These sneakers are more beat up than they look here. Maybe I should have shown you the bottom of them.

OK, one more post that I wrote before I traveled just in case I didn’t have time to write in Chicago and need more time to process the marathon before I write about it:

[Note: As it turns out I had a huge delay flying back from Chicago so I’m glad I had this post ready to go.]

Remember way back in April when I told you about my trip to the New Balance store and then the outlet to get some sneakers?

I don’t know if it’s because these sneakers are out of production (they are version 13 and I think I saw New Balance just put out version 15) and I’m trying to get maximum use out of them, or just because they’re that comfortable for my feet or what…

But I haven’t worn another sneaker during this entire training session.

It’s been getting dicey…I can tell there’s a lot of wear on the bottom of the sneaker.

But I got to a few weeks before the marathon and I didn’t want to break in another pair and I just said we’re going with these.

So this is a new thing - usually I have a couple of pairs I’m rotating through during training and then I’ll pick one and designate them the marathon sneakers and use them on the longer runs and have them in decent shape for the final 26.2.

But this time I ignored the mileage I was racking up (I have an idea of how many miles I ran during training so I have an idea of how many miles I put on these shoes) and just kept going with the same ones.

After all of the foot issues I had last year (partly from sneakers I was wearing before I discovered these New Balances), I just didn’t want to mess around this time.

And I fully intended - remember, I bought two pairs - to mix the two pairs, keep them both at low mileage.

But I still have an untouched pair of sneakers in the box as I’ve worn these into the ground.

No blisters, no issues with my feet, with my toes - why not. (I have mixed in my old sneakers for a couple of 3-to-5-mile runs as we got closer to marathon day in an effort to slightly save these guys. But they’ve done the heavy lifting.)

So hopefully they survived marathon day - I joked they are in such worn shape they might disintegrate by mile 20.

And now I have another brand-new pair to wear through my next marathon training, if I so desire.

And I’ll have to get back to New Balance and try to find a new sneaker to take care of my feet moving forward.