Baby needs a new pair of shoes

I finally stopped by the Chevy Chase store on the way back from the Cranky Monkey #2 race today, and picked up a new pair of Specialized Pro Carbon shoes. My left foot felt funny for a week after the 101 and I thought maybe it was permanently damaged. It's finally feeling better but it was time to spend some money on my poor feet. I spent over an hour deciding between the size 41.5 and 42, but finally went with the 42. The 41.5 was squeezing my toes together, and if I'm going to spend 8 or 10 hours in a pair of shoes I want them to be comfortable.

The race. I wasn't expecting to do well; after all I did race for almost 11 hours last weekend. After an abysmal start where I gave up a lot of time on the leaders, I clawed my way up to 5th by the end, passing Rickyd on the last lap and barely holding him off at the line. He pushed me all the way around that last lap, and it was the fastest lap by far for both of us. Competition is a good thing. I started off feeling pretty slugish, but managed to warm up and feel a bit better for the last few laps. Usually I like climbing the hills, but I didn't have much for them today -- luckily there wasn't much in the way of elevation gain. I was really quite surprised to find out I'd finished in 5th. Actually what surprised me more was catching up to Ricky, for I didn't think I'd see the front of the pack unless they came around and lapped me. I'm quite happy with 5th place today.