Shoes and Rules

I saw my friend and former colleague Greg running by in the District last week and he stopped for a minute to chat.  He's a better runner than me and much more disciplined and I ask him for running advice sometimes.

I told him I had just finished an LSD of 5 miles as I was slowly getting back to running due to a long lay-off due to ankle and feet injuries and after a glance downwards he said, "I see you've got your best pair of running shoes on, with both little toes poking well through the fabric, and when you get injured again, Peter, I'm not going to have any sympathy."  I protested that the shoes were less than two years old and there was still plenty of tread left on them and lifted a foot to show him.

"Nope, smooth as an iron down there and with probably just as much cushioning," he pronounced disapprovingly.  So, when I got home I went across the street to Runners World and bought two pairs of stability (for over pronators) "gently used shoes" (returns) in my size on clearance for about $130, a pair by Saucony and a pair by Brooks.

My next run, wearing the "new" Sauconies, was like I'd been transported to heaven, with every step a cushiony foot strike that felt like I was wearing pillows, not boards, strapped to my feet.  When I got home, much against my frugal nature (I'm a child influenced by parents who lived as children through the desperate barter-economy of the Great Depression), I threw not one but two apparently worn-out pairs of running shoes out in spite of my iron-clad rule of only disposing of one pair of broken-down, treadless shoes each year, and only in January.