A Tale of Two Shoes

We each got new running shoes last night.  It was a big deal... 'cause Jesse's old running shoes (that he was issued at Basic... that were not so great...) got stolen at tech school, so he's been using even *older* sneakers.  And part of the sole of one of my sneakers was ripping off.  This is apparently what happens when you try to wear one pair of sneakers for three years.  (In my defense, I *haven't* exactly been *running* that whole time...)

But I digress.  The real story is *how* I picked my shoes.

I picked them because they are pink.

Pink.

That is all.

Okay, I'm a dirty liar; that's not all.  But that was how I made the final decision! :o)  The whole story is that Jesse had the brilliant idea for us to go somewhere staffed by more than just high school kids... you know, someone who might *know* a little something about running gear?  He really is brilliant.

So this guy at this store... first he measures our feet.  (Interesting tid bit - my kids bumped me up at least a half size, if not a whole size... sheesh!)

Then he tossed us some shoes to try out.  (Not till after he picked on my well loved sneakers.)  (Oh, and not till after the guy on the couch - random... a couch for some guy with a laptop to chill is exactly what every shoe store needs - anyways, he asked us if we were training for an upcoming race.  I just laughed... yeeeeeeah I'm just trying to get rid of my mom-belly.  But I digress.  Again.) 

Then he had us run on a treadmill while he recorded our feet from behind.  (I tried really hard to run "cool" and not get out of breath during that 30 seconds... cause *that* would have been embarrassing!)  And apparently I have a good stride.  Normal, anyways.  No funny alignments or anything.

So he throws three more shoes my way.  I narrow it down to two, but I can't decide.  They were pretty similar, except one had blue accents and one had pink.

I tell him it's going to boil down to price at this point.  He tells me they're $5 different.  Not helpful in the decision-making process, buddy!

He's already given me all the stats at this point so I'm kind of at a loss.

What to do?

Couch guy tells me I *have* to go with the pink ones.  Mark and Jesse agree.  So does sales guy.

Well okay then!

Pink it is! ;o)

And can I just say I laughed (again) when the guy asked me how many miles I run a week?  Sheesh... I'm just happy if I don't die after twenty minutes buddy!  (Don't tell him... or any other *serious* runner for that matter, that I will NOT be buying new running shoes just because I hit the 500 mile mark with these ones.  As previously mentioned, I generally wait till they're falling apart!)

And then I laughed some more when he asked if we needed any other gear... like socks.  Special running socks?  They make them.  Special.  Who knew?  (Anyone who's anyone in the world of running is laughing at ME right now, right?) 

Moral of the story: Real runners are serious.  I'm not a real runner.  But I DO have real running shoes, for which I am VERY thankful!  AND they're Mizuno, which are apparently all the rage right now.

AND they're pink. 

Heck yeah! ;o)

(Oh, and one more story!  The "crappy" shoes Jesse was issued at Basic?  That got stolen?  The sales guy handed Jesse a stack of shoes and the last pair he tried on?  THAT PAIR! :o)  So I *guess* the AF doesn't have such bad taste after all, huh?  He went with a different pair to shake things up, though!)