That's Fit

Despite the heat and overwhelming humidity I ran nearly six and a half miles last Saturday. Today I will attempt to run over seven. I am, folks, living proof that you CAN get back into shape, even if you haven't run in a year. That's right--I stopped running sometime in June of 2006...I think. In fact, once I started running again it had been so long that I could no longer remember when I'd stopped.

To aid me in my quest to get back into shape, this week I bought new running shoes. For me, running shoes are the bane of my existence. I have a total love/hate relationship with such shoes. I need them to speed me along my course, to protect me feet and to give me a little extra bounce when I need it most (which, er, is always, especially these days when I'm carrying a little extra weight around).

I hate them because they never ever fit. I have horribly hard to fit feet. Or, at least, I thought I did. I need a wide toes box because the balls of my feet are rather wide for my otherwise slender foot. My ankles are ridiculously small so I need something that basically latches onto my Achilles tendon so the shoes don't slip.

Somewhere in the land of time before I got pregnant I spent what seemed like hours with a very helpful, professional young man who was a runner himself and who was more determined than I was to find me the right shoe. Previous to my encounter with him I'd spent the same amount of hours online trying to track down the same shoe I'd been running in for years, which, it turned out, even though I thought they were a great fit, were not right for my feet.

I have great running form, or so I am told, but I needed a little stability. I am not an overpronator, really, but the tiny ankles thing wasn't doing me any favors. The balls of my feet, which were wide as the open prairie, were great on the pavement but hard to rectify when looking for a shoe that would hug my ankles too.

After a long, long time, and a very apprehensive moi, we found the right shoe. And I ran in it for a while. Then I got pregnant and stopped running all together. Instead of running in these fabulous shoes I walked in them. I power-walked at first, then, when I got ginormous I waddled in them.

These shoes kept up their end of the bargain as long as they could, until the unthinkable--well, more unheard of, really--happened. My feet shrank.

Yes, you read that correctly. As far as I know (and I haven't exactly researched this so don't hold me to it) I am the only woman I know whose feet SHRANK when she got pregnant. You hear these stories of women complaining that their feet grew a couple of sizes during pregnancy...and then stayed that way. They had to buy new shoes and part ways with their favorite old pairs.

Not me. The exact opposite was true. Now, one might say it had something to do with my super-healthy diet (er, except for those cupcakes toward the end) or that it was just a random act of kindness on the part of the pregnancy symptom gods, but I think it was something else all together.

I think my feet shrank--and they did shrink, you can ask my colleagues--because I wasn't running. Runners' feet tend to swell when they run, and tend to flatten out from all that pavement pounding. I ran more than twenty miles a week when I was at the top of my game, so to speak. That's a lot of miles over time.

Once I stopped all that pavement pounding my feet seemed to, ehm, shrink back up. Now I know that is probably not scientifically possible, but hey, I've also heard stories about women whose straight hair turned curly during pregnancy, etc. No accounting for that sort of story being more than a wives tale, but hey--you never know.

even though I wasn't running I was still putting a ton of miles on my shoes by walking in them practically everywhere I went, whether or not I was exercising. I knew it was a real possibility that the model I so enjoyed would be discontinued in the new year--or screwed with in an attempt to make them 'better'--but they were the most comfortable pair of shoes I owned.

And with good reason. They were designed for running! My feet never felt so good as they did in those shoes. And then, somewhere on the big hill by my house, they died.

I trudged over to the sports store nearest my house and resigned myself to leaving unsatisfied with a pair of second rate shoes. Well, if I learned one thing about myself during pregnancy it was this: Get what you want/need, and don't settle for anything else. If you do, you'll be sorry.

Comfort was key during pregnancy, as was care. Why should I treat my body any differently now? In fact, shouldn't I be taking even better care of myself now that I am a mommy? One would think so. And one would be right.

So I worked with the gentleman at the shoe store to find the appropriate pair of running shoes that fit my ankle and allowed for the balls of my feet to expand in a roomy toe box. They were more than $100, but, I have to tell you, they have been worth every penny.

Yes, I know I should probably have saved that money in my kid's college account or something, but I needed the running shoes like I need to run. And I need to run.

The next day after my purchase the new shoes and I did hills. Six of them. It was tough, but the shoes were there for me, accommodating the balls of my feet and clinging to my ankles for dear life. I went up the hills a little faster than normal, felt a nice bounce under the balls of my feet as I did so.

Oh, right--that's what it feels like to run in new shoes that fit--like walking on AIR. There is nothing better than the feeling of a good shoe on your foot. Except for holding your baby in your arms.

Also, in case you were wondering, my shoe of choice given my hard-to-fit feet are the Saucony Hurricanes. I'm a size 8, but, as with a lot of running shoes, these run small so I wear a nine. And they fit like a glove.