cheated on my Birks this morning

I bit the bullet and cheated on my Birks this morning. I decided to try on sneakers.

I swore off sneakers about 10 years ago.

I have always had a love-hate relationship with sneakers, but my last pair just drove me to the edge. I'd walk a mile and have sore feet for a week. I bought them at a very reputable athletic shoe store in my town and spent a lot of money on them. Hopefully the person who bought them at the thrift shop go a lot of wear out of them.

Every time I have a training walk for the three-day or the Avon, people ask me why am I wearing Birks. I tell them the story. They tell me I shouldn't hold a grudge and try again. I've fallen twice training, it might be the Birks but I think it was my blood pressure because I was trying keep up with the fast walkers. I live in fear of breaking something and I have no health insurance. I need to do a consistent 3.5 miles an hour to do the Philly (half) marathon in November.

So this mornings walk was a wash out. We only got about two miles in before the downpour. (I will walk in any weather during an event, but I won't train in it. Can't risk getting ill. The insurance thing again.)

So instead of walking Beth and I went to the Finish Line. It's a local running store with a great reputation. Our original plan was to go to Foot Solutions in Easton where Beth got her sneaks, but they aren't open on Sundays.

Sunday's must be a slow day at the Finish Line. The sale crew was young. Very young. But they seemed to know what they were doing. He measured my feet, twice (10.5) and watched me walk. Declared I was flat footed and walk inward. When I heard that I giggled to myself. As a kid I sort-of walked on the sides of my feet. Always wore the sides out before the bottoms of my shoes. I had to wear these horrible red three strapped shoes to correct my feet. They mostly worked.

The young man came out with four pairs. The first were Asic, white with a purple/pink color accent. (Aside: Why are sneaker so ugly? With all this technology at their fingertips they should be able to make them functional and not hideous.) They fit well in the front, and were sloppy in the back. I had a feeling of deja vu. Same problems as before. I told him, and he said I can fix that. He did this neat trick with the laces and they became much tighter across my foot. But it didn't help. Now they were tighter on top of my foot that it was almost uncomfortable, and the back was tighter, but still moved around. The other three shoes were worse. Two were tight in the front and the last I might have been able to wiggle right out.

Like the walk in the morning, sneaker shopping was a washout.

But there was a rainbow. I discovered some really great socks. If they work well I'll buy more.