New Running Shoes!

Yesterday I went to my local running shore to go through their “fit process” for new running shoes. With 9 weeks left of training and increased mileage I knew it was time. I do plan on running the actual Marathon in my Brooks Racers, but I needed a new training shoe. 

I pretty much have befriend the 2 guys who manage the store so we got right into shooting the shit. I talked about how my feet are a crazy size and how I’ve been happy with my Nike Pegasus and previous Nike Max Moto + as well as my Brooks Racers. 

First they had me get on the treadmill and filmed by feet for 30 seconds once I got to a comfortable pace. I was “horrified” to learn and see from the video that I overpronate – especially on my right foot. Overpronation is basically how your foot strikes the ground then lifts back up. The inside of my feet hit the ground first and the outside of my foot hits second (lifts first). He also talked about how overpronating affects your Achilles. Ideally you want your want the middle of your shoes to be aligned with your Achilles tendon when running.

I somewhat perplexed the guys who work their since my Nikes are neutral shoes, but my Brooks are structured. They were caution to change too much since my Nikes are working for me (no injuries/issues) as my main trainers. They agreed that some light structure would be best for me at this point and my overpronation.

I tried on a bunch of shoes. Ascics, Saucony, Mizuno and Brooks. I liked both the Mizuno and Brooks, but the Brooks were prettier. I was driving the guys crazy with my aesthetic needs for my shoes (aka I didn’t want any red and black combos which there were a lot of). 

Due to the size of my feet I can wear mens or womens. However they (and most stores – the guys joked that don’t carry 11.5s because they like big footed woman and want them to have to come back to the store for them when they ship haha) only carried up to a women’s 11 and they were a touch too snug (which I knew). I didn’t like the aesthetics of any of my options for mens shoes, so I went with the Brooks Ravenna 2, but had to order an 11.5 womens. I have been happy with my Brooks Racers, so why change up from a company that I’m happy with. 

One thing that was cool when I was trying on the Ascics and had some complaints of how my heel was sitting in them one of the guys showed a “trick” to how he ties shoes sometimes to help with heel support. It’s hard to explain, but basically you loop the lace around itself on each side and pull before you tie them. 

I hope when I go back for my new kicks once they arrive that I can get filmed running on the treadmill with them again. I was a touch nervous the first time I ran too, so I want to make sure my running is as accurate as possible. 

Running people are so interesting. I wish I had more hardcore runners to “talk shop” with in person.