A Miracle Has Occurred! I ran this week without any pain in my shins!! This was so exciting -- I just couldn't believe it! Here is how this amazing development happened. Last Monday evening, I went to a TriGirls event where I was videotaped while running. It was quite an experience. Not being a natural runner, I was already dreading it before I got there. Knowing that I was going to have to look at myself running, made things even worse. I knew that after seeing the videotape, I would never wear the outfit again, so I wore something that I didn't mind never wearing again. About 20 of us participated in the videotaping. It was in a widescreen format too, so even those women who are lucky enough to be slender were looking kind of wide, if you know what I mean. I went about 5th (I learned from my swim videotaping to never go first). The coach is a professional runner who has done a marathon in 2 hours 19 minutes. He seemed very nice, but also more than willing to make fun of people, so by the time he got to me, I was worried.

He said that I had the most efficient running form of anyone present with the best integration of my upper and lower body while running. How about that for a shocker??? I was floored. Stunned. That is something I would have NEVER predicted that someone would say about me. He did not say (as he said to several of the other women there) that I had great potential to be a much faster runner. That didn't surprise me at all. I am built for the long haul, not the sprint.

So, while everyone was being critiqued, I was talking with a couple of the other TriGirls and was talking about how much my shins killed me while I was running. (I was hoping that someone would suggest some way to fix the problem.) Finally, one of the girls suggested that I run without my orthotics in my shoes, or to try running with the orthotics but without the insole that came in the shoe. So, Thursday night, at my running class, I tried these options out. AND MY SHINS DIDN'T HURT AT ALL!!! I couldn't believe it. I am so grateful.

I was so thrilled by this development that when a TriGirl called me on Friday to see if I wanted to participate in a race called the Happy Hour Hobble, I said yes. We met up at the U of A campus, and headed out on a 5K run (with about 50 other people) from the center of campus to a local bar (where beer and pizza were waiting for everyone). The cool thing about this run was that it didn't matter how fast you were because as you ran through the course, you picked up playing cards and the person with the best poker hand at the end of the race was the winner. I was the last one to reach the bar, and I had a crappy hand of cards, but I ran the WHOLE way. I did stop for crossing the streets (it was rush hour, after all), but other than that, I jogged the whole 5K. I am so impressed with myself! And my shins didn't hurt at all this time either!