Toenails are for Sissies

The above title has nothing to do with this post, I just saw it on a t-shirt at the CDC expo. It made me chuckle. Then, it made me throw up in my mouth a little. *Shudder* Actually, I was losing toenails looooong before I ever started running. It's called "Irish dance hard shoes", and it is FOR SURE not for sissies. Basically, you would buy this shoe:

But...you would buy it approximately 1.5 to 2 sizes smaller than the size you really should wear. There were good and bad reasons for this. A good reason to buy a slightly smaller hard shoe is that the shoe is all leather (except the fiberglass or wood tips and heels) and would stretch. We can't have that, can we? Bad reasons include the desire to have your feet look as small as possible, and increasing your arch.

I'm sorry, I didn't know we were living in colonial China.

So, we all know that if you buy the wrong size shoes and wear them whilst doing strenuous physical activity, you lose your toenails. This happened to me at least 4 times during my 21 year Irish dance career. *Bows*

Speaking of shoes...I have been dreadfully remiss in switching out my running shoes. It has been...I kid you not...7 months since I've gotten a new pair of running shoes and I'm feeling it big time. I promise I am buying a pair (and getting my hair cut!!!) on Tuesday. There. Now I'm accountable!

Back to the running
There was no scheduled run this morning, but I did it anyway. I'm struggling to find the balance between not over training and pushing myself a teeny bit more. I really want to make sure that my mileage is at the very least coming in at 25 miles per week. I think that's pretty much the bare minimum you need when you're training for a marathon. So I went out for a 40 minute easy run this morning. I think I did well to maintain my 10:30 pace. But, the gnats were in full force too. I tried to remain vigilant, but there's only so much you can do! The tally for this morning was:

Number of Gnats in eyes: 3
Number of Gnats in throat/windpipe: 5

I was gnatted, and once again, it seems like I'm the only one! I don't see anyone else pulling off the path to hack for 3 minutes or rub their tearful eyes. Boo. Oh well! I'm looking forward to our 8 mile run tomorrow morning. I love that it's "only 8 miles". Never in my life did I ever think I'd say that! I've also only got 3 more shows of Margaret Fleming left. So see me now, or you might be waiting a long while to see me again!