Today I officially "retired" my most storied pair of running shoes yet. I've mentioned it before, but a feeling of sadness always comes over me when each pair of shoes comes to the end of their life. This pair, however, will always be special to me for so many reasons.
This pair of shoes, a pair of Saucony Omni 13s, was my saving grace last spring when I injured my foot. They provided enough support for my foot that I was able to get back to running quickly while allowing my foot to heal. This pair of shoes not only logged a lot of miles in training, but were with me for most of my races last season:
- Marathon to Marathon - Half marathon
- Accel Triathlon - Olympic Distance
- Crossroads Triathlon - Sprint Distance
- Bluff Creek Triathlon - Sprint Distance
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| Heading for the finish line at the Bluff Creek Triathlon |
- Legend Ad Astra Triathlon - Long Course/Half Ironman
They were with me the whole way, through all of the miles, all of the pain, and all of the tears. To this day, they are still stained from the gravel portion of the run route
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| Heading out on the half marathon course at the Legend Ad Astra |
- Cyman Triathlon - Sprint Distance
- IMT Des Moines Marathon - Marathon Relay
- Des Moines Turkey Trot - 5k
It was also these shoes that were with me when I set a new 5k PR during a time trial training run on October 29 of last year. They have pounded out miles on the burning hot pavement of mid-summer and kept me upright while braving freezing temperatures on icy and snow-packed trails. I recorded 83 training runs and races with these shoes totaling 399.4 miles.
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| Well worn running shoes |
With the sadness comes excitement as I have 2 identical pairs waiting in the wings. One has under 70 miles while the other just arrived in the mail this week. I am certain that these shoes will help to provide new memories as I begin to rack up the miles on them as well. In my eyes, this could not have come at a more perfect time as I am finishing up my off season training this week with my first race of 2018 a mere 3 weeks from now.
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