Shoes

Monday:  This morning, I was still somewhat recovering from the weekend and still adjusting to the altitude.  Ever feel like you have a headache and mild nausea like you are car sick?  Might be from the altitude!

The day started off with a steady state run in the nice suburban neighborhoods of Louisville, Colorado.  After working all day, I managed to sneak a quick trip up to Boulder.  Now, Boulder is more of what I thought the rest of Colorado would look like--beautiful scenery, mountains, and lean, in-shape people walking around.

View of the mountains on the way to Boulder

I made a stop at the Boulder Running Company, located right off of the main road, US-36.  The store was an impressive running boutique store that offered quite the selection of running shoes and accessories.  When you think of a running store, a small store like TranSports in Berkeley or Forward Motion in Danville comes to mind.  The Boulder Running Company was about three times the size of a typical boutique store, but obviously, no where near the size of a Sports Basement or Sports Authority.  The walls of the store were lined with running posters and I even found one of my sources of inspiration, Haile Gebrselassie.

Posters of Haile Gebrselassie and Steve Prefontaine in the Boulder Running Co.

Next to the signed poster of Gebreselassie is a larger poster of Steve Prefontaine, a popular American, University of Oregon-Bill Bowerman-born runner who ran in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but died an early and tragic death.  One of my favorite running books is Bowerman and the Men of Oregon: The Story of Oregon's Legendary Coach and Nike's Cofounder, which talks about the rise of running at the University of Oregon and about some of the school's stars including Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, and Kenny Moore.

My husband swears that whenever I travel, I always come home with a pair of new shoes.  I tell you that he is exaggerating.  I, like many other normal women, love to go shoe shopping.  I, unlike many women, do not come home with shopping bags full of shoes.  He should considering himself lucky.  Instead, I would prefer to spend my money on other things, such as food, books, and new rowing gear.

Unfortunately, my husband might be right this time because I am coming home with a pair of new trail running shoes (and a few pairs of compression socks and a box of Easy Laces), purchased from the Boulder Running Company.

I had better come home and hit the trails running or else my husband will never forgive me for spending an arm and a leg for shoes!