Sad news

While a new pair of running shoes make their appearances in the service of Peter Chong, another pair, or rather the right half of it, is about to give out.

My Reebok Racer-Xs were bought about 7 months ago. Since then they have been serving me faithfully, never complaining even when I dragged it through the mud during insane hikathon or when I was boiling it running on sun-baked tar roads.

I knew in my quest for some measure of running success, sacrifices had to be made. So in addition to training hard, my shoes also have to bear the brunt. They have been holding up well, and it was my hope that they would at least see it through under I am done with the Penang Bridge Run. This was agonisingly close to reality, with the run being a week away.

Alas, it was not to be. I guess the writing was on the wall. Since the past few weeks, the shoe has been feeling flimsy, and my right foot has been cramping up as a result. I put it down to the foam wearing down after hard long distance runs and thought nothing of it. I didn't even make the connection between the foot pain and the breakdown of my shoe until today.

It finally happened today, or rather I discovered it today, God knows how long the damage has been there. While inspecting my right shoe this afternoon, I noticed something amiss, the sole and the foamy part are not aligned. So i decided to prod. Turns out that the sole was partially separated. The worse thing is that without the sole to hold it in place, the relatively pliable foam has expanded making it virtually impossible to glue the sole back on right.

With one week to go, my busted shoe has left me in a quandary. I could not reasonably adapt to a new shoe in so short a time, not for such a killer distance anyway. So I will have to do the next best thing, 'loan' my brother's right shoe, since he has the exact same model of the same size and he doesn't use it much. There is however the small matter of actually getting his permission. Initial attempts at persuasion have proven futile. If push comes to shove though, I will have to errr, shove back, I am thanking my lucky stars that my brother is still smaller than me.
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In memory of my right Racer-X. You are gone but not forgotten, and I will do my best when the time comes, for you.