Sunday, we met Sloan (dietician and running trainer) at Runner's World at 46th & Peoria. There, we met Kathy from Runner's World and we gave her our challege: Get Chuck into shoes that will properly equip him to begin training toward the 5 or 10K in the Route 66 Marathon. (oh yeah, and he's never run before, has lymphodema in one leg and had a heart transplant...no problem!)

Kathy was up for the challenge and began an assessment on my feet and how I walk. Congratulations to me, because she said I was a Double Whammy with my feet rolling to the outside and inside as I walked! I needed good support and cushion. She disappeared and came back w/ a mountain of shoes and began lacing me up in one pair, then sent me out to "take them for a test drive (walk)" Out onto the sidewalk I paced, then returned to the store, answered some questions about how they felt. Kathy then fitted another pair and sent me to compare it to the other. I didn't know there could be so many variences in running shoes!! After a dozen or more fittings, we finally narrowed it down to the best shoe for me. I couldn't believe that someone would give me that much attention when getting the right shoe! What a difference it was from my regular shoe shopping experience! Thank you Kathy and Runner's World! They took care of us in more ways than one and we are very grateful!

This morning, I couldn't wait to put the shoes on and start my conditioning walk at 5:30! As the Johnny Cash song says " These shoes are made for walking"...and running. Look out Route 66, here we come!