New kicks and a Tweetup
Posted on January 28th, 2010
New Kicks
For any athlete, there are always firsts; our rights of passage of sorts. For me, last night I purchased my first “fitted” pair of shoes from Luke’s Locker near Uptown in Dallas. When I say fitted, I mean somebody who actually knows what they are talking about and sat down with me: analyzed my foot, asked me questions about my running, watched me walk and run, and then made a couple recommendations for shoes. I tried on two pairs of shoes. The first pair were Asics, and the second Brooks. Both were brands of shoes I have never owned before, but based on the professional from Luke’s this was exactly what I needed.
Both shoes felt pretty good, but the Asics GT-2150 won out. As soon as I slipped them on, I felt instant comfort compared to my old shoes. I hadn’t been running long before Twitter friend @theclimbergirl of RockClimberGirl.com offered me a discount code with END Footwear – a now defunct shoe company. I got the shoes at the low low price of $30, regularly priced at $95. The shoe was super light and comfortable. I felt fast in them, even though I was new to the sport. Prior to that I was running in my claud hopper North Face trail shoes. So, to slip on a pair of shoes that were meant for my feet felt quite amazing.
I also recently learned from looking at the wear pattern on my old shoes that I heel strike and overpronate a bit. This was confirmed when the sales associate at Luke’s Locker was helping me out. However, I’m not sure my problems are all over. When I had started this post I had yet go to on a run in the shoes. But today, I ran 3.5 miles on an indoor track. By the time I was finished my arches were hurting, as well as the outside edge of my foot.
I’m not sure if I didn’t have them laced tight enough or not, but I have a long run scheduled for Saturday, so if the problems persist I will be returning to Luke’s Locker for further evaluation of my foot. The nice thing about Luke’s is they have a 30 day return policy on their shoes. They are more interested in getting you the right shoe than just selling you something. But one thing is for sure, my old shoes are definitely done for.
Old Shoes. Left shoe indicating I'm a underpronating heel striker.
The Tweetup
The reason for my trip to Luke’s wasn’t just for shoes. I was meeting fellow running Tweeps from the DFW area at the DFW Runners Tweetup. The event was organized by The Running Couple, who also organized a small Tweetup before the start of the White Rock Marathon, which I unfortunately missed due to not being able to find parking in time. It was nice to put Twitter handles with faces and get to actually hear them speak more than 140 characters at a time.
During the Tweetup, Luke’s educated us on how the fit people for shoes and even used several of us as an example byplacing us on a treadmill provided by Landice Fitness. It was a very educational experience, and I learned a lot about how important it is to not just find a shoe that fits, but to find a shoe that fits your running style, your personality, and falls in line with your running goals. I never knew so much went into fitting somebody for a shoe.
After the meeting at Luke’s, several of us went across the street to Snookie’s – a local pub, and continued the Tweetup there. We swapped running stories, talking about different run tracking devices and even venting about other Tweets out in the Twittersphere that seem too good to follow back other fellow runners, even when they are engaged in conversation.
It was a really fun time, and I look forward to the next meeting. Hopefully our next gathering will involve a group run. As a result of going to the Tweetup I was inspired to go ahead an run the Cowtown Marathon (half) at the end of February. Originally I was planning on running the Rock and Roll Half Marathon, but the price was becoming an issue, but seeing as how Cowtown was $25 cheaper I decided to bite the bullet and register.
The best part of this is I will now have to be more disciplined in my training. I have three weekends left to get long runs in and I plan on using every one of them. One of them will be squeezed in to a climbing trip. It shouldn’t be a problem though; I have squeezed in 9 mile runs before going climbing in the past. I just have to wake up well before everybody else.
Cross Training, Running by OrganicClimber
asics, Cowtown Marathon, END, heel strike, overpronate, Running, shoes, tweetup, twitter
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