Thursday, Week Two - Shoes

I was running in crap shoes. I've picked up that adjective from D. It doesn't mean I like it, but it encompasses the trailing, seeping, bleeding awfulness that was my old shoes. I've been moaning over them for months actually. Long before the running came to the forefront. Long before I started waking up dreaming about running. The inner heels were worn down, the support was non-existent, I felt like they warmly invited shin splints into my life, offering them a guest bedroom and endless crack to make them stay. I didn't like their dark-blueness. I didn't like that they hadn't taken me from huge to svelte (as they promised me on the shelf). I resented their very existence. I'd lamented them to D. more than once and had even bought them cushy soles to coax them into serviceability. Nothing worked.

But I have a new love. Oh, we're still working through our growing pains. The super exciting (and needed) "Stability Web®" crunches my mid-foot enough to make me wonder if I suddenly need extra-wides. Surely, not even my foot is fat? But then I remembered that the ex-shoes had a similar problem at first, even taking to turning my toes numb if I didn't stop to loosen my laces. This was at the beginning though, and they were quickly worn out of it. My mother always told me to buy tennis shoes that fit right off. She was all for breaking in stiff, unwieldy, leather dress shoes (ps - those don't break in so much as break your feet in), but was firmly against any sport shoe that needed adjustment. But I love these shoes, enough to live with a week or two or weird foot crunch solved by lace loosening.

They are light, bouncy and Runners World picked them as an Editor's favorite. Some reviews complain that they aren't light enough, but when you're lifting as much leg as I am, everything on your foot feels light. They even have exciting no-slip laces that work as well as any strategy I've seen, despite taking an extra second or so to tighten up. Bottom line? They make my legs feel good, my feet land right and I look forward to putting them on again.

W5 - 3.5, R5 - 4.5, W2 - 3.5, R10 - 4.3, W2 - 3.5, R15 - 4.3, W5 - 3.5, W2 - 3.0 - 46min.