One day, two terrains, three cheers and four new shoes

Someone may have just acquired not one, but two brand new pairs of running shoes. Runners are so easy to please.

Greedy, you say? Nonsense – I can explain everything…

As much as I enjoy training for a marathon, the increased mileage has rapidly raced my beloved road running shoes towards an early retirement. To ease the pain of letting go of my trusted companions of many miles – am I the only one who gets a bit sentimental about replacing her running shoes? – none other than Santa himself rushed to my aid today. He bestowed upon me a brand new pair of the very same shoes, just in an even nicer colour. What is more, because Santa knows everything and totally rocks, he brought them to me at a serendipitously perfect moment in time, while will allow me to break them in for use during the Athens Marathon. Amazing! (Incidentally, I couldn’t help but notice that Santa happened to be sporting the same Birkenstock sandals that my dad wears a lot. Weird, or what?)

Thanks to my fath… I mean, Santa’s miraculous intervention, I was free to plan a new mischief with the contents of my piggy bank. I briefly contemplated just how much chocolate I would be able to purchase with my riches, but a rare bout of sanity thankfully interfered before I could find out for certain.   

Instead, I came up with a much more sensible course of action: given that I no longer needed the money to buy new road running shoes, the only logical solution was to go immediately and spend it all on a pair of trail running shoes. Not wishing to postpone our destiny, my piggy bank and I trotted off to our local specialist running store, tried and tested several pairs of trail shoes, uhm-ed a little and ah-ed a lot, and eventually returned to the homely hearth sporting yet another pair of running shoes.

And just in case anyone is interested in the devilish details, the new shoes which are now eagerly lined next to my soon-to-be retired pair by the back door are the Asics Gel Kayano 19 and Adidas Response Trail 20.

I can’t wait to take them out and treat them to their baptism of mud! Right now, only one dilemma remains: shall the happy bunny go bounce on the trails or on the road this evening?

(P.S.: Three cheers to my dad, who is really awesome!)