675 miles (thanks, Brooks)

This is what 675 miles over 8 months looks like.

That isn't how far I ran, because sometimes I ran in the other pair of Brook Adrenaline GTS 11s I have, or a pair of light blue Vibram FiveFingers, or, of late, a pair of Saucony Kinvara 3s (which I am quite enjoying, by the way).  But these shoes saw 675 miles.

I don't really think I need to get rid of them, they seem to run OK still, but mentally it's time for them to go.  I can't really say why, it just is.

The matching pair will become my longer-distance shoes.  The Kinvaras will be my shorter-distance shoes, and the Vibrams will remain my treadmill shoes.  And these will go to the donation bin.

When I took that photo, I sort of thought I'd see more in it.  675 miles is a long way.  They ran in the hot heat of August in Ann Arbor.  They ran in the moderate winter we had, through a little bit of snow and ice, but not too much.  They ran through a warm and muddy spring.  They ran with Tim and Reed and Matt and Michelle and Maggie and, once, Kelley.  Mostly they ran by themselves.  They never tripped, they only led me nearly into a car once.  They followed along with the rhythm of Daft Punk and Girl Talk, Kevin Rudolph and Eminem, Bon Iver and Mumford and Sons and MGMT.    They finished one race (the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot).  Most importantly, they kept me injury-free for all 8 months.

For me, 675 miles is about 54,000 calories, or about 277 bottles of a decent I.P.A.  For that, they more than earned their keep.

Thanks, Red Brooks Outside.


p.s. Yeah, this isn't strictly a Starving Heart blog post, but is sort of is.  After all, doing this to a pair of shoes as part of running over 1,000 miles in 8 months is heart healthy, or so they say.

two year stent-iversary!

It's been two years since my stent was placed.  Only 35 more years to go (although no one seems to know or want to say what the mortality is for a 38 year old with a stent).  What will I be doing for the next 35 years?  If the last two years are any indication, I'll be doing a lot of running:

In the past two years, I've run the Ann Arbor Turkey Trot 5k twice (2010: 23:09, 2011: 22:46), the Big House, Big Heart 10k twice (2010: 47:41, 2011: 44:10) and the Dexter-Ann Arbor Half-Marathon (2011: 1:51:40).  I've run over 1,700 miles (2010: 655 miles, 2011: 1050 miles), burned over 200,000 calories, and lost 35 pounds.

Why would anyone do that?

I've seen my daughter's 3rd and 4th birthdays, three Christmases, her swimming, tennis, and soccer lessons, and spent millions of valuable minutes with her.

I've celebrated my 12th and 13th wedding anniversaries with my wife, and travelled with her to Japan and Croatia and Las Vegas, NV, Marquette and Petoskey, MI and spent millions of valuable minutes with her.

I've spent countless hours with friends, most of them were either running or drinking or with cameras in our hands.  I've turned two of them into runners (and they've lost a combined 100 pounds) and helped return one to running, so the health effects spread.

That's why someone might run 1,700 miles.

Happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me, happy second stent-iversary to me.  


And thanks for all the help - you know who you are.