BROOKLYN, HOME OF THE UBER HIPSTERS

This morning, I ran the Brooklyn half marathon for the second year in a row. I fell in love with the race last year because I think Brooklyn is home of the hipsters and coolest people around. Besides the uber cool people, it has some of the most beautiful attractions around. Let’s start with the Brooklyn Bridge and let me brag for a moment. I am related – by marriage – to John Roebling, the engineer and builder who erected this first and oldest steel wire suspension bridge in this country. Jackis’ great aunt married Ferdinand Roebling, and in fact, Gussy Man’s name for the first day of his life was Ferdinand. We later changed his name to August on the second day of his life, realizing that he was more of a Gus than a Ferd. I drove across the Brooklyn Bridge this morning, always in awe of its beauty and never surprised that it is on the National Historic Landmark list in our country. The race starts in beautiful Prospect Park and ends with the final mile being run on the Coney Island Boardwalk where your feet pound on the boardwalk to the sites of the Cyclone rollercoaster and Nathan’s original hotdog stand.

You are probably wondering why The Mamagirl is giving you a tourist attraction lecture when what I’m really interested in are high heeled shooze. Well, let me tell you something…today, in uber cool Brooklyn, I saw my share of hip footwear. There were a handful of runners wearing the fivefingered barefoot shooze – you know, the ones that look like webbed frog’s feet. But what really caught my eye was the Amazonian lady runner who was TALL and bouncing as she ran. I craned my neck to see what she had on her feet but couldn’t see. So I sprinted through some runners to find her….and there she was. She was over 6 feet tall and running in high heels…my ultimate dream! When I came home, I immediately researched this foreign concept to find out that they are called Kangoo Jumps. They have only recently come to the east coast this spring, however I can trace them back to the west coast as early as 2008. They look like a ski boot with bindings and are set on oval springs that allow you to jump like a kangaroo. They were designed for runners to take the impact off of stress injuries to joints, such as my sore knees! Check out this video of this jumping jogging gurl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lukq3HjvYkk
They look like so much fun and I know fads are fads…but I have a feeling I’m gonna be ordering me some of those Kangoo Jumps soon. Stay tuned.

Kangoo Jumps, http://www.kangoojumps.com/