New Shoes

(Saturday, July 10) If I walk a minimum of 10 miles every day (which I have been doing) between now and August 13, the first day of The 3 Day, I will have walked 333 miles. Knowing I will walk closer to 500 miles before the walk, I decided I could not put off getting some new walking shoes. I hated to give up my Ugandan dusty shoes so they’ve been relegated to the everyday shoe position and the everyday shoes have been moved to the lawn mowing position.

The lady at Gazelle Sports, Rick’s favorite store for buying his running shoes, measured my feet and tried to console me about how huge they are. She blamed having kids and walking so much, bless her. She brought out five different pair to try and I ended up choosing the Asics, just like the ones I already had. Fit like a glove.

She informed me that this particular shoe was on sale. Whew, I know how expensive good shoes can be. I was pretty happy about the sale. “How much,” I asked. “$100,” she replied. Gasp! $100 for a pair of shoes? Okay…that’s $0.20 per mile. That’s $0.0001 per step with an average of 2,000 steps per mile. Maybe I can justify this expense. Plus, I know how bad my feet can feel after walking in worn out shoes. But $100? Oh me, oh my…what that could do for breast cancer research instead.