it's gotta be the shoes...

Way back towards the end of January I blogged about trying out a new pair of shoes. Read the post here. I have spent the last four months pounding these shoes into the ground while training for Hardrock. On this Saturday's epic run with Melissa the shoes will surpass 700 miles. And this figure is only the miles I've logged with rw.com, it doesn't include the days I wore the shoes to work or hashed in them, which would probably bring the total close to, if not over, 1000 miles. And they're only $74 at the Colorado Running Company (works out to $0.11 per mile so far - probably get that number below a dime before I'm done).

Last year at San Juan I retired a beloved pair of Montrail Hardrocks at an aid station. The shoes had literally fallen apart over the first 20 miles of the race and I couldn't bring myself to throw them in the trash. So shortly after puking my guts out at the Carson aid station, I changed shoes and left my old Montrails sitting on an aid station table, almost in tears as I ran away from them. I could almost hear them crying as I left them behind for the nine mile stretch atop the continental divide. I think it will be a fitting tribute to retire the Imogenes in this same way (minus the puking part, hopefully)...