Equipment

Check the height of your arches when you shop for new running or walking shoes. If you have high arches, you usually need shoes with good shock absorption. If you have low arches, you will probably benefit from shoes with good motion control (Gait & Posture, July 2007).
When you run, you land on the outside [...]

Back in the late 80's when I first started running I vaguely recall trying to go out for a training run with a "walkman". For those of you who are under the age of 20, a walkman is a portable cassette player, and the first ones that came out were nearly the size of bricks (this was before Sony came out with that smaller, yellow sports-walkman that you could strap to your arm). Suffice it to say that the run went horribly because carrying the walkman was cumbersome and having to constantly fiddle with the buttons and wires made me miserable for the rest of the run.

OK, that was my first mistake. Now I've installed the software that comes with the RS800SD and read up on the gizmo, I realise I can't really compare this with my old Garmin. The Garmin is basically a GPS with a heart rate monitor attached. The Polar RS800 is a total running computer providing more information than, at the moment, I know what to do with. :)

We love our Garmins, yes we do: there's a Garmin Forerunner fan club among the members on this site, but... lately I've been wondering whether this trusty speed/distance and heart rate monitor is well overdue for an update.

I have a new training partner. The Forerunner 101. We went out for our inaugural run this morning and it is brilliant. He (yes, Forerunner 101 is a "he") tells me just what I want to know, pace, distance, averages. Not too many bells and whistles. He is the best partner ever! Or is he?

He also happens to be brutally honest. It turns out that my "5 mile, end at Starbucks reward loop" is in actuality 4.69 miles. Ouch!

So what do you think when a marathon bans iPods? Just noticed this news item about a Duluth marathon banning them for participants -- following a national trend. The story notes: "USA Track and Field recently enacted that ban for all sanctioned running events to increase participant safety."

Rather than a blanket ban, I think race organizers should make the decision. I ran a marathon in Fort Collins, Colorado, a couple years ago and listened to music. The race was small enough that there really was no safety issue, with runners pretty spread out not long after the start. As a 4-hour-plus runner, the music helped me keep my sanity.

On the other hand, at a really crowded race like the Bolder Boulder 10K (45,000+ runners) I can see the logic of a ban on headphones.

What do you think?

(Bobby Bostic: Did you listen to your iPod during the North Pole Marathon?)

One of these lucky folks is going to walk away with a Suunto T3 Sports Watch! Tune in on Sunday when I run the North Pole Marathon to see who won. What's interesting is the disparity between the fastest and slowest guess.. a full 3 hours and 15 minutes.

I’m searching for a pair of Night Vision Goggles for running in the dark.  I’ve found the N-Vision NVS01 Sierra Night Vision ones and the Bushnell Night Vision Goggle.  I’m looking for other suggestions for night vision goggles for running in the dark.