NWR: Why I Shouldn't Be Photographed Running

NWR = Non Wedding Related. Aka, something that doesn't take up much of my time these days...

I mentioned in my last post that I was about to run a half marathon. Well, I did, and I survived. Barely. My Nike Plus pooped out on me about half way through, and my knees followed suit shortly thereafter.

If you are not yet familiar with the genius that is Nike Plus, let me enlighten you. It consists of two little doo-hickeys. One you stick on the bottom of your iPod, the other you stick in a little compartment in your Nike Plus compatible Nikes. There's a bit of a brand name monopoly here, but this is one instance where I overlook it!

The two doo-hickeys talk to each other, and send the info to your iPod screen. It tells you how long you've been running, how fast (or slow...) you are running, and how far you have run. I think of it as an outdoor treadmill, and I LOVE it. It isn't super duper accurate for distance/speed, but it is great to use to pace yourself.

So when it had a personality crisis in the middle of my race, I was left without a real way to pace myself. I think I started running too fast, and it just wrecked my whole body. My back is still killing me!

This puts a damper on my plan to fit in one more half marathon before the wedding! See how I took this from a NWR post all the way right back to wedding? I am skilled like that.

Anyhow, I really just wanted to share with all of you a secret shame: I look horrible running. This is a fact I may never have known apart from the fact that they have frickin photographers at races. Why, I know not. I could have gone my whole life, happily, uglily (is that a word?) running along, with the only clue to my freakishness being the odd random look or double take I get as I cross another runners path.

But, alas, for some reason, someone decided that runners should be photographed mid-race. Probably people who look like this when they run:
The grace, the smile, the beautiful surroundings!

Or this:
The power, the determination, the muscles!

Even from my own most recent race, cute runners abound:




Now, me? I now have photographic evidence from 2.5 half marathons that I tend to look:

Confused:




Scornful:




And anything but happy:


(even at the finish line)


See? I should not be photographed running.

Which means there will not be any pictures like these at our wedding. Even though they are totally cool:





Oh, yes, I did bring it right back to the wedding yet again. It's an illness, people. You'd better run!

On Feet, three ways, And Three Feet, one way.

Feet have suddenly taken a front burner in the oven of my life. I guess the burner would be on the stove, though. So I should say, Feet have suddenly taken a front burner in the stove of my life. But really, neither analogy makes any sense, and I'm just trying to come up with a clever way to introduce today's blog post. So just pretend you didn't read this paragraph and move on. M'Kay?

Feet are very important in my life. I use them pretty much every day. As I've aged, I've come to appreciate my feet more, and I enjoy buying them treats. And, as it turns out, my feet really enjoy two particular flavors of treat: shoes and pedicures. The pedicures are pretty self-explanatory, so today, the first of three foot-related topics is Shoes, of the wedding variety, to be specific.

1. The Wedding Shoes.
For the group of you who don't obsessively look at any and all wedding pictures you can possibly find online (which I assume consists primarily of non-brides, and non-wedding photographers), you probably don't know one of the latest photography trends: Taking pictures of The Wedding Shoes.

This falls under the "Details" section of photos, and also includes things like:

Close up shots of the decor,

Flowers and paper goods,

Cake and other food,

And the always ubiquitous (and in my opinion, creepy) Wedding Dress hanging in the window.

And it makes sense to take pictures of these details that the bride spent HOURS AGONIZING over. (I speak from experience here, people. This Bride has spent more than a few hours agonizing over minor details like font size and placement on my invitation alone.)

Seeing all the details from other weddings inspires me, and has helped me hone in on what it is that I want for my own wedding. And for the most part, the things that inspire me are simple and reasonable.

Except for the one detail that makes my little heart go pitter-patter with desire: The Wedding Shoes. Look at them!







You all know that the ("stereotypical") bride uses the wedding as an excuse to spend more money on a dress than she would ever imagine spending on any other single item of clothing. The "It's My Big Day/It's Only Once/I Deserve This" argument. I was able to avoid that particular Wedding Industry Dictate. Don't get me wrong - I still spent a fair chunk of change on the dress, but I was not about to spend 10% of my total budget on a dress.

But I'm _this_ close to caving on the shoes. It is irrational, but... for some reason, I have this horrible fear of having detail pictures of my shoes that just look ugly. The horrors!!! Can you imagine?!?

See? Even I know that sounds irrational.

But there is a little shoe lover inside me that is saying: when are you ever again going to have a chance/excuse to buy designer shoes, don't you deserve this, it is your wedding after all!

And then I look at these:


...and these:


...and these:


...and I think, "Well. I'm budgeting on lots of things. I really could afford to pay $200 for shoes. And if $200, why not $300. And if I'm going to splurge, why not really go in, and get those $500 shoes?!"

And then my feet pipe in and say: "Go ahead and buy me those beautiful shoes, they will make me look divine. But I will not take you anywhere in them. And you know they will just end up abandoned by the side of the dance floor as soon as the first dance is over. And I will be happy to return to my nice comfy sandals."

My feet are smart.

So. I will not be buying designer shoes. But that has not stopped me from agonizing for hours to find the perfect pair of shoes. Which brings me to foot-related item #2.

2. I Heart Zappos.
I spent hours going through every possible combination of shoe color, height and style that I thought would work for me. I added probably about 30 pair to my cart, then combed through them to pick my first contender:
Sofft brand (which I love, and highly recommend), brown wedges.

Totally not sexy like Louboutin, but should be comfortable. And should add enough height to me so that I won't have to have my dress hemmed! I ordered them last night.

I had ordered from Zappos before, and really appreciate their free shipping. But this time Zappos surprised me with free OVERNIGHT shipping! Which means, my shoes already came!!!

Zappos rocks my socks off!

3. The last foot issue isn't so much about feet specifically, but more about how I use my feet.

After I got engaged, I decided that I should "get fit" before the wedding. I figured I had 10 months in which to do it, so no problem. But January was already partially gone, so I could start in February. But then February was so busy at work, and I really didn't want to 'get fit' in my spare time, so I'd start in March... and so on and so on...

Then the 100 day mark hit, and I decided to take on a new challenge. I copied it actually, from another Bride to be who blogs. The 100 day challenge: 100 hours of exercise in the last 100 days leading up to the wedding. I'm only 2 hours behind so far, which really isn't that bad.

My feet are helping greatly with the challenge. I am actually running a half marathon on Sunday, which is one reason I've been able to get so many hours in!

Anyway. If anyone wants to join my challenge, let me know. We can all go party/celebrate the night before the wedding! You can join today (88 days, 88 hours) or any day you choose to. Marc is on board too, but I think he is fairly behind at this point!

And finally, at the end of a ridiculously long post, an issue that is probably the biggest of them all. The Tree Feet issue.

As those of you acquainted with me know, my family name means "Three Feet." I used to hate it - I was always at the end of the alphabet, I... Hmm. I guess the only thing I hated about it was being at the end of the alphabet.

However, I had always sworn that I would "marry up" in the alphabet. Somewhere along the line, though, I realized what an advantage it is to be at the end of the alphabet. Always last in a stack of alphabetized papers, easy to line up alphabetically, and so on. And my name is so easy, just four letters long, one syllable. My patients can say it, it is a great way to break the ice with little kids.

Now that the time has come to get married, and I am fulfilling my goal of "marrying up," I don't know if I can give up my name! It is the name I have my degree in, and my license and my board certification. Those are very meaningful to me, and hard to change.

Plus, my grandfather was a podiatrist, and known as "Doc Yard" and I like my connection to him. And my father had no sons to carry on the name.

But... I don't want to diss Marc by not taking his name. And I don't want to have a different name than any kids we may have.

This is coming to a head for me, because we are going up to S Lake Tahoe tomorrow for cake tasting (yay!!) and were thinking about getting our marriage license while we were there. It is good for 90 days, and to me it makes sense to get it now when we have the time. The form asks for our new names, though, and I'm not ready to decide!!! Thoughts??

Are you still here? Go do something!