Yesterday was the beginning of an era. It’s a day that
future historians will call “The Day I Got My First Pair Of Proper Running
Shoes. And Some Running Socks”. For those of you who are confused by the name,
yesterday was the day I got my first pair of proper running shoes.
And some running socks.
I went into Warwick and was very well looked after at
Warwick Sports Shop (happy to give them a free plug, in exchange I’m more than
happy to get some free stuff from them, just putting that on record). They
analysed my gait, and apparently I have very flat feet. This would explain some
of the difficulties I’ve been having in running – you try running in flippers
and get back to me. I was then brought shoe after shoe after shoe to try
(typically these came in pairs to make it easier) to see which felt the most
comfortable. Given that the shoes I was comparing them with were the ones which
have been systematically destroying my feet recently, anything was an
improvement, but I picked a pair I liked.
I also picked up some running socks. I was slightly
confused about what difference a sock makes to running but decided not to
question it, especially when I was offered a three pack of socks which
contained “a pair of socks worth £8, a pair of socks worth £11 and a pair of
socks worth £13” (or some sorts of numbers). I had two questions I was too
embarrassed to ask at that point:
1) Who
would pay £6.50 for a sock?
2) What
made the three socks have such different values? They all looked the same to
me.
This seemed like too much stress for me; when I’m getting
ready to run, how would I decide which one to wear? Do I need to decide in
advance whether the day feels like an £8 day or a £13 day? Too much stress. I
went for two packs of standard running socks, which all looked the same and
cost the same which made me feel slightly more relaxed about paying £5 for a
pair of socks. I’ve had cheaper restaurant meals.
Overall, I was happy, though –the shoes were cheaper than
I was expecting to pay, and overall they seemed to be a good purchase. The only
disappointment was that, despite being running shoes, they don’t actually run
themselves. You need to run whilst wearing them, which is a shame. It’d be a
lot easier if they just went themselves, like a hoverboard.
Anyway, I went out for a run this morning in my new shoes.
And running socks. I would love to say that they made a dramatic distance and I
can now run 5km in under a minute backwards whilst writing a Tony-award-winning
play and solving world hunger. Sadly the play I wrote is off-Broadway at best
and I’m only 80% of the way there with world hunger, so somewhat of a
disappointment by comparison. The run was slightly more comfortable than
before, though, so evidently the shoes must have been doing something. And the
socks.
I managed to get through the full 28 minutes without
getting too tired or slowing too much at one go, which meant by my estimates
that I went 2.7 miles in that time. That did include an actual
honest-to-goodness near sprint in the final minute when I realised I still had
a little bit of energy left, but it makes me optimistic that maybe I could
reach 5km in 30 minutes.
My main issue since I’ve restarted running is what to do
with my thumbs, which sounds like a weird issue (mostly because it is). I can’t
really remember what I did with my hands before my brief break from running – I’m
fairly sure I tend to run with slightly clenched fists, because that seems to
be the most comfortable and it also means I’m ready to launch a punch if I’m
lynched by ninjas at any point. But the past couple of runs I’ve been clutching
my thumb within this grasp, which has made them feel a bit sore at about the
halfway point. They don’t feel so natural when outside the grasp of the other
fingers, though – it feels a bit like I’m running with thumbs up like an
energetic version of the Fonz.
This seems to coincide with the times I’ve been running
without my glasses – maybe unbeknownst to me I’ve been keeping my thumbs in the
frame of my glasses and I’m only just realising this. Further experimentation
is needed, I think.
Shoey Lewis
No comments:
Post a Comment