Today’s long run was brought to you by the motivation of new shoes!

As mentioned in my fashion Friday post, I’m not obsessed with clothes in any insane kind of way but I do have a pretty substantial collection of shoes. It’s stopped growing quite as fast since I had to start using my income for boring things like rent and car insurance so now I value a new pair even more.

I was feeling the need to shop after weights last night (Will is locked behind closed doors all weekend so I’m entertaining myself) so I justified that desire with the knowledge that my current pair of running shoes have become a sorry sight.

As both a runner and a lover of shoes, I’m appalled that I let things get this bad.

See the rip? My pinky toe waves to the world every time I run in these. And there’s an identical hole in the other shoe.

Shameful.

Preparations for today’s 10 miles were the same as all long runs.

Mmmm…oatmeal. I’m seriously addicted to peanut butter and bananas. So when I saw this was the last of the peanut butter, today’s planned grocery trip became mandatory.

I had my oats in the fish bowl today. Not an actual bowl to hold fish, but a very pretty and random piece of dish ware that was found in Will’s frat house and deemed too feminine for the guys so it became mine.

A lot of our dishes were random additions to the collection over the years. We don’t have many things we bought to go together. And sadly they aren’t all as cute as this one.

The whole spread with coffee and all.

As I was suiting up to go out, I realized just how long that process takes me. And I’m not strapping on a heart rate monitor or and funky equipment. But between finding the pieces of my outfit, getting everything on, sunscreen, hair, etc. it probably took me like 20 minutes to get dressed. Such a girl sometimes lol.

I was so busy thinking about how long I was taking that I almost forgot two very important things.

First, house key.

I discovered this trick (tying your key on to your shoe) a few months ago and I feel like I’ve discovered gold. I’m sure other people know about this but years of carrying keys or having them jingle in my pocket was all I knew for so long.

Secondly, fuel.

Yes, that looks more like a drug pouch than running fuel but I assure you it’s just raisins. I didn’t have anything else to wrap them in and they were not going into my pocket without a wrapper.

The last few weeks I’ve really felt an energy drop in those final few miles so today I wanted to experiment with some mid-run fuel. I was only running 10 miles so nothing too caloric needed to be consumed. Raisins fit the bill perfectly.

The run itself was decent. But very humid. Now, if you live somewhere like the deep South, feel free to disregard that statement but I grew up in the dry desert of New Mexico so any remnants of a marine layer during a day here feel like a wet blanket over my skin. Eww.

After four miles of neighborhood looping, I did something I never do on long runs. I headed for home because I had to get a little towel to wrap around my iPhone and to dry my face. My phone was drenched in sweat from being in my hands and the sweat was dripping something fierce into my eyes.

Coming home gave me a water break (much needed!) and then I set off on my last six with a plan to walk a little after each mile.

I have a history of overheating and passing out on runs. I’ve talked about how I wasn’t always the smartest runner when I was younger and one of the ways I could have been better was in understanding the effect heat has. I passed out one day from the heat and probably dehydration. So now I’m more careful. Water breaks whenever possible and walking when I start to get beyond my limit with heat.

But other than the heat, it was a beautiful run. Likely you won’t be dropping everything to come visit Orange any time soon. There isn’t much here. But you might visit Anaheim, home of Disneyland, and Anaheim is right next to Orange.

If you do make it down in this area, be sure to check out Old Towne Orange. I run through these neighborhoods because they’re so quaint and beautiful. It’s like being transported back into a simpler age.

Tree-lined streets with perfectly manicured lawns…

…yards welcoming playing children…

…cute cottage style houses.

And lots of quintessential white picket fences. I ran by so many but they all had people out tending their perfect lawns and I wasn’t sure they would love me photographing their gardening.

The best thing about the streets of Orange though – all the shade from the beautiful trees that have been here so long. That made the difference in those final minutes today.

All in all, a success! I credit the new shoes 😉 But seriously, my legs and joints felt so much better this week than after last week’s run.

Have a good Saturday!