Mason the Unicorn

This is the cutest unicorn I have ever seen!

Ah, the dreaded running shoe is in the photo, boy do I have a story to go along with that darn thing. If only for posterity sake, here it is.....

About 18 months ago, I bought running shoes, $100.00 running shoes. I loved those things. I started training for a marathon last year in them, and put a lot of miles on those shoes. This past summer, I noticed those shoes were worn out and it was time to buy some new ones. But this time instead of spending $100.00 on running shoes, I thought I would buy the cheaper version at Kohl's. There were much cheaper and they were the same brand of shoe that I had been wearing, so I thought, "what could be the difference?" Well, about two months after wearing these shoes in the above picture, the right side of my right foot started hurting pretty badly. I was just hired on at the gym to teach a spin class at the same time. I really did not know what to do. I could not not teach my spin class, (which by the way, I really, really love doing, and I'm so grateful to Mike for supporting me in what it took to get me to this point) because I was just hired and needed to do it, but I was so worried about my foot. I went and had an x-ray a week later, and luckily, nothing was broken. Thank goodness.

So, I was sent home with some medicine to help with the pain, and instructions that if it did not feel better in a week to two, to go and see a podiatrist. Well, the pain did not go away, so I went to see the foot doctor. He did not know what was wrong, and gave me a cortisone shot, and sent me on my way. Well, that did not work either, so two weeks, three co-pays and $200.00 later, my foot was still hurting. The third time, I was put in a boot, which, now, I realize was probably not necessary. So, in October, I stopped exercising all together. I did not teach spin for two weeks, or did anything at all.

I have come to realize that exercise helps me cope with life. It really is an outlet for me. I was at the point where if I did not exercise for at least an hour a day, I really felt it. Not working out has been really hard for me to do. I was really in a good routine. Up by 4:30 in the morning, work out for at least an hour, sometimes longer, and home in time to get the kids up for school.

The first week I did not exercise, I was really angry & depressed. I realized it was because I was not exercising, and had to find other ways to cope. I'm glad I realized it because it helped me to do better.

It has now been three weeks. I taught my Halloween spin class last week, and had so much fun. It was great to be back on the bike. I loved every single minute of it. After almost three weeks of just about nothing, it felt really good, 600 calories burned good. I do end up burning a lot more calories when I teach, which has to do with the adrenaline of teaching anyway. But, it just felt great.

On Monday, I ran outside for about 30 minutes, and that felt great too. I have not done anything the rest of the week. Mike has been out of town, which makes it difficult to fit anything in. That is why I wake up so early, so I can exercise before the kids get up. My foot still hurts. I refuse to go back to the foot doctor. Luckily, after my class last week, I was talking to a girl who works in Sport Medicine. She referred me to her clinic, where they do free sports evaluations. I have an appointment next week, and hopefully they will be able to help me. When I told her what my symptoms were, she said it sounds like I have "peronial tendonosis". I just want the pain to go away so I can start running again. I'll be running on a Ragnar relay team in June of next year, so I need to get better.

So, I'm blaming the cheap running shoes for my foot problem. The girl who I spoke to after class asked me about my shoes, and when I told her, she nodded her head, like that was probably the problem.

You thought that was the end of the story of the running shoes, but Oh, No, it gets better.

Knowing what a fabulous return policy Kohl's has, I thought I would just return the shoes, and get my money back so I could put the money toward some new $100.00 running shoes. After looking at the shoes, they still really did look brand new, and I was not satisfied with them at all.

So, I took them back to the store. The only question the lady at the store asked me was if I wanted in store credit, or if I wanted it to go back on my card. Because I wanted to get the money back, I told her to put it back on my card. After a week of checking our bank account, and not seeing the return credit, I realized that the card I had her charge it back to was an account that we closed in September (that is a whole other story too, but I won't go into that here). We went back to our credit union and closed all of our accounts with our bank. I had a sinking feeling when I realized that. I was very surprised that the credit was not declined when I had them charge it back at the store. I wish it would have been, it would have saved me a lot of running around. But my thought was, "really, how hard could this be, can't they just look it up, and see that it was declined and give me my money back?" If I had only known what was to come next........

I went back to the store, with my receipt in hand, and was told there was nothing the store could do and that I would have to call my bank. Of course when I called the bank, they said the credit would have been declined because the account was closed, and there was no where for the money to go. My thoughts exactly. I knew that is what they would say.

So, after several calls between the bank and the store, I finally found someone in the customer service department at Kohl's who was actually interested in helping me solve my problem. You see, Kohl's had my shoes and my money, and I really wanted my money back. So, I went to the bank, and got a letter from them stating that the account was closed. I came home, called the store, talked to a manager, and then went to the store and talked directly to her, and she gave me my money back. I was so grateful for her help. I really would not have gone through all of this trouble if I was trying to pull one over on the store. I love Kohl's. I love to shop there. I'm always tempted to apply for one of their charge cards every time I go, but that would be breaking my own promise that I made to myself. They do send me great emails with discounts, so I use those instead. I will continue to shop there, after all, this issue was my fault, not theirs.

Ahh, so there is my story about those darn running shoes in this picture. I now have my $100.00 running shoes again, and I vow never to buy cheap running shoes again, it's just not worth it!