Out With the Old, In With the New

It's time to bid farewell to the old shoes.
Now say hello to the new fancy ones.
Thanks to a friend (who shall remain anonymous), I was able to purchase some brand spankin' new running shoes from a real running store (no Sports Authority clearance racks this time thankyouverymuch). Aaron and I tried to do some research on the best shoes and top-rated woman's running shoes, you know, just to be prepared before the purchase. But as soon as I stepped foot into the store, the nice folks at Runner's Corner just took over. I was so obviously a newbie runner, the girl who was helping me explained everything she would be doing, like I was at a doctor's office about to get some new unfamiliar test done. "And then I'm going to bring out many different pairs of shoes for you to try. You will try them on. then you will turn and exit the store to test out each and every shoe. Understand?"

"Uh-huh." It sounded simple but after she had studied my old shoe (even taking it in the back to get a second opinion), and then demonstrated the correct way to lace it (that "extra" little hole down at the bottom? Ah-ha!) I was slightly intimidated. She even made me demonstrate my lacing ability in front of her so she could make sure I was doing it right. I must've tried on 15 pairs of shoes, and then tried on the favorites against each other. I took them all for tests runs in the parking lot...every time.

Well, the perfect shoe found it's way to my foot and I was blown away at how different it felt. Light. Cushy. Socky. I could not wait to go for a real run. I knew I'd have to wait til the next day seeing as it was evening and pitch black when we left the store. That night, shortly after we put the kids to bed I was summoned up to my boy's room. After a quick no-monsters-anywhere scan I turned around and bumped directly into this,

or I should say, my KNEE bumped directly into that left corner of my kid's bed frame. OWW! I didn't really think much of it seeing as my klutziness and the path of destruction that is regularly left through all parts of my house makes for a lot of these incidences. It wasn't until the next morning when I got out of bed and realized walking was painful did the realization set in that I would NOT be able to try out my new shoes that morning. As the day wore on however, my knee started to feel a lot better and I knew it was just a surface injury, a bruise at best. So mid-afternoon, I got my running gear on, all my winter stuff, turned around in my bedroom to reach my fancy shoes and OUCH. I hit my knee again. On our bed this time. In the exact. same. place. Tears were shed, yes, it hurt that bad.

Why did I have to bump my knee in the same place right at that time? C'mon! New shoes! A day where my husband is home in the middle of the afternoon to watch the kids, 3 days of Christmas eating, no precipitation. And I couldn't go. Yeah, I cried.

**My knee is feeling much better now.
I will go tomorrow...barring any further injuries.

UPDATE: I went. They were everything I hoped for and more. I could cry tears of joy just thinking about it.