New running shoes

After 6 months of running in my beloved Asics 2130s, it was finally time to trade them in for a new pair. It got to the point where running in the old shoes was causing my knees to hurt. Plus they smelled like a dead animal. Since I will be doing some serious training, I wanted to go to professionals and make sure that I pick the magic pair that will get my across the finish line.

I decided to go to Road Runner Sports in Concord, CA because they have a bunch of cool toys that will analyze your feet and stride and then the helpful workers will recommend shoes for you to try. The first thing that you do is walk across a mat on the floor that identifies your points of pressure, your arch, etc. Then they put you on a treadmill and video tape you running. From this, I learned that I run toe to heel, instead of heel to toe. Apparently that is what they teach sprinters to do. But I promise that I don't sprint anywhere. For me, it is more like a shuffle. Maybe it is because I grew up playing tennis, so for that sport, you are always taught to bounce around on your toes?

Based on my results, the shoe lady recommended a Stability Plus shoe for me. Stability based on my arch and pressure points, and the Plus because I run am such a severe toe-to-heal runner. After trying on a few pairs, I decided on the Asics Gel Kayano 15s - the most expensive pair of shoes there, of course. So now that I own the best, most expensive shoes out there, there is no reason why I can't run 26 miles!

My pretty new shoes (they have a pretty design on the inside too!):