Small Businesses rock

I have been complaining about my Garmin 310xt that I wear when I exercise. It is a watch that tracks my heart rate, maps my activities and times said events. It has started acting up lately and I was loosing faith in the numbers it was providing post workout. Yesterday I went to First Place Sports to sign up for the Outback Half Marathon on Thanksgiving day. I was asking if they knew what I should do about my garmin. I was told to bring it back in and they would exchange it for a new one. You just gotta love when a business stands behind a product like that. Replacement of my garmin was not what I was looking for when explaining the problem. But I have to say it made me feel really good about First Place Sports. And the new unit seems to have taken care of the problem.

Thanks Guys,

Pumpkin Run Race Day

This morning I ran in the Pumpkin Run. It is a large race there were probably 800- 900 people there. I did the 5k (3.1 miles) portion of the race. They also had a 10 mile course. The race is held at Evergreen Cemetery . It is a large very old cemetery. We were able to run the whole race on their property. Of course it was a couple of loops around. But that just let me see the leaders of the race a couple times.

I am standing right in the middle smiling. I was pretty far back in the pack waiting for the start. When the gun went off everyone started working their way to the start line and then running once they got a little room. 
Here you can see one of the pumpkins that was lining the course. There were lots of them around. And they were giving them away after the race. I even saw one guy carrying one out on the race course. 

I was really close to the finish line at this point. I was very happy to see the line. The weather was kind of cool this morning. Of course I warmed right up as soon as I started running. Tami and the kids came out to support me in the race. Tami took all the pictures. This was the largest race I have done so far. I had fun doing the race and was very happy to complete it. I was very impressed with the people who did the 10 mile course. We were sitting at the 6 mile mark watching, Most of the racers looked to be doing very well. I have quite a ways to go to get to that point. First place sports ran the race and they did a very good job. They even posted results for the race about 15 minutes after people were finishing. Everything was very organized. They had trophies that were passed out about 20 minutes after that last finisher. 

new Shoes

These are my new running shoes. They are New Balance 1224's I actually bought these at a shoe store for runners. I bought them at First Place sports (Baymeadows Store). They were quite busy on the Saturday afternoon when I went in. But they got to me pretty quickly. Then they fitted me for my shoes. The guy (Thanks J J) that helped had me walk around so he could look at how my feet hit the ground. Then he measured my feet. Then he went and got 3 different pairs of shoes. I tried them all on and was able to go walk on a treadmill for a few minutes. I also walked around the store. This was the best shoe buying experience I have every had buying a pair of shoes. Yesterday I took them out for the first run. The kids and I are doing the run/walk thing trying to build up our endurance. These shoes were very comfortable right out of the box. I also bought some fancy new socks. I ran 2 miles and other then being a little winded, My feet felt great. I am looking forward to putting many miles on these shoes. Did I mention I am training for the Half Marathon in February?