I must say that the last two weeks have been incredibly successful as far as running as goes. I ran an amazing 15K before the holidays and received an un-asked for pair of Vibram Five Finger KSOs for Christmas.

The 15K was a complete crap shoot. I switched to Nike Frees maybe six weeks before the race and subsequently did no long runs in them. However, after a failed race in my old shoes I put them away for good and fully committed to the Frees and all that that entails. To my suprise the combination of the new shoes and not training at all worked out really well. I ran 9.3 miles in 1:21.46 with a split of 8:47 min/mi, which is the fastest I’ve run any race over 5 miles. Additionally, I really had no idea I was running that quickly during the actual race. I have no idea if I just managed to maintain my fitness level from the marathon somehow or if the shoes had something to with it, but it was a nice holiday surprise.

The Vibram KSOs were the best present I received. I had wanted to try a pair, but didn’t want to shell out the $85. I also decided not to ask for a pair for Christmas, but my Dad randomly talked to some random colleague who did yoga in them and though that maybe his daughter would like a pair. And you know what? She did.

I roped my friend Kate into going on a run with me and did not disclose my new footware because they look pretty weird and I didn’t want to go run our alone in them for some reason. Anyway, I was nervous about the run because the guy at the store (I had to exchange them for a different size) advised me to just go for walks in them at first. Yeah, right. So, on my way to the park, I figured I should walk to warm up. Well, it was freezing outside so by the time I got the entrance I just started running. It wasn’t weird or painful at all. If anything it just felt like I was better at running and I would never get tired. So Kate and I did our two mile loop and toward the end the balls of my feet were getting a bit sore, but I made it home hoping against hope that the pain wouldn’t worsen. And you know what? It didn’t. So, I’ve now planned to do my weekly short run in the Vibrams and go from there.

So, right now, my life as a runner is going particularly well. Better than it ever has actually, so here’s to hoping things continue that way. Happy 2010!