There are those vibram five fingers things that the barefoot runners talk about using when they discuss it here on RA. They sound like rubber sandal like things. I'd be afraid of the general tendency of glass to get blown off of the road onto the shoulders, where I often run.

I've been looking at some of the photos put up today on Marathon Foto. My running form is just as merry as ever with some disappointing hand movement. There are one or two decent ones I like, but I'm crossing my fingers that the remaining 66% of photos yet to be posted will include more of me. Rick's form looks pretty spectacular in most of his. Alden looks happy in many of his. A good bonus to doing the marathon is that more photos get taken of you! I don't remember anyone else's bib numbers off the top of my head, so I'll have to look at theirs later. Gross 275 Dowgiallo 3648 Schaffer 5279

You can click "Buy" and then click the next thumbnail it shows and then you can see it big with text across it.

I'll be at the CBRC meeting tonight. I felt a little bad a couple of weeks ago when I went to DR's race. It turns out CBRC was doing the finish line, but I was there milling about not doing anything productive.

I think the line is crossed when people go around wearing Under Armor apparel that's hardly athletic in completely unathletic situations. You know, like the pudgy guy who comes into the office wearing a polo shirt that proudly displays the UA symbol.

This is funny to me. I traditionally never bothered with any gear that was a name brand or hip in any way. I wore name brand shoes, but didn't care that it was a newer model or anything like that. I went through most of high school and college wearing 100% cotton shirts, mesh shorts, and 100% cotton socks. I had a stopwatch that at times did not have a face on it. I accepted inconveniences as a part of the sport. Advances in sports gear came along without me really understanding the point. Much of it seemed impractical to me and I hold to this day that much of it does not actually work. For example, I own a shirt that is not supposed to chafe, except they made it look more form fitting by adding a seam that goes just to the side of each nipple, which basically means a whole new type of chafing is caused by it. Some socks are designed to not cause friction or to keep your foot dry, but what that doesn't tell you is that your foot might slip in your shoe (no blisters because there's no friction!) or your foot drying out and requiring moisturizer (kept the foot dry all right!). I was at Target this past week looking for running clothes and concluded half of the sportswear was actually designed to be fashionable, but not functional. I've been trying more name brand running gear and so far I have been mostly impressed. My favorite shorts are C9 and I did not realize this at the time I bought them, because I did not know brands and just thought they seemed like they might work well. I started to get a few race shirts that I found were a cotton/polyester hybrid and I really liked those shirts. I have since come around to thinking much of this stuff is pretty darn good. I stumbled across an UnderArmour store in the Annapolis Mall. The stuff there is insanely expensive. I'm not likely to ever buy it. I've found that stores like Marshalls will sometimes have Nike or other name brand items on clearance, though. It's not always the right size or what you would normally pick out, but there can be some good deals. Phil has accumulated a few good discount shirts and I've added one or two to my collection. This has become my current strategy for getting good gear-- just check clearance areas in case something good happens to be there. I have to say that running on the NCR trail was very different from most of my running. The norm was for people to get out of the way and to say if they were coming from behind. The norm down here is people see each other, general confusion ensues, and you say hello to the person. I'm accustomed to the latter, so I keep my expectations pretty low for other people and instead place most of my concern on whether they have a kind demeanor.

I found your article somewhat educational. Plus, as a Maryland grad, I enjoy the topic! P.S. That site looks way more reputable than the one I contributed to.