May I have your attention please?

...Ahem....I'd like to propose a toast. A toast of recognition and thanks to those who each did their part in aiding me on my painless five mile run this evening. PAINLESS! Yee Haw! Yes, I really just said Yee Haw(!) What? You know I'm from the South! Now excuse me while I refill my jar of moonshine and hang my overalls out to dry. Hardy Har Har.

ANYWAY, back to the toast. On this blog, I've expressed my concern (ok...whined and complained, but rightfully so) about the Mizunos I ordered from FootLocker.com AT THE BEGINNING OF JUNE. It is now early August, which means that my new kicks have been on backorder for 2 months. That is ridiculous. Can I get an AMEN? Puh-lease. So naturally, I blame my shin splints on FootLocker.com. I needed a replacement pair so very long ago. Well, tonight, while I was running a couple of errands, I decided to stop in the New Balance store and see what kind of deals they had. The gods must have been in my favor because, what do you know, this is what I saw:

Pink! In my size! On the clearance table! I snatched up these babies at $70 and after the inaugural run in my New Balance 1061s, I can confirm that it was a heck of a deal. They just felt so good. So thank you, new pretty pink New Balance 1061s. I'm looking forward to many comfortable miles together.

Next on the list-Tony and Rosemary's HealthRider SoftStrider R60. Oh baby, I love this treadmill. Trust me when I tell you that me loving a treadmill is very uncharacteristic of me. I've always hated treadmill running because it's boring and hot and the miles seem to drag by unbelievably slow. But maybe I'm starting to come around. Maybe I can have a positive and loving relationship with a treadmill. You see, tonight, I cruised along effortlessly on its soft, giving surface while enjoying the lovely breeze created by the built-in fans. And would you believe that I even had fun changing up the pace and incline? I love when quality workouts are fun. You made my day, HealthRider SoftStrider R60. They don't call you SoftStrider for nothin.

And last but not least, I want to send a shout-out to Music Choice Channel 672, and more specifically, King Arthur. Mix-Master KA did an excellent job of mixing it up with the best R&B and Hip-Hop hits of the decade. I knew you were the DJ for me when you put some Jay-Z and Outkast in there. Thanks for keeping it real. For real.

Ok, I lied. I said that King Arthur was last, but you know I gotta brag on myself when at all possible, right? Therefore, my final congratulations and words of appreciation will be to me, me and me. I'm positive that readers of this blog do everything right, all the time, but I've been known to slack when I can get away with it. That's why I'm so proud of my thorough warming up, stretching, cooling down after the run and stretching again. Oh, and I even did my shin strengthening exercises. Go Ape.

The only thing left to say is this: You'd better start running, evil shin splints, because I'm on to you and I've got friends in high places.