Today the weather was supposed to get up into the ’40s, and I am due to get my first COVID-19 shot tomorrow. So I wanted to get a longer run in before the vaccination in case I have an adverse reaction to it.

I headed into Waterville and kept getting the idea that I should run my old Shaw’s Plaza – Colby Loop course. After thinking about it, I felt as though I could run that far without any problems.

So I did.

It was weird running this course that I used to do fairly regularly back in 2019. It brought back memories of a different time. Yeah, before COVID-19, when things were simpler.

The first two miles were spot on where I wanted to be, and then I started getting into the Colby Campus and slowed down a bit. As I came around the corner at the track, I saw the below scene.

It has been too long since I have been at the Colby Campus. The old fieldhouse was gone! I had to stop and take photos. It just looked so odd, and yes, it was a little sad.

Going up the hill heading back towards JFK always kicks my butt, and today was not an exception, but I didn’t feel bad going up it. I just went slower than I had been running but maintained about the same effort level.

After that, I kept focusing on landing less on my heels but quietly, keeping my cadence up, looking up, and keeping the elbows back. All those things I have been working on since reading The Lost Art of Running.

I did slow down the last mile, though, and was getting a bit tired. However, I could have gone quite a bit further if I had needed to more. During the run, I felt good, the feet didn’t bother me, and since I have deleted a few things from my diet, I seem to be having fewer gastric issues to distract me.

The New Balance Beacon 2’s did everything I wanted from them. No issues with my feet, and they didn’t get in the way. Although when I hit some areas on the side of the road, the lack of traction on the outsole was noticeable. I do like the Beacon line and will probably look at the Beacon 3 or Rebel 2 later this year when this pair wears out.

Good run, although when I looked back on my 2019 runs, I am quite a bit slower this year than I was then. That is okay, I can feel a difference in my running lately, and as long as I don’t do anything stoopid, I should be getting closer to those times at some point this year.

On the way home, I stopped and started my semi-annual running shoe purge.

Nine pairs of running shoes will find a new home and not be cluttering up the back of the garage, under my dresser, or hidden in the truck 😩. It also makes it so that I don’t keep trying to make a pair of shoes work for me that didn’t work in the past.

Getting rid of shoes cuts down the cognitive dissonance (my big words for the month) about which pair of running shoes I want to use. Those that left didn’t work for my feet or running style, and no matter what I did to keep trying to make them work…they were not going to.

A very good day indeed.