Out with the old, in with the new.

My new Asics arrived today, I'm not sure if other runners get a little sentimental when they retire a pair of shoes... but I somehow do. The clearly worn shoe is part of a pair that saw three marathons. I was warned about the Nimbus Gel 19's, about how they had a narrow toe box. When I wore them for the first of three marathons during the Utah Valley Marathon in June my toes paid a heavy price. The run was primarily all downhill and the shoes were not even broken in yet. They were almost shelved after that, but I decided to hang with them and to see how they felt after another month in them, just to be sure. 

After the break-in they began to feel almost as good as the 20's I had the previous winter into spring. So this week I decided to venture into another pair of 19's and make sure they are VERY broken-in before the Monumental Marathon on November 3rd. I normally take a pair until the 500 mile mark, but due to the training schedule I'm retiring these at 423 miles. And about miles...

I did the math today and I'm just three miles shy of matching where I was at this point last year. This is important to me because of the about of illness and injury I went through for the first six months of the year. I had this sinking feeling that I wasn't even going to reach the miles I turned in during 2017. If all goes well, I'll clearly beat that old amount soundly.