or these.....
but these......
I met with The Puppeteer on Tuesday and she took one look at my running shoes before essentially calling me a frickin' moron and telling me to replace them!
When I statred this endurance sports oddessy I bought myself some Nike shoes that were comfortable enough but seemed to wear really quickly on the outside of each heel. I had a feeling that they might have been contributing to some knee discomfort that I was having, so I went to Bull City Running in Durham http://www.bullcityrunning.com/ to get properly fitted. The guys there did a great job - measured my (wide) feet, examined my running style and watched me run in numerous pairs of shoes before we finally settled on my trusty New Balance 769s. They have been great and have seen me through two half marathons and a lot of training but, as The Puppeteer quickly realised, they have now seen better days and are also showing wear in the same place that my Nikes used to, so after my 12 miler on Tuesday I headed back to Bull City Running with two objectives...
1. Get a pair of general utility shoes to replace the New Balance 769s.
2. Find an additional pair of lighter shoes (as recommended by The Puppeteer) to use for shorter races.
Objective number one was pretty easy to achieve as I used the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra and went for the latest New Balance equivalent of the 769s - the 760 ST (in blue in place of yellow). Basically a very similar shoe that immediately felt very comfortable. Cha-ching! Ring 'em up!
For the lighter shoe I was specifically instructed not to get racing flats. I tried on a lot of different shoes, including Mizunos, Nikes, Sauconys etc. before finally settling on a natty orange and blue pair of Brooks Racer ST 5s. The ultimate deciding criteria was comfort for my "big old wide" feet. Jason Page ( the owner) at Bull City Running was meticulous and in the end the rounder toe of the Brooks shoe won the day.
Will these shoes make me faster? Probably not. But will they help reduce injuries and keep me healthy? Absolutely!
Here are a few shots showing the wear on the old New Balances and comparison vs. the new ones......
Looking forward to putting some miles on these babies! Now all that is left is to donate the old ones to the charity box at BCR for donation - a great cause!
No comments:
Post a Comment