New Walking Shoes

I bought some new walking shoes for my training period for walking the half-marathon in May. I have needed some new tennis shoes for a while but have been putting it off. I was blessed to be able to find a pair of shoes that are very comfortable, were on sale, and are actually not too hideous.
As I went on my first walk in my new shoes this morning, I began thinking about what life lessons these new shoes might teach me. Here's what I came up with:

• It's important to have good support along your journey. My old shoes were really worn out. The souls were worn and cracked in places. I didn't realize how bad they were until I stopped to take a look at them. When I walked for the first time in my new shoes I felt the difference right away. I had support that I was missing before with my old shoes.
• The path to change begins with the first step. I have decided to prepare for walking in the half-marathon to improve my health. In order to be successful in this I have to start now to prepare for marathon day. It all began this morning with my first step.
• It's easy to get comfortable with things that really aren't good for you. I really liked my old walking shoes. I bought them right after I moved to Tennessee and they were comfortable. However, they were really not giving me the support I needed. In fact, I had a real problem with what I think were shin splints when I tried to walk for the past month. I did some reading on the Internet about it and I learned that shin splints can be caused by not wearing good shoes that give you proper support. What I realized is that my old comfortable shoes could really be doing my body harm and I needed to let them go.
• It's fun to get new shoes. When I was growing up, I had a lot of problems finding shoes that fit. I inherited some very funky feet. I've often said that they look like Fred Flintstone's feet or after I saw the Lord of the Rings movies: Hobbit feet. In addition to having two webbed toes on each foot, I have a very high instep and very wide feet. In fact, I had go to Syracuse, Indiana to shoe store that specialized in hard-to-find sizes. I always loved the special attention that the store employees would give to me when I was fitted for shoes. Even though most shoes stores don't give customers the attention they once did, I still like getting new shoes.

So, I feel like I'm off to a good start with my new shoes. I am hoping that they will help me to accomplish my goal of finishing the half-marathon.
Thanks for being a part of my journey!