First Half Marathon of the New Decade

Okay, so you probably know that I had to use a free airplane ticket before it expired and decided to use it to run the Carlsbad Half Marathon. I ran the Big Sur Half last year on Super Bowl Sunday in Huntington Beach. So I thought it would be nice to run at sea level again. Best part of this year’s race was that Karen was able to join me on the trip.
Last year I felt so strong and kicked butt until mile 12 when I fell apart and struggled to finish the race at 1:46. I wanted a rematch with the sea level elevation to see if I could get a better finish time. Little did I know I was running against more than just the altitude. I had to deal with something else, bad shoes. Not bad in the sense that they cussed and smoked cigarettes, bad in the sense they did not do their job.
There are at least three different types of running shoes not counting racing flats. There are stability shoes, motion control and cushioned shoes. It’s really critical that a serious runner gets the proper type. One way you can tell which type you need is to get the bottom of your bare foot wet and then step on concrete or a piece of paper to see what your footprint looks like. If you want more info…Google it.
I need cushioned shoes. Once I find a brand and model that works well for me I stick with it. But inevitably the manufacturer will change something with a new year’s model. In this case is was Nike and the shoe salesman told me after the fact that they tried to mesh the features Vomero 2 and Vomero 3 into the Vomero 4. Bad move as far as I am concerned.
My plantar fasciitis started to act up after I started running in the 4’s. I tried adding extra cushioning myself but to no avail. So to make a long story longer, I am running a half at sea level and my arches aren’t golden meaning they are hurting big time. So whatever advantage I gained from training at 5280 feet above and racing 52 feet above vanished due to my crappy shoes.
Back to my point about the shoes, the right shoe is crucial when putting on some mileage. I was once talked into buying the wrong shoes by a well meaning sales guy and ended up having knee pain when I used them. Anyway, such is life and I could only muster a 1:45 finish time, not much better than last year. I could barely walk after the race and into the following couple days. Like Karen blogged, she was calling me Mr. Limpet. At least thanks to some bartering by Katie with Road Runner Sports, I have a new free pair of Asics cushioned shoes and I am slowly getting back on the road. I hope to run my next half here in Denver in April. In the mean time I sent my “bad” running shoes to rehab hoping that they get better. P.S. thanks Karen for coming with me this year, you made it “mo betta”.