May everyone be safe and remember Memorial Day as something more than a day to party hearty. Remember those who have served and especially those who did not come home alive to their families and friends. They and their families paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Writing about my running on Memorial Day feels kind of awkward in some ways because it would not seem to many readers as though I am honoring the memory of those who have served our nation and those who have died while defending.

When in fact it is just the opposite.

It is my small way of honoring those who served and those who died by living my life the best that I can. My running and writing about it are both a part of living life well and enjoying the freedoms that have been earned over the years by others whom I do honor and respect their sacrifices.

Let’s get to it.

I wanted to run comfortably for 4-5 miles in my ASICS GlideRides to see how my ankles felt afterward. Just in case the condition of the dirt road down back was more of a factor I decided to run to Pepin and stay on a fairly level surface for the sake of comparison.

The Good

I ran comfortably and worked on maintaining good posture even coming back up Philbrick Hill.

1.0 – 9:02 / Start slowly as usual and then picked up the pace going down the hill.

2.0 – 9:03 / Nice and steady. When I rounded the corner onto Shepard, I decided to run to the Fire Station and then do Pepin, just so I wouldn’t have to do as much up on Philbrick. Not too much traffic and the farm’s dogs stayed put.

3.0 – 9:05 / I ran to the end of the new houses on Pepin and then back out. Had a little ankle-biter follow me and I didn’t even realize it. I was off in Lala land. The owners came running out and when she hollered at the dog I snapped out of my running trance. Then I apologized to the guy that had to chase his dog down the road. I told him I would have stopped sooner if I had known the dog was following me.

4.0 – 9:43 / Yeah, I worked on posture and form coming up Philbrick and did really good until almost the top. It didn’t really make a difference in my time, but it will in the long run. I didn’t push the pace and kept the effort level comfortable.

5.0 – 8:49 / Just steady effort nothing out of the comfort range.

• Distance: 5.01
• Time: 45:47
• Pace: 9:09

Shoes: ASICS GlideRide – The GlideRides did okay, my ankles started to squawk a little coming out of Pepin, but I re-focused on running tall and having a more rolling gait (more of a heel landing and roll-through to lift) and stopped attempting to do my usual toe-off, which doesn’t happen all that well in the GlideRides. I have a feeling that the GlideRides are more of a once or twice a week shoe than a workhorse to get most of the mileage in.

The Bad?

I have a feeling that a lot of my issues with the ankles have a little to do with the road conditions down-back (which I have zero control over) than just the GlideRides. So I need to be aware that the probability of ankle issues is pretty high if I do too much running down there.

Otherwise not much.

What was I thinking about?

What I want to write about for my 200-mile review of the GlideRides, I am in the 190s now and all the stuff that I forgot to put into my first Week In Review post in what seems like forever. However, my primary thoughts were on just keeping my running form efficient and how the body was feeling.

One of the things I did think about was why I and to perform surgery on my Wildhorse v5s to detach the right shoe’s tongue from the bootie that encases the foot. It was causing too many issues with my Tailor’s Bunionette and making me think that I needed to get rid of them. For me if a shoe has a bootie it probably ain’t going to work for my right foot. The left foot just says put a shoe on me and I am good to go. Wish the right foot was that way too.

A good run where I feel a little better about the GlideRides and how they work for me because I really like the fit and feel of them a lot. Probably not enough to pay $150 for another pair, but as long as they keep working, I want to be able to run in them, but then again, tonight the ankles were a bit sorer than I would have expected. I am still not really sure if they are going to be part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I am sure some of this is the price of all those sprained ankles back in the day, but if the GlideRides do limit my ankle action in some way…to be continued I am sure.