Everyone who knows me knows I’m a brand loyalist. Apple computers. Levis jeans. And for running, my beloved Brooks shoes.
Sure, I’ve tried other brands of running shoes. Had a pair of Nikes when I was first starting out. Tried Adidas Supernovas, and a pair of Asics Gel GT-2100s at one point. But I always came back to Brooks.
The Adrenaline line has been my personal running touchstone, always in a men’s size 10 EE. But with the Adrenaline GTS 7s… something changed. They were loose, floppy. My feet felt supported but my foot rolled around on top of the support like they were on pillows. And my heel, my right heel, got sore, and painful, and stiff, and in spite of several-times-a-day stretching and icing, almost every day, the pain and stiffness never completely went away.
I knew that the shoes were part of the equation. Tracy just knew that my wearing Chucks, with their complete lack of support, all the freakin’ time I’m not running, might be aggravating the problem – or even causing it in the first place.
With all that in mind, yesterday I wandered into Portland Running Company’s SE Grand store, with Tracy as my chorus and cheering section, to try something different.
Rob was funny, and agreeable (almost too agreeable, actually), and he sniffled a lot (it’s allergy season) but I got the impression that he knew shoes. And after much trying-on and running-while-Rob-watched and shoelace-adjusting and thinking…
…I bought a pair of Nikes.
The Nike Air Structure Triax 10, to be exact.
You thought I was going to say I got the Brooks, didn’t you? It’s OK to admit it. I was surprised myself.
Rob was also able to sell me on some shoe inserts. Biofoam, I believe they’re called. Because of my heel pain, he suggested I needed more support, and I will give them a try. I’m also wearing the inserts in my Chucks – which feels odd and weird but they do seem to help, even after a single day. Tracy likes being right about stuff… and she’s been right about a lot of things lately. She’ll like this being pointed out in “public” (as public as a blog that gets about 500 readers a day is, at any rate…).