New Gear!

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I love gear. All kinds of sporting gear. A lot of girls love purses and shoes...and while I think that those things are fun, nothing gets me more excited than a new Patagonia fleece.

I come by this obsession honestly - my family also loves gear. In fact, when I was really young, a family friend who owned a sporting goods store had our family do a photo shoot for their Patagonia ski jackets - from that point on, my love of gear began.

It is no coincidence that my long-distance running habit also has a built-in need for gear. There are lots of reasons that I love running, which I'll write about later. But one of the more retail-oriented reasons is because of the gear you have to have to make running long-distance bearable.

Over the past-year I ran a half marathon, marathon and now am training for another marathon. This amount of distance running accumulates a lot of miles, and there is a rule of thumb that you should get new shoes every 300 - 500 miles. This weekend, after running 18 miles, I realized that I must need a new pair of running shoes based on how sore my feet are today.

So a trip to the Front Runner was in store for the afternoon! I got a new pair of running shoes - Saucony (which is the same brand I had last time)

I also bought some more running gels...some Sport Beans, which I usually eat, and some new "Shot Blocks"

Finally, I needed some anti-chafing stuff. If you are a runner and you have ever had any body part chafe, you MUST try this stuff. It's a must have.

And finally, I got a new pair of running pants:

I know it's been ages since I last posted, and I'm not keeping up on my New Year's Resolution - sorry! I have some good photos stored up, so I'll try to be a lot better from now on.