Weekend Outlook

Lots of options both at "home" and "abroad" this weekend:

• The Women's Distance Festival 5K is Saturday morning (8:30AM) in Raleigh.
• The Patrol Stroll 5K is Saturday morning (8:30AM) in Raleigh.
• The Salem Lake 7-miler / 30K is Saturday morning (8:00AM) in Winston-Salem.
• The Camp Kanata 5K / 10K is Saturday morning (8:30AM) in Wake Forest.
• The Mud Run MS Carolinas is Saturday morning (9:00AM) at Camp Butner.
• The Pink Shamrock 5K is Saturday evening (5:00PM) in Raleigh.
• The Bluegrass Half Marathon is Sunday morning (7:30AM) in Johnson City, TN.

There are some other random 5K's too... I just got sick of listing them! If you're running, good luck! For World Record Friday, I decided on this record - the fastest indoor ironman triathlon was completed in 9:33:57 by Martin Browne in 2009... I think that defines torture! And, while trying to find a good picture for this week, I jokingly searched for Sketchers running sneakers... and then a little part of me cried:

So, I decided to look on the web instead of just in an image search, and found it was true, they really do exist. I don't mean to be all anti-Sketcher here, I really do like some of their non-running shoes. I read their blog entry on the product only because it did mention the word "science"... and a big part of me cried. "Tim the Shoe Guy's" first comment for the shoe - they look good. Really?! Not only do I have to disagree, but leading with that is just agghhhh (although he does admit that appearances aren't technical, which I guess is good). Second point, they are "amazingly lightweight, as in under 10 oz. (can be up to 15 oz. for larger sizes) per shoe lightweight." Ok, maybe he doesn't make a spreadsheet of shoe weights, etc. like I do every time I'm trying to decide on a sneaker (only wish I was joking about that), but 10oz is not exactly lightweight for a women's shoe (and I'm presuming neither is 15oz for a guy's). Appearance and weight aside... how else does it improve your running? Well, it "directs" your foot to land past your heel. Yeah, it directs it all right, by placing a huge piece of foam under your mid-foot so you can't help but land on it!  I do have to wonder though, the heel-to-toe ratio might be darn near close to 1:1... so is this a zero-drop shoe?!? I mean, I'm sure the minimalist movement never considered the flying V approach to shoe design! However, perhaps my favorite part of the whole entry - "There’s a lot of advanced scientific design built into the ProSpeed; that much should be obvious just by looking at them. " Yup, that's pretty much what I think when I look at them... Tim and I might have a very different view of what advanced scientific design entails! And, if you read all the way to the end of this post, congratulations :-)