The Wheel of Crotch Misfortune, Part 3 / Nu Shooz: Brooks Defyance 2

This post is long overdue. The picture has been online in a draft since May 14, waiting patiently for the text.

Early last month I visited a specialist regarding my crotch misfortunes. He gave me an intense (INTENSE!) hernia examination (I was light headed afterward) and told me exactly what I wanted to hear: “You don’t have a hernia.”

Hallelujah!

He suspected I may have strained a muscle in my groin, and said I could continue running; he didn’t think it would hurt anything. So with the green light to start pounding the concrete again, I bought new running shoes.

My crotch misfortunes, I decided, stemmed from the Defyance 3’s I bought in January. Everything started going downhill from Run 1. A half-mile into my 3’s first outing, I experienced a lot of arch pain on my right foot. The pain returned on subsequent runs, though not as severe, and eventually disappeared after two weeks. After the arch problem dissipated, though, I felt tightness in my right calf, then in the back of my right knee a few weeks later. Though not painful, it was worrisome. My crotch misfortune happened after a week of rest to let both problems work themselves out. Whatever was going on, it seemed to be making its way up my leg, and it seemed to be related to my shoes.

For months I was unwilling to point the finger at my 3’s. I’m a frugal motherfucker, so buying a new pair of $90 shoes to replace a completely good, albeit detrimental, $90 pair I just bought is counterintuitive. But I overcame the reluctance because my 3’s needed to go whether I liked it or not. So I decided to return to the comfy embrace of an old friend, the best running shoes I’ve ever owned: Defyance 2’s.

Buying a late model pair of running shoes, I found out, can be a little tricky. After trying about five different shoes at A Snail’s Pace, I decided the 2’s were far superior to anything else. One problem: the Fountain Valley store didn’t have any size 12’s in stock. They had a pair of 12.5’s, but after the blisters my oversized Saucs gave me I am very leery of buying running shoes larger than the size I was fitted to. In the chain’s database, the staff member helping me noticed the Brea store still had two pairs of 12’s in stock. He called to confirm and scheduled an intra-chain transfer. (He asked me, “Do you want just one pair or both?” Hmmmm… I probably should have bought both.) They arrived the next day and I picked them up.

After a few cautious runs before flying to IC, and one run while in Iowa (they closed the track at Bates to rebuild the home stands, and I don’t want to run neighborhoods until I move back), I have slowly been adding distance and time. There’s no way I’ll reach my former six or seven mile level before leaving California, so my long runs down by the Bolsa Chica wetlands are a thing of the past. It’s a little sad, but it had to happen at some point. However, I’ll be back to where I was in time and in a different state.

Man, it’ll suck running hills at first.