Oh look, a picture of my shoes, how gauche.

I took this picture after my excursion to Hartley on Saturday. They look a lot less muddy than they were, although I tried to knock a bunch of it off so it didn’t end up in my house.

I need new shoes. I find this annoying because I haven’t owned them for that long. I can’t remember when I got them but I think it was last fall. So I’ve had them maybe 6 months, and there were a few months in that time frame where I wasn’t running at all. These shoes should be lasting through this marathon training cycle at least!

These shoes are Mizuno Wave Prophecy 3s, which are normally $200+ shoes. They were on sale for the price of a reasonably-priced running shoe, so I got them because I wanted to see what a $200 shoe was like without paying $200. I am not an idiot, it would be ridiculous for a slow n00b runner to buy $200 shoes. I assumed they were on sale because they are hideous, but I believe they were just switching over to the new model, like with cars. I didn’t even know shoes worked like that.

I need new shoes because there’s a hole on the inside of the heel of both shoes. This is probably because I am doing something wrong, and I’m supposed to be slipping them on and off with a shoe horn or having a butler remove them, but I am an engineer. Factors of safety are incorporated into designs in order to ensure a product, machine, or system is safe, not only under ideal operating conditions, but under abnormal operating conditions. A freaking shoe lining shouldn’t be wearing out in six months.

I also need new shoes because I was holding my cat while wearing them a couple weeks ago, and my friend came over and she got scared when she saw him coming and peed on my shoe. I am amazed it didn’t get anywhere but my shoe, since I was holding her, but cleaning the scent of cat pee out of a shoe is not easy.

I don’t really want to spend the money on new shoes now, and I’m not getting any blisters or rubbing, so I might tough it out a bit longer. It’s not the best idea to break in new shoes right before a marathon (especially since I will not be repurchasing these shoes unless they are under $100), but if I start to get hot spots or signs of blisters, I’ll have no choice.

I’m also disappointed that $200 shoes didn’t turn me into Kara Goucher overnight. They were good shoes, though. I did find they were good at keeping water and mud out, except for the really deep puddles.