Orange and Blue

Key Words: Overslept, IT Guy, War Mizuno
Word Count: 464

With Humble Humberto churning to our East, today was a good day. 89 degrees or so in the afternoon, but either Humberto or the front that passed seem to have cleared the humidity from the air. I came home with intentions to run with Felix. If you're wondering whether you can wake up at 6:16 for Felix's 6:30 Finish Strong run, and still make from my apt, I found out the answer is yes; I overslept my afterwork nap just a bit!

Small group, with Felix at the store but not running (I think he's prepping for a 50 miler in addition to Chicago). So Coach Robert led a group of about eight of us for a tempo run. Larry was talking about "running easy", and the notion was infectious; I quickly thought "two easy, at most one hard, then finish easy". When we got to the track, Larry got confused and initially went right instead of left, and we were separated. Dave, the older gent of the Thursday crew, came trotting up. Though I thought he would just head off, we started talking, comparing injuries, talked computers (he used to be some kind of IT guy), and next thing I knew I had ran the next two miles fairly hard; 9:03 and 8:45, with both miles feeling pretty comfortable. We both stopped for water, and Dave headed out for one more loop, while I headed back to the store. Total time for the 3.9 miles was 36:59. The plantar fasciitis afflicted heel felt OK, but it's still not healthy. I have resigned myself to trying to control the problem until after Chicago, when I will give it time to heal. My left hammy was a bit angry, but physically, things went better than I expected.

I ran in my new shoes today; the orange and blue, War Eagle inspired Mizuno Wave 7. They felt nothing short of wonderful. They strike me as the bastard lovechild of a New Balance 767 and a Mizuno Wave 6; stable and firm, yet springy and forgiving. Perhaps my old shoes were just getting to many miles (202), perhaps Mizuno wear out fast, or perhaps these are just more supple. Regardless, they felt much better than my current Wave 6s. As these shoes will carry me through Chicago, I've written a song to honor them:

War Mizuno, fly down the road,
ever to conquer, never to yield
War Mizuno, fearless and true,
run on you orange and blue
GO! GO! GO!
On to vict'ry, strike a winning pose,
give 'em hell, give 'em hell,
finish strong and yell, HEY
War Mizuno, beat Oprah,
power of 26.2!

:)