Welcome to the Family

[Edited to add: if you're not interested in my Pace Glove obsession, feel free to move right along. You've been warned!!]

Workout: rest

On this my rest day, I took a walk in my old Pace Gloves.

Wait, did I say old? I mean NEW PACE GLOVES!!! 

[I just got a very strong urge to stand up and tell you that "YOU GET A PACE GLOVE! YOU GET A PACE GLOVE! WE ALL GET PACE GLOVES!" Oprah-style but alas, no]

My knees are FREAKING ME OUT in this picture, mostly because they're fifty shades (heh) darker than the bottom of my legs. Even after hours spent attempting to even out my compression sock tan, this is what I'm stuck with.

To understand this sudden buy, let's back up a bit.

One day, I woke up and realized everything I own is purple.

Wait, let's back up even more.

One day, I woke up and realized everything I owned was black, white, grey, and nature-colored (navy, forest green, etc.). I needed an injection of color into my wardrobe and decided that of the brighter options available, purple was the least offensive. I bought myself a purple t-shirt and sweatshirt and called it good.

Well, I guess people who give gifts decided I'm dashingly handsome in purple clothing, because suddenly I was drowning in it. At times this past winter I could be found wearing purple Michelin Man shoes, a heavily purple-accented down jacket, and a purple shirt/whatever to really tie it all together and cement my status as crazy resident Grimace (THAT'S what that thing's called?!).

The breaking point came when an acquaintance called me a "vision in purple." Shit, they're onto me! I immediately took to the internet to find something bright and, most importantly, not purple. A frighteningly easy task, I might add. The internet's a crazy place.

Since I'm too obsessed with running, I immediately googled Pace Gloves so I could see if Merrell had come out with any new and interesting colors. Before I clicked on the website, however, the phrase "Pace Glove 2" caught my eye. "Whatever could this mean?!" I exclaimed.

What it means is that Merrell has ruined the Pace Glove forever the Pace Glove got a makeover!

Apparently Merrell did a pretty good job of listening to user feedback and keeping the new model largely unchanged. However, the main difference seems to be that they made them longer, and based on the reviews I read this longer fit makes the shoes looser on the foot. This is the very last thing I want. One of the things I love most about Pace Gloves is how closely they hug my foot. They're not uncomfortably tight and there's actually a lot more room in the toebox than most other shoes, but they feel very much glued to your feet (I promise "glued to your feet" is a pleasant and not terrifying feeling).

Also, the new color schemes are vomit-inducing.

So on the verge of panic, I started scouring the internet for size 8 Pace Gloves. Seems that's a very popular size, so my color options were limited.

See if you can spot the new addition!

Recovering purple-holic

The orangies are my new Pace Gloves.

Before you go and ask, "but Jeano, two-thirds of your Pace Gloves are still purple! Are you going to remedy this?", the answer is YES. Because I bought another pair. Blue and red. Coming soon to a Jeano near you. At $60 a pop, I couldn't resist (it turns out Ebay is a wonderful thing).

The timing of this purchase is fortuitous since I'm running a marathon in a week at a half and the traction's starting to wear off my most current pair.

The shoe on the left is my oldest pair. Snow running spared my current pair, but you can never have too much traction, right? Don't answer that.

I may still wear my current shoes for the race because they're a lot softer than the new pair, but we'll see how the new guys fare this week.

Questions:

• When was the last time you bought new shoes?
• Have you stocked up on a specific shoe that's been replaced by a newer version?
• Have you ever woken up and realized everything you own is the same color? My other color obsession was orange when I was in middle school and high school. Seems I'm falling back into my old ways.