On Monday I wrote Inspired To Run A Marathon, but I didn’t talk about what my running had been like before. Even though I had been running for years, I rarely ran farther than about five miles. I wasn’t putting a lot of extra thought in my running because I was too busy raising two little boys and working. Running was a fun thing to do early in the morning before Bill headed off to work, and it was a way to keep this busy mom sane!
Prior to training for a marathon, my morning run took me on the exact same loop. This wasn’t necessarily a good idea if I was being stalked, but I did it so Bill would know where to come look for me if I didn’t make it back home. Remember, at that time I didn’t have a mobile phone and when I finally got one, it was attached to my car with a cord!
My early running attire was mostly cotton, especially the shirts because all race tees were cotton. My old 1980’s running shorts were florescent and short-short and buried at the bottom of my dresser, so I chose cotton shorts for a while until I bought replacements. I’m sure my cotton outfit gained ten pounds on this particular rainy run!
Nike Air Pegasus circa 1997
My first shoe of choice was the Nike Air Pegasus, not because it had been sold to me as the perfect running shoe for marathoners, but because it was current running shoe that I happened to own, and probably because I’d gotten it for a good price at a discount shoe store! Mine were gray with blue swooshes and I wore those bad boys on most of my runs for eight years! I loved those shoes!
Nike Air Pegasus circa 1988 (Women’s Nike 8K)
Two month before my first marathon my friends talked me into buying new running shoes. By then my trusty Nikes had huge holes between the soles and tops on the medial side of both shoes, and my waffle bottoms were about to fall off. They may have looked ridiculous, but my feet were very happy in them, or so I thought!
Eventually, I went to our local Footsteps and was greeted by a guy that recommended I try a pair of Asics because they had a little more room in the toe box. He fitted me and had me go out onto the boardwalk and run in them. I immediately realized how much support I’d been missing with my “open air shoes.” I guess I was running as a minimalist long before it became fashionable! I’ve been an Asics lover ever since, and now replace my shoes every 500 miles.
I later learned that the guy that had helped me was their UPS guy. He was off that day and just happened to be hanging out at the store. The other employees were busy with other customers, so he decided to help me with my shoe selection. I suppose that’s what brown can do for you!
- Questions:
- Have you ever had a favorite pair of shoes that you just couldn’t get rid of?
- What has been your biggest running fashion faux pas?
- Have you ever run in a cotton t-shirt?
Haha, yes I have run in a cotton shirt before, but quickly got out of that habit! And shorts, oh the shorts…I used my regular old workout shorts but realized they just don’t work (constantly riding up between my thighs). I ended up switching to compression shorts and it’s the best thing I ever did! As for shoes, since I started running, I’ve owned the same Mizuno shoe but in 3 different pairs (every 6 months or so). I can start to tell when they’re not helping me out very much by feel, not so much sight.
Ever since that first pair of Asics, I’ve worn pretty much the same model, just the next release. My knees are pretty much spot on in telling me when I’ve run 500 miles in my shoes!
I used to run in cotton tshirts about 5 years ago…I had no idea…and clearly not a hard core runner 😉 My husband has one pair of sneakers that he is faithful to and won’t let go of…me not so much.
I can’t run in shoes for much more than 500 miles without my knees starting to bother me these days. I guess these old knees are a lot less forgiving than those young knees that were running in the eight-year old Nike Pegasus.
I love your retro race photo! Those shorts are pretty great 🙂 And that’s insane you ran in that pair of shoes for so long!
My faux pas- I saved all of my running shoes from grade 8 when I started seriously running. I have a box of old runners at my parents house from 10 years of running, all of which are Nike!
Yikes, I don’t think those shorts could have been any shorter!
Air Pegasus were the first running shoes I bought when I started running cross-country! I’m an Asics girl now, but I don’t know if I can ever go minimalist. My high arches love the cushioned support!
I know I could never go minimalist these days. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, and these dogs are old! 😉
Those UPS guys can do anything! I do have a pair of Brooks running shoes, but I run so infrequently that I’ve had them for years. I will have to check out Asics when I need new ones, or when my daughter does. She’s been buying the same Nike shoes for cross training and indoor field hockey for over a year now, and I’m considering stocking up before they discontinue that particular shoe!
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I knew a guy that loved his running shoes so much that he bought 17 pairs (all that the catalog still had in stock). Years later he was still wearing those shoes!
[…] Deb Runs… – striking On To My Nike Air Pegasus somewhat Too lengthy […]
I can’t believe you ran in that one pair of shoes for nearly 8 years! Although, I kind of can because I fell in love with a pair of New Balances in seventh grade and wore them all the way through 10th or 11th grade. They got to the point where on the inside of the shoe all of the lining was gone and it was just the plastic shell. I finally stopped wearing them after that plastic shell rubbed a hole in the back of my heels.
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Crazy, huh?
[…] mentioned in the title, being a Nike Pegasus wearer has come full circle for me. I wore my original Pegasus for far too many years – shown here in 1988 – until […]