The Wrong Shoe!

I am one to keep shoes WAY past their time. I still have shoes from from high school. I know, I should get rid of them, but I don't wear them out, and if I like them, I keep them. Well the same goes for my running shoes. Back in 2006, I got fitted for shoes by my future brother-in-law. He had just started dating my sister, was a NCAA runner, and working a running store here in Atlanta over the summer. Adam and I had decided to take running more seriously then, so we thought we should get some "real" running shoes. Eric was great. He brought out tons of shoes for us to try on and spent a lot of time with us (probably didn't hurt that he wanted out "ok" about dating my baby sister, but hey). I decided on Mizuno Wave Creations. I loved them. I have very high arches and I noticed then I put these on, the arch support actually reached my arch. Again, I loved them. I wore my first pair out completely and Adam got me a replacement pair for Christmas the next year. He knew to just get me the same pair. I had those for 1.5 years (until now actually). I am sure they went way over the 500 mile limit with all my running shoes, but until I see them wearing out, I don't even think about it. I had my last pair for so long because I was pregnant with Hope when I had them. So there was time before when I had stopped running (during fertility treatments), then there was time during my pregnancy when I was put on modified rest and couldn't workout at all, then after she was born. I am breastfeeding so I wanted to make sure my supply was well established before I didn too much running. So all those months really add up and I just now needed new running shoes. Well I had a store credit at this one particular store, so we have to venture OTP (outside the perimeter for those not from Atlanta) to this store. I told them I needed Mizuno Creations 6 1/2, but wanted to try on Brooks Glyercin (I had heard they had high arch support too). He came back and didn't have my Creations in a 6 1/2, but had it in a 7. Ok, well I have always worn a size 6 shoe, even after being pregnant. I know you up a 1/2 size for your running shoe, but not a whole size. I tried the Brooks' shoes and didn't like them. So now, the salesman puts an insert into the Creations (size 7) and tells me how important this insert is yadda, yadda, yadda.

End of story, I ended up getting those because they felt ok and I had the store credit and wanted to get rid of it. Well the first day I ran in them, I hated them. They feel so big (because they are) and I felt like my heal was coming out of the shoe with the insert in there. I talked to my future brother-in-law, and he helped me out with the whole insert thing. He's a genius! He said the size thing will be nice when I do some really long runs. We will see, but I will tell you, at 500 miles, they are gone and I am going back to my Mizuno Creations size 6 1/2. :) Here are the shoes I ended up with.

Ok, vent over. Thanks for listening.