New Shoes "A-1 SHOES"

well, there is ONE (count 'em) specialty shop in town...not a running store but a shoe store. they carry high-end shoes, shoes for peops w/ foot problems; they do shoe repair and sell or work w/ orthodics. C went there recently and recommended them. Also the guy @ foot locker who sold me the asics 2100 mentioned them: ********* A-1 SHOES************ They are in Kennewick, WA. PLUG PLUG PLUG! husband and wife who waited on me. very home-towny. sound backward? well, this nice man KNOWS HIS STUFF. non-runners but they work in cahoots w/ the podiatrists in town and even the sports med professionals send their patients his way.

they sell "SUPER FEET" insoles. major in the arch support. the whole bottom of the thing is plastic or some such material = WON'T BREAK DOWN. they were $35 but i hope WORTH IT. this nice gentleman looked at how i step, out of shoes...and even i could see how my arch kind of falls as i put down weight, and it ONLY FOLLOWS that that action would pull on your shins, and then your KNEE would be affected in turn. so these insoles don't LET the arch fall. this could solve my knee problemo! wouldn't that be peachy!?!

y'know, the asics 2100s i have are a men's size 10. the guy at footlocker determined i needed a women's size 11 but they'd have to order, and he thought it'd be no biggie to go to the men's equivalent. he immediately put a $20 pair of cushy insoles in. w/ no support just cushion. So, over $100 later i walked outta there, went on my 1st run in them that nite, and thought there would be no looking back. Throbbing shins and pained knee later....I'M LOOKING BACK! As i've run in these asics, i've had a lot of foot movement inside the shoe, a LOT of heel slippage, and at the end of a long run i could feel every single bump in the street under my feet! ugh! I am going to ATTEMPT to return those shoes to foot locker. I will report here how that goes! I would like that $$ or some of it BACK! (C's husband could get it for me, huh?!)

ANYWAY, A-1 SHOES in Kennewick, WA was great! They only carry BROOKS running shoes but he knows all about them. Yknow, BROOKS has been around forever in running. Apparently BROOKS doesn't sell to 'big-box' stores any more. That's why you won't find 'em at the mall. Only smaller, specialty stores. Or online? Their warranty is great.

I tried on different widths, lengths, diff insoles, etc. Ended up in a men's 9 but a 2E! I don't think I need that wide of a shoe, but the cool thing about BROOKS, specifically, is that the wider their shoe, the BIGGER the SOLE...whereas some companies keep the sole size the same just add more MATERIAL over the top, to appear wider! The BROOKS itself didn't feel all that cushiony, and i felt like there was lotsa room in the toe box, so he added an $8 flat insole, then my SUPERfeet insole, and wa-la! the new shoe. i hafta part w/ this bit o'info, tho, the price breakdown:

• $110 BROOKS BEAST
• $8 flat cushy insole
• $35 SUPERfeet insole w/ great arch support
• tax
• =====wrote a check for approx $165!!!!

good grief! and i was concerned about spending $$ at the doc's. ouch! but if i get recourse at Foot Locker, perhaps it won't hurt so bad. I might be calling on my friend John. He seems to have a WAY w/ companies and getting his money back.

Mr. A-1 also showed me lotsa trix: how to lace up to avoid heel slippage, how to lace up around the top of my foot where it's always too tight, how to knock my heel deep into the back of my shoe. Well, worth the visit even if I didn't buy the shoes. But all the better for them that I did, huh? I pray this solves some problemos & helps me run more smoothly.

ps: i got the BAD flu last nite, so another morning of no running. i think it is positive tho. if i wasn't DOWN in bed, i might've run and maybe a day too soon. so do i walk or run in the a.m.? will think on that. i think i'll do a long walk w/ my john grisham book! it was hard to hit stop when i came home the other morn.

to God be the Glory, kt