New Shoes Hit the Sand

Ran the seven mile course tonight with the new shoes. They are perfect. Just the right amount of stiffness and bounce. I know its cheesy but I've named the new kicks. The left one I call 'Fram' and the right one goes by 'James Caird'. Fram is a Norwegian ship that was built for ice and polar exploration in the late 1800's. She is a kind of whispered legend amongst sailors and explorers. She is the meter by which all modern ice boats are measured or compared. Aside from her bulled proof wooden hull she had advanced insulation and ventilation that allowed her crews to live in relative comfort where many suffered. Additionally, Fram's hull is an odd bowl shape that was born for ice. Her hull tended to lift her when squeezed by ice, where contemporary hull shapes of the day, particularly in the stern, tended to grab the ice and allow themselves to be squeezed. Fram sailed three major expeditions and holds the distinction of having, at one time, been the ship that sailed the farthest North, and farthest South. I call the left shoe Fram, meaning 'forward', because the left foot leads the way and I like the idea of being carried to the pole aboard my very own Fram. We'll save the James Caird for another day.

The pace on tonight's run was an improvement for the seven mile course, but was still an unimpressive 8.3 min/mile pace. This would me at a 3.6 hour marathon if I could keep it up.

Since the time change and it has started getting dark earlier, I have found myself running almost exclusively at night. If you have ever run in the desert near a town at night you know what this means. Even miles out of town, if there is no moon, any lights at all are relatively blinding. You learn to aim for land marks and let your legs take care of themselves. It is sort of like steering by the stars... except it is more like: Turn left where the fence ends with the trail. Turn left about thirty degrees. Steer through the open desert aiming for the lights of a distant overpass. The desert is a black hole, and only occasionally are the tops of the creosote bushes illuminated by an airplane on short final.