Retirement

Today is bittersweet. My new mountain bike shoes arrived, very exciting, but also sad because this means I need to retire my current shoes. It is time. They have done their job for close to 10 years. I have been using shoe glue to keep them going for over a year now. No amount of shoe glue is going to be able to save them. The tread that is left on the bottom is barely hanging on and the rest of the tread is on trails all over the west. Oh the places these shoes have taken me!

These were my first pair of mountain biking shoes. Making the ones that arrived today, my second pair. The first time I clipped in on a mountain bike was in these shoes.(for those of you that don't know, you have a cleat on the bottom of the shoe that attaches to the pedal, kinda like a binding).  Now that I realize that, I might be happy that I am putting them to rest. After all, clipping in on a mountain bike wasn't too successful for a long time. I didn't come home from a ride without another huge bruise or scar somewhere. Most of the time, I fell over because I couldn't get unclipped fast enough. (had nothing to do with my rudimentary skills and idiotic attempts to ride trails way beyond my level) I am not sure why it took me so long to master unclipping my foot on the mountain bike. I do know that I was laying on a trail still clipped in many times and had to remove the shoe from my foot in order to get up,  I couldn't get the shoe to unclip from the pedal. Boy, when I think about that, I realize that I have gotten better. I couldn't have gotten any worse.

These shoes were very comfortable. So comfortable in fact, that I ran almost 18 miles in them in my first Xterra triathlon. No, I didn't forget my running shoes. No, I didn't forget to take my bike shoes off for the run. The 18 miles was the biking leg of the race and I ran most of it pushing my bike. Yes, I was once again in way over my head! It was faster for me to run with the bike up and even down most of the hills than it was for me to ride the bike. Plus, there was that whole clipping in and out problem. No, I don't plan to run almost 100 miles pushing my bike in August at Leadville. I think that I will be able to ride at least 50 of it;)

I have done and won a 24 hour mountain biking race sporting these shoes. Yes, our team won. We were totally awesome and rocked it. Okay, we were the only team in our division. I think that all the veteran women saw our names and decided not to show up:)  But hey, a win is a win is a win!

Every great mountain bike trail and trip I have been on, these shoes have accompanied me. They have helped me climb up slick rock to check out views in Moab (the spikes on the toes were very helpful for that). We crossed logs and bridges in Whistler without losing traction. In Sedona we managed to avoid falling down when walking down Chicken rock. We made it up Heartbreak hill and down the Plunge in Maui. Oh the places we played!

Slickrock Trail in Moab

I now will limit these shoes to indoor spin classes and begin the arduous process of breaking in the new ones. Being a girl, I can't help but be excited about a new pair of shoes. They are going to look great with my bike. Yes, of course they match my bike! They might not be a new pair of Manolo Blahniks but if Carrie Bradshaw was a mountain biker, she would be so stoked for these Sidis!

Great things are going to happen with my new shoes. Hey, Leadville Trail 100-  These shoes are made for riding, and thats just what we'll do, one of these days we're gonna ride all over you!