I laid out my gear the night before to make sure that I didn’t wake up the whole house on a morning where everyone else got to sleep in a bit. I ran in my Swiftwick socks, Altra shoes and Free Motion gear for the first time in a race, and I was super comfy the whole way through! At least, as comfy as you can be running a hilly 5 miles.

We arrived at the race bright and early because we still had to pick up our packets. Packet pickup went very smoothly and we even got some cool neck warmers/hats which came in handy because it was a chilly morning at the start line. I also used the bag drop for the first time at a race, and that went off without a hitch, as well.

At 9AM, we were off. We all ran together for a bit and then we all fell into our own running grooves and parted ways. I felt great for the first two miles and cruised the whole way, but around mile three my left foot started bothering me a bit on the decent from the hills. It kind of made me angry because I was struggling up the hills and couldn’t get a rest going down because my foot was hurting. I need to work on the mental aspect of running races because I get caught up and focus on one little thing and it throws my groove off horribly.

The rest of the race flew by. There was only one portion where we crossed the same part of course twice, so it was nice to have a constantly changing scenery. I also loved that there was a ton of people out playing with their dogs. Happy puppies make me happy.

The finish line was packed with lots of spectators, which made finishing all the better. There is nothing like crossing a finish line with a bunch of people yelling and cheering you on, even when you’re finish with a time of 1:03:36, which isn’t exactly gold medal time. Best feeling ever. On the way out I grabbed my finisher’s medal (which is so so sweet looking) and headed up the hill to grab some post race fuel. There were tables set up with lots of volunteers handing out apples, bagels, hot chocolate and water.

Overall, the race was very well organized and a lot of fun to run. I can’t wait until next year where I will beat my time, fo sho!

Did you run a Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving?

The post Prospect Park Turkey Trot Recap appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

I got new running shoes over the weekend. But I didn’t just walk into Sport Authority and pick the prettiest ones off the shelf like I did last time, I went to the New York Running Company and got properly fitted for a new pair of running shoes.

The fitting is done through a gait analysis, which determines if you’re a  pronator, supinator or have a neutral step.

I was pretty sure that I was a supinator from the way that my old sneakers wore out, and I told the guy helping me that, but he made me jump on the treadmill anyway, so that he could record my running to make sure.

Turns out I was way wrong. The sneaker wear actually indicated a mid-foot strike, which is muy bueno, but I am actually a pronator! When you pronate, your foot rolls inward as you run and you need a more stable shoe to correct the pronation. A stable shoe provides more medial support and keeps your ankle from turning. If you’re the opposite, a supinator, you need a more neutral shoe with midsole cushioning to provide extra shock absorption that the lack of pronation causes.

You can see how my foot rolls inward when I run in shoes that don’t provide enough stability. The salesman (whose name I forgot! :/) told me that even though I had no trouble running in my neutral shoes for now, as my millage increases, I could be more prone to pain and injury because of my foot rolling inward. He also told me to save my old shoes for gardening because they were way too worn out to run in. Oops!

I had my foot measured and even though I wear a 9 1/2 or 10 in normal shoes, he told me it was important to size up in running shoes to ensure that your toes aren’t repeatedly being crushed into the front of the shoe and so that there is room for your foot to swell a little when running longer distances.

The shoes in the store are set up by type, so once you know what kind of shoe you need, you just find the right row and choose. For me it was between a pair of Brooks Adrenaline and Nike Zoom Structure+ 15. In the end, the Nike’s won out because the Brooks were a little too wide in the toe and I felt like my foot was moving around in the too much.

I’ve run about 10 miles in the new shoes and they feel great! I will be tracking the mileage on these shoes so I don’t wait too long to get new ones like I did with my old ones. It is recommended that you should switch out your shoes every 300-400 miles, so once these babies hit around 300, I’ll start looking into some new ones. Hopefully these will give me lots of good miles!

Have you ever had a gait analysis done? What kind of running shoes do you use?

The post Getting the Proper Running Shoes appeared first on Frolic Through Life.