I decided it was time to buy a real pair of running shoes, or actually my sore groin muscle and achy knees decided for me. I don’t usually let my groin make important decisions for me, but my brain agreed that running 12-15 miles a week in cross-trainers was perhaps not a good idea.

I went to a local store called The Running Company because they were fairly close, but mostly because they have a cool website. I am a sucker for cool websites. They even have little videos about running that have purpose and content and aren’t a superfluous excuse to include flashy content. Well played, web designers, well played.

Of course, before I went to the store I had to get over my fear of going to the store. I knew that I would have to get someone to help me select the proper shoe so I didn’t split my shins in half with a sneaker cleaver. But I am getting better about talking to sales staff and acting nice and confident while simultaneously concealing [...]

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Back in elementary school I hated going outside. Typically going outside meant playing kickball and on one occasion I decided it was preferable to hide under a table next to the guinea pig pen instead of going onto the pocked concrete field to have the red, rubber ball tossed in my direction. I’m sure Harry appreciated the company, or at least appreciated being terrorized by only one eight-year-old instead of 30. I never understood why all my classmates got so revved up over the thought of going out into the humidity and heat. We’d spent over a millennia of evolution to become smart enough to invent the air conditioner. Shouldn’t we stay inside to do our Venn diagrams and appreciate it?

Which is why it is so odd that I was ecstatic that it was warm enough this weekend to go running on the trail. Maybe it’s because no one throws balls at me out there – at least not yet – though I did need to watch out for dog poop. Is there a plastic [...]

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