Saturday run, new kicks, sponsor thoughts

I haven't posted in a while. Oops. My bad.

I did take Thursday off as scheduled, and opted to take Friday as well, so another red mark on the training plan. Saturday I ventured out and did 5 miles outdoors, as it was a wonderfully warm 40 degrees out. It is SO much nicer running outside compared to inside. Wednesday is supposed to be in the 50s! In the 50s!!

So Saturday's run was a bit icy and slushy, but I didn't mind too much. My knee felt better.. I could tell there was "something" with it, but it was fine to run on, so I did that.

Today is supposed to be in the upper 30s, and I have a 3x1 mile @ 5k pace entry in the training schedule. I brought my running clothes to work and plan to head over to a flat stretch to do my run after work. There's an old railway that was paved over to make a community walk/bike/run/rollerblade/etc path. It's pretty nice, and it's 2 miles long.

So, Friday, I got a package in the mail! I love getting mail. Who doesn't? (Apart from bills and such, of course). Packages are even better!



It's my shoes from my my sponsor, New Balance of Harrisburg.

I owe them a real shoe review, but I'll wait until I get some miles in them before doing it. In the meantime, here's my impression.

The shoes are awesome. They're what I was hoping for. I've never ordered shoes online due to my foot being an awful beast to fit. The foot shape runs in the family, too. New Balance traditionally runs pretty much the same from shoe to shoe, fit-wise, so I risked it and lucked out. I put them on, and they seem good. (They're the 992s, BTW)

The website for NB of Harrisburg was nice. Easy to find shoes by size, type, etc. I have no beef there..

The ordering process though.. wow. I generally create a one-time use credit card number for ordering through new companies. (It's legit, it's not like I'm just making the number up off the top of my head). Well, after a number of "transaction failed" messages that were extremely vague, the transaction goes through. Woot! The next day, I get a message about the order being canceled due to inventory availability.

OK.. So, I try again, with a different pair of shoes. Same deal. I sent an e-mail to their sales department.. no answer.

Okaay. I went ahead and tried a third time. At this point, I'm thinking of the old Monty Python 'Cheese Shop' sketch.. do you in fact have any shoes in this store?

So, I called them up, and it turns out my card wasn't getting approved. Odd, but OK. I did ask, and they had stock for my original choice, so I decided I'd go back to trying that.

I broke down, tried again with my real CC number. Same deal. WTF.

On my final try, I went with a different type of credit card, and it worked.

What is up with that? I was using a MasterCard.. I also went and looked online, and it appears that some of those transactions showed up on the card, so now I need to see if the credit appears, or if I'll have to do the whole dispute process. Not a big deal, because it's still a much cheaper pair of shoes, but still.

So, all in all.. Good shoes, good website, good phone customer service.. Email customer service and billing needs a bit of work.

I am stoked to trying a new pair of shoes, though.

So, this week is the aforementioned speedwork, a XT day on the bike (changing the schedule), a 5 miler, a 3 miler, and then.. a 15! Woot! Personal distance record, provided I get it done. Looking forward to it..

Keep on rockin'!