Carrie Bradshaw's got nothing on these guys!

She may prefer a store full of Manolos and other designer sky scrapers that will inevitably lead to a broken ankle and embarrassing public stumble, and at one time I may have too (ok I still like those stores a little :]), but I walk into a store full of these...

and now I swoon. And well Coach has been drooling for days at the thought of going, because, really stilettos have never highlighted his butt the way he likes. So, yes, this means we finally worked out our schedules to make the 1.5 hour trip to the Portland Running Company to buy NEW SHOES! We got baby sitters, Coach got off work early, and we got our official consultant Stacie along for the ride. The whole ride was filled with training talk, mostly Stacie and nervously discussing the tri and how we didn't want to make fools of ourselves. But we talked about you guys too. Don't you just wish you knew what we said? It was only 50% trash talk! Actually she was really curious about who was all doing the Portland Marathon because we will all be there and she wants to organize some BLOGGY MEET UPS! WOOT WOOT! 

Anyhoo, back to the magical world of a store filled with everything a runner could want. We got there and posed for pics (of course, this was a momentous occasion) and then entered the sacred grounds. I was a bit overwhelmed and got really excited just to see Gu in person ( I know super dork, party of 1) but I didn't have long to take it in, because it wasn't long before they had us running outside to analyze us. Even though I knew this was coming, it still made me nervous. I don't enjoy having people watch me run and I am pretty sure I look a mess when I do and I knew he was watching me CLOSELY. After we went back in and tried on a few pairs and then ran some more he told us the diagnosis. I run a bit flatfooted and my ankle's wobble slightly. Coach is actually fairly neutral with a tendency to land on the outside of his foot (we know!) So out came the parade of shoes. We each tried on pair after pair, and this is the first time I didn't even glance at a price tag while shopping for anything! Meanwhile Stacie was finding the love of her life...

green trail shoes she had seen in a magazine. Even though they were on sale, she just couldn't pull the trigger. By our sixth or seventh pair we had each found our match. Stacie couldn't have been more jealous of the pair I got, because if she could wear any shoes, they would be mine! Good thing we aren't the same size or I fear my shoes would go missing in the night. We continued to browse and grabbed some other goodies like Gu and Clif blok shots to try before checking out and finding out the damage done. To our great surprise it was only a little over  $200, yipee! I guess that left enough money for dinner.

But don't worry while waiting for our food we got in a few good lunges (Happy Amanda, lunges at Applebees!)

What am I doing with my face?

And to top off the night we met Lex Luthor from Smallville and Stacie got her picture taken with him...

Small disclaimer (not really him, but he has been mistaken for him before!)

But the best part of all is we got to come home with these...

Jesse got the Nike Zoom Vomero+ 4 and I got the Saucony Progrid Guide 3. It is my first real pair of running shoes (and yes I have learned how to say their name) and it is like floating on air. Ok, maybe not. I can't give a true review yet because of my hip but I am excited to take them out for a real test run. And Coach what did you think of your shoe buying experience?

"Even though I have been running for many years, and most of them being in Track, I have never gotten a shoe that felt like it was fitted just for me. These shoes are awesome, and I got socks to go with it so hopefully I will be able to say "bye, bye" to blisters and injured feet. The guy helping me seemed like he knew his stuff and he just kept bring out shoe after shoe for me to try on. I was trying to be as picky as possible and if anything at all felt out of order, I would just say so and he seemed to have the solution the next time he came out from the mysterious back of the store. All in all I was happy with my first custom shoe purchase experience and am really excited to try them out on a run... I am wearing them right now if you couldn't tell".

So, moral of the story? Look for us to be lapping you all soon in our super cool new shoes! Once of course we are uninjured :)