Being Faithful to the Shoe


With apologies to my pledge daughter, I have never understood women who go on and on about shoes … buying them more than 1 pair at a time, gleefully boasting just how many pair they have, talking about this kind and that kind.  I have a black pair, a blue pair and a brown pair.  I wear them into the ground until I HAVE to buy a new pair. For me there is no difference between Naturalizers and Jimmy Choo.  They are heels, I have to wear them to work , they hurt my feet after I have been running around Capitol Hill all day and I HATE them!!


The one exception to this rule is my running shoes.  I LOVE my running shoes.  In fact, in the past I have been unnaturally attached to them.  From the time I first started running in 2006 until just before I ran my 3rd marathon in 2009 I kept every pair I had ever worn.  I could tell you which races I had run in them and how many miles were on each pair.   A total of 14 pair were lined up neatly in my foyer just as you entered my apartment.  Finally I took them all to the booth at the marathon expo that was collecting old shoes for some charity, but it was hard to tell them good bye.  We had been through so much together  


Right now I have 4 pair at home and one in my office under my desk.  I have one pair that is only for running, one pair is reserved for everything else like walking around or wearing on the Metro to and from work and the others just kind of sit there.  I generally rotate out a pair of shoes after 300 or so miles.  Tonight was the night I went to Pacers to buy a new pair.


I have always worn Nike Structure.  I have toyed with the idea in the past of trying something new but always, in the end, decided to go with the tried and true.  Tonight I finally gave in and bought a pair of Asics … now I feel like the woman who, after many years with the same man, decides that she is tired of the same old, asks for a divorce and strikes out to find what she just knows has to be something better.  The Asics were my something better. I was seduced by the lighter feeling of the Asics and the way the arch felt just a little bit different.  Best of all the coloring was that of the Boston Marathon.  I mean look at them, they’re beautiful!

The counselor (salesman) tried to persuade me to stay.  “If if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”, he said, “You’ve always run in the Nike.”  In the end I didn’t listen and I brought home the Asics.  As soon as I got home, I took them out for a 5 miles test run.


The regret was almost immediate.  My stride and strike didn’t have the same feel.  What I thought, in the store, was an awesome new feeling in my arch started to bother me.  They pinched my toe.  They did feel a lot lighter but after running a while they also felt like they weren’t providing the same support.  They weren’t cradling my foot the way I liked.  I felt like I was running slower.  I started to long for my old partner the Nike Structure.  Then the uncomfortable feeling (s)started to feed on themselves and by the time I got home I really hated them.


Discouraged, I walked in the door to my apartment and saw that even Liberty, who usually loves new shoes too because it means a new box to sleep in, didn’t seem thrilled with the box they came it.  

Asics Box

It was smaller and she couldn’t lay down in it like she could the Nike box.  

Nike Box

I took off the shoes, took a shower and when I came back out it seemed even the Nikes had ostrisized the Asics in their place next to the door. 

Who knows, maybe I will get used to them.  Maybe I will go back to Pacers to beg the Nike Structures to please take me back and listen to salesman as he says, “I told you so.”. The jury is still out on it, but right now I am feeling it’s best to always remain faithful … to your running shoes.  Love the ones you're with!