How I learned the importance of running shoes
My First Year of Running, (that's how I think of it, like it's a title) included a 7 mile race and two half marathons, with another half marathon relay (that's a quarter marathon, which sounds less impressive). I was finding my happy pace that year, chugging along toward my first half marathon. To be blunt, it stunk. It took all my secret dreams of a smooth and easy race and crushed them. I walked the last 2 miles. Afterward, I dragged my stiff self home and figured I could do better. So half marathon number two came up and I aced it. That's a personal definition, as there were so many people who did it "better" than me in terms of time, or energy left over, or really fun outfits. But for me, I accomplished my goal of proving that I could actually run, with no stops for walking, a half marathon. But I lost three toenails as a result and took a month off to recover. That seemed pretty excessive, even to my untrained, newbie runn...