Literally.
The Wife and I went to an actual running store and bought actual running shoes yesterday, so that we might continue our attempts at jogging with perhaps a bit less agony. Given that I haven’t called myself a “runner” since high school, and The Wife never has, we popped into our local Road Runner store to take full advantage of their know-how on the subject.
I had gone in with a strong recommendation from my mother, whose duck feet I was dubiously fortunate enough to inherit, so I told our friendly shoe salesman that I needed to try on a pair of Brooks Beasts and that my dear spouse might need a bit more help in finding the right gear since she’s a former ballerina and nobody really understands what’s going on with her feet.
So, he took her over to stand on a pressure pad and found out she’s much more “normal” than any of us expected. She tried on three different pairs and settled on a pair of Nike Zoom Structures that felt “like little hugs for my feet!”
Meanwhile, I wasn’t so sure about the Beasts. This is typical of me. I can never tell if a shoe feels right. Mostly they just never feel all that great to me, but in particular, I have had so many shoes seem fine in the store only to be totally wrong when I get them home. Luckily Road Runner offers a guarantee for just such issues.
Anyway, I was hemming and hawing a bit. I thought maybe I should stand on the pad or whatever, too, in case anything mysterious would be revealed. Once I stood up in my socks and showed our guy how my feet roll inward, though, he said there was no mystery about that at all. And so I tried on a couple other pairs from Asics and Saucony. I ended up on the treadmill which showed my left ankle trying its level best to buckle in a direction that just isn’t normal (”We generally want to try to get that a bit straighter, but I think that’s as good as you get…” said my new friend with a baffled shrug.), but also revealed that I straighten my stride out fairly well by the time I push off. Good for me. In fact, we were both happy that nobody looked at us and screamed “What in the world are you doing trying to run?!”
Long story longer: The Beast felt the best of the shoes I tried on, and with some adjustments of the lacing pattern I was mostly able to get it to feel alright in the areas that were questionable.
Now it’s just a matter of getting out there more than once or twice a week… (At least the days are starting to get longer.)
I never went through that much effort to pick shoes. I rock Asics and they work for me. I used to wear Nike and had all sorts of knee and shin problems (pre-accident) that disappeared as soon as I switched.
My feet really do fall on the edge of the “why the hell are you even trying?!” line, so I’m glad I went through the extra effort. I can do myself a lot of disservice by just picking a shoe off the shelf.
Silly wabbit. Shoes NEVER feel good on feet like ours. You get the shoe that’s closest to an orthopedic brace and go for it! Good luck and godspeed.
Goddamn. Didn’t realize you kids were like Chinese women with bound feet.
My wife can’t rock the Nikes either due to hip, shin issues. She has since only bought two types of running shoes; Sauconys or Asics and said issues disappeared.
Myself? I could run barefoot like a Kenyan marathoner. Never had issues with my feet or shoes.
The Wife has the bound feet (literally).
Mine are more like “completely unbound”. They flop around at the end of my legs like catfish on the line.