizations like that. I just found it interesting that the therapists were all against them. Obviously Nikes aren't crap b/c if they were they wouldn't be as ubiquitous or popular or used by as many sports teams as they are.
Thanks for the comments and support guys! :)
Hey Jen. I tagged you! See my blog for details.
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