these shoes rule

Every time I enter my apartment, I'm completely soaked. Just now, it was from biking home from work in the torrential downpour. Earlier, it was from exercising in extreme humidity.

I kicked off my day by ingesting some tofu then heading over to Marathon Sports on Boylston Street. We talked feet for quite some time. Arches. Support. Give. Rubbing. Tightness. Arthritis. Socks. All the essentials. I tried on a good five or six pairs. Most of them had one or two endearing qualities. The Adidas had incredible technology but pressed too hard on my arthritis. The Mizunos were both attractive and unique, but felt like they could fall off my foot at any moment. After giving the top choices a literal run for their money, I settled on some Sauconys. Of course I did. I've been running in Saucony shoes for years because they give me the support I need and they keep my arches happy.

So I took my new kicks for an inaugural run. I was dripping sweat before I even finished with the warmup. Dripping. The heat and humidity were unbelievable. I listened to "The Eraser" and did the run I intended to achieve last night: quick and easy to the State House and back. It went pretty well I think. The shoes worked out wonderfully for me and my arthritis was less troublesome. Slightly troublesome: the fact that I bumped into the guy who sold me the shoes while I was jogging/sweating bullets on Commonwealth Avenue. I'm not even kidding. I have never sweated that hard in my entire life. Ever. So I walked it off while making my way toward Marino. Some freshman crap was taking place in the quad and I briefly wanted to sob, but then I saw the table with free lemonade. I guess even freshman orientation has its perks. Ergh... At Marino I did my first weight workout in years. And it was extremely shortlived. I just worked my way through some lower body stuff, then cooled down on a treadmill.

I arrived home looking like I had gone swimming. No joke.

this is the story of my red right ankle

Cait apologizes for her absence. She does not have internet at her apartment - or an apartment, really - and consequently finds it more difficult to post. I, on the other hand, am ethernetting it up real hard in my new digs.

And what you need to know right now is: less than two weeks into my training, I have encountered a serious problem. Those of you who know anything about my feet are aware that my right one has a less-than-flattering bump. I've been rocking it for a while now. Earlier this summer, I went to the foot doctor and had it examined via X-ray and otherwise. It was concluded that I have a rather mild case of osteoarthritis and that it does not need to be dealt with unless it becomes a problem. This was good news at the time: it meant that I would not need imminent surgery and that I could potentially fulfill my dream of running the marathon in 2009. Surgery, on the other hand, would have knocked me off my feet for weeks if not months and I would be hesitant to put the kind of grueling pressure on it endured during extensive running.

And the bump has not been a problem. The most recent dilemma I had with it was after walking miles upon miles in Copenhagen. My muscles throbbed and the bump caused severe discomfort. My foot simply could not take it any more and I had to go home early. I felt fine the next morning. Again, that was the last problem I had with it, until tonight. Cait and I went out to dinner with Megan and Mary Ann, then hung out for a while waiting for our food to digest. Once we had reached a satisfactory level of digestion, the two of us embarked on a quick run to the State House and back. It was going wonderfully. We stretched in the Christian Science Center grass, after I got my groove on real hard to Radiohead's "Bodysnatchers." Then we made our way down Boylston Steet. Some time after passing 500 Boylston, my right foot delivered the bad news. Bones rubbing together. Too much. Too hard. Too little cushion. And it frustrated me immensely because I had just slipped into the right running pattern. The rest of my body felt awesome and I was good to go. After a minute or two of suffering, I informed Cait of my pain, asking her if it would be OK to cut the run short. We turned at the Public Garden, hoping to make our way back to Mass Ave via Commonwealth. But my foot was too much to handle and I was forced to call it a night.

Imagine the frustration. I wanted to rage. I wanted to cry. If my foot does not get back in gear, then I physically can not run this marathon. And I don't even want to think about that this early in the game. I'm too excited about accomplishing this. But I also don't want to cause irreparable damage to my body. Yes, weight loss is fine. Muslces are acceptable. Sleeping better at night is also fine by me. But bone damage and the inability to walk comfortably is not really my beat.

So I'm going to do something I should have done days ago, when my toenails began to turn purple. I'm going to buy some new shoes immediately. Tomorrow morning, rather. No, they can't cure my arthritis, but they can improve the overall situation and hopefully provide some more support for my limbs. Please let this work out for me.

my tongue's the only muscle on my body that works harder than my heart

Let's consider this morning step 3. Step 1 was deciding to run the marathon. Step 2 was starting training. Step 3 is figuring our registration and actually applying to charities. Turns out this morning's registration was strictly for qualified runners, which Cait and I are not. But the good news is that applications for several of the charities were released so we had the opportunity to tap into those.

Step 2 has been the most interesting and challenging so far. Last night, the two of us took over one of Wentworth's quads where Cait busted out some of her old track exercises. It was good to mix up the jogging with some good old speed workouts. It was also nice to get in touch with some muscles that I don't usually use while running. We followed these exercises with some stairs, which will always freak me out a lot. I don't know what it is, but I always feel like I am going to go tumbling down stairs and land on my ankle. Maybe it's because I've done that several times before, particularly when I went to Westfield High School. Regardless, we got those stairs did then we cooled off. For whatever reason, my arms were killing me. This makes little sense because we did absolutely no arm exercises during any part of the workout. Weird. Then today I faced the scorching sun to pump out a 5.5 mile run along the Charles. It was nice to be surrounded by serious runners. One guy ran backwards faster than I run forward. Umm... And this other guy paced himself to me which made me feel pretty good about my speed. Mostly, everyone looked good and I felt great.

I would have felt better if I had appropriate runner attire on. This is something I need to remedy sooner rather than later. Fractions of my next pay check or two will need to be dedicated to expanding my running wardrobe. RIght now, I'm jogging in baggy T-shirts and this one pair of shorts that actually fits correctly. I need more shorts, spandex shirts, pants and basically anything that doesn't make me feel like I'm running in a pile of my own sweat. I also need some new sneakers. My feet have absolutely had it with my old ones. And by "had it," I mean that my toenails look like they're going to fall off any day now. Which would be inconvenient.