One of the great things about running is that it is a very “pure” sport. Unlike cycling, it’s not a sport where you can buy yourself seconds or minutes by upgrading your wheels, or purchasing more aerodynamic helmets or bikes. To compete, all you really need are a pair of running shoes! However, every now and then we put enough miles on our shoes and have to drag ourselves to the store to get a new pair. Even though my shoes have only 150 miles on them (I’ve read that you should get new shoes after 300-400 miles on average), I’ve had them for over 4 years, and have been experiencing some shin splints. Since I’m really getting back on track with running, I figured a new pair of shoes might be in order.

To remedy this problem, I headed down to Big Peach Running Co. to be fitted for shoes. I was debated going to another local running store, Phidippides, but since they close at 6pm I have a hard time making it to the store. Once I arrived at Big Peach, I was immediately met and helped by an employee. I was very impressed with their process for getting me into new shoes.

First, I stepped on a device that looked like a scale, which was used to perform a digital analysis on my foot. After standing on it for a few seconds a digital mapping of my foot was displayed on the screen above me. Using this image, they were able to determine that I have high arches. Good to know! The next step was to hop on a treadmill and take a video of me running in “neutral shoes”. Before running, we looked at some sample videos to see what we were looking for. They had examples of good form, over prontation (rolling foot inward) and under pronation (rolling foot outward). I ran for about 30 seconds and hopped off and we took a look at the video. It was fairly evident that I had over pronation, which the employee confirmed. Also worth noting, it appeared from the video I was landing fairly flat footed with each foot strike. The employee didn’t say anything about this but I was paying closer attention to that than I was the pronation!

With all that information, the employee went to the back to pick out some shoes for me to try on. He came back with a pair of Adidas, a pair of Asics, a pair of Mizuno, and one other brand which I already can’t remember! All of these shoes had more support on the inside of the foot, which should help counter balance my tendency to roll my foot inwards. I immediately ruled out the Adidas as they felt too narrow for my foot, and I ruled out the other brand quickly too, leaving me with the Asics and the Mizuno. The Asics immediately felt comfortable to me and very supportive (my every day / work shoes are Asics as well). The Mizuno felt a bit different, and I was having a hard time determining whether it was a good or bad different. After jogging in both of them a few times, I decided to go with the familiarity and the comfort of the Asics, and checked out with my new pair of Asics GT-2140 shoes!

I took them out for a run immediately after getting home and they felt great. I shouldn’t have any problems breaking them in, and look forward to running them into the ground the rest of the year! Now I have all the tools I need to begin training for whatever distance I set my mind to.