10 miles!

I did it! I did it! I ran 10 miles! And I didn't die! And I didn't hurt! Well, OK, near the end I had a litttttle bit of pain, but I was OK. Afterward I stretched a lot and walked home with B.

Here are our splits and map:

Pretty good considering I took a week off of running and only did 2- or 3-mile runs. Our run took us up to Riverside Park, to about W. 90th St.

After the run, I decided to stop by Jack Rabbit Sports on 14th Street to see if they could check out my gait. I've read that a big reason that many runners get injured is that they're wearing the wrong shoes. I've been told since high school that I overpronate and so have always worn a stability shoe. I've even gone to a running store and had them watch me run to make sure I have the right shoes. Jack Rabbit really went above and beyond though -- I've seen places that do this, but hadn't yet experienced it. Jack Rabbit put me in a neutral shoe and had me run on a treadmill while they videotaped my feet from behind. From what I could gather, they were looking to see how my feet fell on the treadmill. They're looking for a 90 degree angle of the heel to the treadmill, and apparently my heel falls right at 90 degrees! I don't overpronate! This revelation seriously rocked my world -- I don't overpronate?! My shoes could be the reason why I'm injured?!?! I tried on a few other neutral shoes and ended up going with the Saucony ProGrid Triumph 7 shoes in this extremely snazzy and attention-getting color:

Nice, eh?

I can't wait to break these bad boys in with a 4-mile run tomorrow. The Jack Rabbit running guy said I should take it pretty easy while I break these shoes in since I'm going to need to get used to this newish way of running. I'm looking forward to it!