New Shoes

There comes a time, every several years, when a runner must part ways with the make and style of shoe that has graced their feet. This time has come for me. This weekend, I retired the Pearl-Izumi Syncro-Float 2's that I had worn for Boston. For the past 4 years, this day meant that a new pair of Syncro-Float's were waiting in the wings to be broken in, but not today.
Today, I took a pair of Asics Nimbus 9's out of the box and wore them around town to break them in. Tomorrow, I will take them on a quick 3 mile run to really get my foot molded into the shoe. It will be the first miles not run in a pair of Pearl-Izumis (not counting speed work done in my Reebok track shoes). Granted, I still have a pair of P-I trail shoes with a considerable amount of life left in them, but the Asics now appear to be the shoe of my future. They are a nice neutral cushion with laces that really hug my foot. My feet are happy for now. I have always been picky about what shoes I wear and it took me several tries to find the Pearl's 4 years ago, so I am not yet ready to become a spokesman for Asics.

I'll miss my Pearl Izumi's but it is time for my feet to move on to a shoe with a slightly better fit.

Covered Bridges

I ran the Swanzey Covered Bridges Half-marathon last Sunday. I had not been training too hard for it and wound up running out of gas early on. I finished 1:45, which I can live with. This guy from New Jersey was asking me about the course at the start. I told him it was a rolling course. It turns out "rolling" in New Hampshire means "hills" in New Jersey and I felt like I was the guy from Jersey by about the 7 mile mark.

The race's founder died last year of cancer (he was 31) and it is great that the race has continued. It was inspiring to have his parents yell "go" at the start.

The Baltimore Half-marathon is up next. I've got to get out and train a little harder for that.

Oh well, here is my friend Lindsey's running blog:
http://lindseyisrunning.blogspot.com/
You can check it out and see pictures of all of her meals.

Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson etc.

It has been a long time since I posted, here is why:
1. I haven't been connected at the hip to a computer.
2. My running hasn't been as focused

So I am going to start posting again because:
1. I found out a friend of mine has been blogging her training and taking pictures of her meals and links to this blog.
2. If all goes well, we may run a marathon together.
3. Blogging keeps me inspired.

Here is an update:
1. I am running the Swanzey Covered Bridges Half Marathon this coming Sunday. I have no expectations for this race, as my training has not gone too well.
2. I plan on running the Baltimore Half-marathon in October.
3. I start a new Job next Tuesday.
4. I have been recording an album of sorts.
5. I hope to run a spring marathon. In California. Its called the Big Sur International Marathon.
6. I am going to make shirts or stickers that say ALL MARATHONS ARE 26.2 MILES LONG because I am sick of me saying I ran Boston and someone saying how far was it and me saying I want to run Big Sur and them saying How Far is that. The same goes for a half-marathon. If I tell you a marathon is 26.2 and say I am running a half-marathon, that means the half-marathon is how long? That is right, 13.1 miles.

So Good, So Good, So Good!

Congratulations to Jon Lester for throwing a No-hit gem!

Having just done the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, it is very inspiring to see such a young man overcome cancer to accomplish one of the best individual milestones in all of sports.

Jon, I hope you can let your humble side down for a minute and really enjoy your tremendous accomplishments. For anyone who complains that professional athletes are bad role models, you, Jon Lester, stand as one of the best examples of why we turn, time and time again, to sports.

It may be silly to say, but listening to the no-hitter last night, makes me proud to be human today.

Now, here is to a long, success filled career and an even longer, healthy life.

Theo: Make this young man a rich young man!

GO SOX!!!

Bike/Walk to Work Day

It is bike or walk to work day and I will be biking. I am two miles from work. I drove yesterday because of the rain and after work, I went for a 30 minute run from the parking lot. When I got back to my car, I could not turn the key in the ignition. It was stuck... I tried for about 10 minutes. So I tacked on an extra two miles to my run and ran home. The point of this is that this is when I noticed how tired and sore my right knee is. It is the knee that was bothering me during training for Boston and as I write, it is quite sore. I could feel my IT band last night as I was in bed, it felt like a rubber band that was about to snap. So, I am going to have to be very careful. There is not a lot of pain, just a decent ache.
So now, I am going to bike to work and call AAA to tow my car or at least try to get the key to work.

No point to this really. I'm still getting back into the swing of things and this lingering knee thing is kind of a bummer.

Hiatus Over

Ok, I have taken a hiatus from all things running and that has included this blog. Needless to say I was pretty tired after the big race. It turns out I was carrying a cold on the day of the Marathon and I still have not been able to shake it (of course I have had some allergies too). I'll be getting back into the swing of running this weekend. My legs are itching to run.
In the meantime, I have been writing a bunch, playing a ton of guitar and even written a few songs for the first time in several years. I hope this isn't a tradeoff: in order to write I have to not run.
Anyways, my unofficial fundraising total stands at just over $7300. I am considering my fundraising efforts completed, so anything else that comes in is just icing.
What is next? Looks like another marathon this fall. With a lot of good choices up and down the east coast for a fall 26.2, one seems as the logical choice, but I do not want to confirm anything yet.
I'll get back in the swing of blogging and running over the next few days, so keep checking back.

Pictures

There are pictures available at www.marathonfoto.com

Just select the 2008 Boston Marathon enter my last name (Barry) and My bib number (22183) and you can see some pics from the race. They are trying to sell you the pictures, but you can still look at them.