Walk a Mile in Our Shoes

We've had a bit more time to consider our 20-miler (see August 24, 2008 post). We got through it and learned a few things and, we hope, got stronger from the experience and the difficult conditions. Kinnier's IT band is feeling better despite having fallen down some stairs this morning. Just a flesh wound.

Anyway, we were thinking about how twenty (20) miles is so much farther than we ever contemplated before signing up for the AIDS Marathon. We started considering the significance of the number twenty (20) linguistically. In many languages including English, French and Latin, virtually all of the numbers leading up to twenty (20) have an individual word that represents the value, for example, one, seven, eleven, eighteen. However, the numbers at twenty (20) and above are only individualized at the even tens. In between, the numbers simply use the device of combining the word for twenty (20) with the word for the single-digit word, for example twenty-one/vingt-un. Twenty (20) and numbers greater than it were somewhat difficult to fathom that they were not worth creating new numbers. Likewise, until we committed to the AIDS Marathon and joined a group of other runners committed to the cause, we could not have imagined taking on this challenge. The support of everyone has made this possible.

Now that we have gotten so many miles in, we have to consider breaking in new pairs of long-distance shoes for the marathon in two months. Our first pairs would be overworn by then. To date, we have written about lots of different gear but have gone all this time without telling you about our shoes. We got fitted at a specialty running store, Fleet Feet (http://www.fleetfeetchicago.com/), and ended up purchasing Brooks shoes. Jennifer wears Brooks Infiniti. (Based on that spelling, it appears that Brooks was more concerned about infringing on Dunder Mifflin's trademark, see http://www.dundermifflininfinity.com/, than the automobile manufacturer's.) Jennifer ordered a second pair last week. For your viewing pleasure, we include photos of the shoes brand new and not so new, which shows school spirit, by the way.

Hail to Purple. Hail to White. Hail to thee, Northwestern.

Kinnier wears Brooks Dyad 4, a model which is now discontinued. He considered ordering the Dyad 5, but he wanted to try something else out to see if he could get a bit better fit for his arches and something to reduce his tendonitis. He decided on the Brooks Adrenaline GTS. Whether you believe it or not, the "GTS" reportedly stands for "Go-to Shoe." (This is what he was told orally, without punctuation indications, so go to could be an imperative verb rather than an adjective.) Anyway, we include a picture of the used Dyads, but not them as new.

They are the ugliest shoes Kinnier has ever purchased and they look far better now in this sullied state. To give you an idea of how they initially looked imagine this. The black highlights were some sort of patent pleather. The red and silver strips simply served as non-functional, space-age flair, like something featured in the Francis Ford Coppola epic, Captain EO. Certainly none of these items made the shoes look any better. By the way, the shoes had charcoal lining that appeared through the white mesh fabric, giving Kinnier the creeps just kiwi seeds or swarming anthills do.