Per aspera ad astra

I am officially a Master (of Education)! I finished my program through University of Illinois at the end of May and- while I love school- am glad to be done.

To congratulate me, my wonderful aunt & uncle sent me a package with some shirts from Kohl’s and some funds to cover a purchase I’ve needed to make for a long time: new running shoes. To put things in perspective, I bought my first running shoes when I started back in…. June 2009. Since then, I’ve run fairly regularly in all types of weather- including two 5Ks and the BolderBoulder. Those shoes were a relative splurge for me, but nothing fancy- a solid pair of Asics that helped me enjoy every mile.

Now that I love running and have upped my mileage (though with the Houston summer, it’s more treadmill mileage than anything else), I decided to go to an actual running store and try on a few brands. I sampled some New Balance, Nike, Adidas… but ended up returning to good old Asics.

Here they are- my shiny, lovely Asics GEL-Kayano 16s!

I’ve run with them a few times now and am still adjusting, but having shoes with traction again is great.

As for the shirts, sadly they weren’t the right fit and my local Kohl’s didn’t have the right sizes, so I used the store credit to pick up a few necessary camis, socks, and (in keeping with the shoe theme) a pair of gladiator sandals. I’d been inspired by the pair Cara blogged about and got a fairly similar pair. Success all around- thanks Barb & Don!