Shoes speak louder than words ..

It’s not a big secret that I have a thing for shoes – or should I say shoes that don’t have high heels ..

In fact I “found” my first husband because he walked into where I was training and had on AMAZING shoes, it probably also helped that he had nice legs.

However, considering I’m onto husband number two, perhaps “has amazing shoes” should not be a deciding factor when selecting a suitor.

In fact James has the WORST taste in shoes EVER and I mean EVER, it took me years to “accidentally” misplace those skateboard shoes he purchased when he was about 12 and refused to throw away because they had tonnes of wear left in them and don’t get me started on his shirts …

BUT I’ll leave that for another day because this blog post isn’t about husbands it’s about the other love of my life .. shoes!

At the end of last week I walked into the Shoe Clinic on Ponsonby Road with a completely open mind and stated “I’d like you to fit me for a new pair of running shoes please”.

I was asked what shoe I currently wore and how often I ran, then I was asked to stand bare foot and move my feet in certain directions to see what happened to my arches and finally I did a single leg squat to see how my knees tracked, which was followed up with walking/jogging (still barefoot) on a treadmill.  Finally I slipped into the socks I wear when I run and each foot was measured for length and width.

Once all that was done he  said “I recommend the Asics Nimbus” well honestly, my heart sank,  I hate Asics, they look like netball shoes and because I’m used to running on air I had always found the cushioning well not very cushioney.

HOWEVER, I reminded myself that I’d come here with an open mind and these people were the professionals and if I was supposed to be running in ugly netball shoes – then an ugly netball shoe it will be!  It was explained to me that these shoes were very much like the shoes I currently run in (so I shouldn’t notice too much difference) but they had much better cushioning through the area of the shoe that I always find gives way on the Pegasus which renders them pretty much useless within months.

So with as much enthusiasm as I could muster I slipped the fugly shoes on and jumped back on the treadmill so they could see how everything tracked whilst wearing the shoes they had selected for me.

Well with my hand on my heart I would sincerely like to apologise to these shoes that I had “palmed off” because although you are beyond fugly you are soft and squishy and cuddle my feet “just right” and I promise I will never to say anything bad about your species ever again ..

I’ve now run 26k’s in these shoes in the last few days, with everything from a short and “fast” 3k to a long and hilly 13k and they continue to make me feel like I’m running on fluffy clouds- really ugly fluffy clouds. 😉

I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to go and get fitted for running shoes. If you are like me – don’t be! Get yourself to a Shoe Clinic – today!

Till next time