Brooks, I Heart You and Your Shoes

Before I get into the new shoe issue, a quick link to an interesting blog posting. If you don't read the Well blog on the NYT website, I heartily encourage you to check it out. It's generally interesting, but it will routinely have a posting about running that is even more interesting. A few days ago, there was a posting about the age-old question of whether running will actually increase the probability of you getting sick. The post talks about several studies that were done on both mice and men (men in the species sense, not gender sense.) It's well worth reading and makes sense that a workout that tears you up will make you more vulnerable to sickness while a moderate workout will boost immunity somewhat.

Check out the post and Well blog here: Does Exercise Boost Immunity?

Now, on to the topic at hand.

My new running shoes arrived in the mail on Monday, which allowed me to take them out for a 3 mile spin on Tuesday morning. I tried them on Monday night and they fit OK...a little snug around the upper and the toe box wasn't as roomy as I'm used to with the Brooks, but otherwise just fine. So, Tuesday morning I woke up and laced up the Air Pegasae (more than one Pegasus?) and headed out. Almost immediately I felt that these shoes weren't going to work, but I wanted to give them the full 3 miles to make me think otherwise. It just didn't happen. I wanted to like them, but I just couldn't.

The Runner's World shoe review had said that runners had liked the Nike's cushioned ride, however they didn't feel markedly more comfortable in terms of cushioning than my Brooks. But, let me do a pros and cons analysis here to keep it simple.

PRO:

• Snug fit around the upper kept my foot from moving around too much (see cons for the exception to this.)
• Lightweight and had enough cushioning for me.
• Already equipped with a Nike+ chip in the shoe for my iPod, if I wanted to use it.

CONS:

• Toe box was not roomy and my toes felt cramped in the front, although the shoes were the right length. More that they felt scrunched the whole time.
• Upper was really cushy, but that made tightening the laces tough. You'd have to really pull on them to get them tight and even then, the upper is so overstuffed that you've got short laces with which to tie the shoes. This then inevitably leads to a loosening of the laces during running and so by about halfway through my run, my right foot was slipping and I could feel a hot spot forming into a blister on my heel. Luckily, the run was short enough that I avoided the blister.
• Speaking of hot spots, for some reason, Nike shoes always give me a hot spot on the side of my foot where the ball is. This happened years ago when I first bought a pair of Nike's and gave myself blisters that way. For some reason, where the insole meets the shoe hits my foot at a vulnerable spot and the motion of pronating eventually leads to a hot spot and then a blister. After just 3 miles yesterday, I was well on my way to a blister on both feet.
• Not sure what the reason is, but about halfway into the run, the outside of my right foot began to ache and got worse throughout the run. When I stopped running, the ache went away completely.

I took yesterday off to let my hot spots go away (they did) and ran this morning in my old Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8's. Shockingly, I had no problems at all. No aches, hot spots, slipping, scrunching, etc. Nothing. My new Adrenaline GTS 9's arrived today, and I've learned my lesson.

Brooks, I'm sorry I ever doubted your fit for my foot. I will be a Brooks man for the rest of my running days. I heart you. You had me at "Motion Control." I should never have doubted you and your ability to make an outstanding shoe for an affordable price (while the Nike's were $50 with a filched discount code, the Brooks were only $16 more expensive, which is roughly what I'd spend in Neosporin and Band-Aids to nurse my blisters, I estimate.)