SHOES!

The most common piece of advice that I received when I started telling people that I was crazy enough to run a half marathon was to get fitted for and buy a nice pair of running shoes. The idea of getting fitted for shoes had never occurred to me as I've never really had trouble with my feet. But I figured I should take the advice of expert runners so today I went and got my first official pair of running shoes and insoles.

Wanting to support local businesses I just planned to go to Runner's Roost but the power of anonymous reviews on the internet encouraged me to not bother with Runner's Roost and go straight to RoadRunner Sports. They apparently have a much better return policy if the shoes don't fit right even after running outside and are very helpful even to new runners....so this sounded like the right place to go. The whole experience was kind of fun and didn't take too long.

First I stood on some sort of sensor pad and learned that I have high arches so insoles were strongly recommended. Next I ran on the treadmill barefoot so they could see if I had any foot pronation??? Turns out my foot doesn't turn much but it was pretty neat to watch the video of my feet running on the treadmill. Then I had insoles sculpted to my feet, tried on three different pairs with the insoles, decided on the Nikes, and ran on the treadmill again just to confirm that they felt okay.

It is kind of hard to see with the reflection, but here is the screen capture of me running on the treadmill barefoot.

I believe this is the first pair of shoes that I have bought without making the selection based on appearance. Although I do like the look. Hopefully, I will not have to take advantage of the 60 day return policy and these Nikes will last me many miles!

As an added bonus the RoadRunner sports was on the way home from my little monkey's daycare so he was able to come help me make a final selection. He enjoyed running around the store and "beeping" along with the treadmills. Plus, the sales person told me that it was awesome that I was going to be running at Disneyland and she hopes to run the Walt Disney World marathon. All in all the RoadRunner Sports seemed to be a good choice.