Screw Them Shoes!

I’ll be getting to my Moab Red Hot 33K performance shortly, but I first wanted to bring up the concept of screw shoes. These are a pair of ordinary-looking running shoes fitted with a series of sheet metal screws. The screws help runners through the late winter season when the snow melts during the day and turns to ice on cold nights. The most thorough description of this process can be found on Matt Carpenter’s informative site. I’ve been meaning to do this for weeks and keep forgetting until I’m dressed for a run and don’t want to take the time to mess with my shoes. However, I’ve paid dearly with increasingly painful falls. I was doing a recovery run last night at a mellow pace on my usual dirt road route. About four inches of powder had fallen throughout the day, obscuring any hazards underneath. I was almost at the end of the out-and-back when I saw the dogs start to lose their traction. By the time I saw the underlying ice it was too late, and both feet flew out from under me. The fall resulted in two throbbing elbows and a busted headlamp, and I lay there cussing at myself, writhing in pain before gathering my composure and continuing on. One of my dogs, Pickle, showed some innate concern and came over to see if I was OK, not used to viewing her master in this horizontal display. Once I returned to the house, I was horrified to discover that my overshirt was soaked in blood from the right elbow down, and Aspen quickly ushered me over to the kitchen sink, where I hesitantly removed the garment. Fortunately, it was a puncture wound, and my elbow didn’t need stitches, but the sheer amount of blood was a bit disconcerting. Nevertheless, today, as I sit here bumping said elbow on various things in my office, I humbly accept the ‘I Told You Sos’ from my good buddy, Dave, who’s been bugging me to screw my shoes for weeks. I finally get the picture, man.