The Items that Changed My Running

I don't know if I have ever mentioned this on the blog, but I wear contacts.  I am not ashamed to admit this fact, because I have come to the realization that LOTS of people wear them!

It has been about four years since I got my first contacts exam.  This was around the time I started graduate school and had completed my first marathon. 

Here's a little "before" shot of myself in my dear old spectacles.  I've been wearing glasses since fifth grade, and had it not been for my stubbornness to NOT wear them, probably a few years sooners than that.

I didn't feel badly about my glasses until I got older.  When I was younger, they were tools for sight, but as I came out of my teenage years, I felt they made me totally unattractive. :(  How I wish that glasses were as cool back then as they seem to be now (e.g., "emo" glasses).

But to put my sight tools in my eyes was a little too much.

Running came to my rescue.  I didn't run with my glasses on (to keep them from damage and from cutting my face), so I wound up squinting a lot.  Sometimes, the bouncy blurriness of training runs gave me a little nausea, but not enough to stop me.  Finally, my sister told me that I should just get contact lenses and save myself from the trouble.  I was fearful, but then again, running had already made me become more daunting.

After some rough times of learning how to put something in my eye and not let them get too dry (lest having a hard time getting them out, yikes!), I started enjoying running even more because I could see... even better than with glasses. 

The lenses pictured above are torics, which are meant for people with high astigmatism like me (in other words, people with odd-shaped eyeballs).  They are not cheap -- like 2-3x normal contacts -- and are to be changed monthly at best.  In fact, my first year, they only had a YEARLY pair... ridiculous!!  Anyway, they were/remain worth it.