I mean, I like shoes, don’t get me wrong. But love them?
When Jeff first organized our closet he gave me an entire cubby for my shoes. I was in heaven! Organized all my shoes and gave them their own little spot. Then I showed Colleen the closet and she said, “Is that all your shoes? Really? That’s all you have?”
I’m counting about 25 pairs of shoes in that photo, including 2 pairs of flip-flops. There are probably as many as 3 or 4 other pairs floating around the house, but I definitely own less than 30 pairs of shoes. To me that’s a lot! But not to a lot of women.
When I ran in my first 10K, I stayed at Jenny’s the night before the race. She was pulling out her running shoes to decide which pair to wear. Which pair? I only had one! Not counting the worn-out shoes that became grass-mowing shoes …
So, fast forward to me now doing some pretty serious running, at least more serious than I ever have before. And suddenly, I’m understanding the need for more than one pair of shoes.
If you look closely you’ll see three pairs of running shoes in the closet. That’s the “almost worn out” pair that I use for cross-training, so it doesn’t count as far as running is concerned, the definitely worn-out pair that I donated to Goodwill after this picture was taken, and the “new” pair that as of now is about 2 months and 200 miles old. (Not to mention the bike shoes, but that’s a whole other story.) Bottom line: there’s one pair of shoes that I run in, in that photo.
So yesterday I picked up a second pair of running shoes at TrySports. I felt like a real runner! Here’s why I need more than one pair, as I understand it:
= If you run several days in a row you don’t always have time to let your shoes dry out between runs, so it’s good to have an alternating pair.
= Different shoes can provide different support. The pair I bought today I was told is good for shorter runs because they have less stability. But they are lighter weight and will make me fly during those 5Ks! (I wish.) I also saw a pair of racer shoes that have pretty much no support but wow they are lightweight. But when people run longer distances, we tend to pronate more as we get tired, meaning a better supporting shoe might benefit better in those cases. So, different shoes for different distances.
= Was talking to Heather earlier and she mentioned owning a pair of trail running shoes. I do not have a pair of those but I would certainly love to have some! Those help provide stability to protect against things like twisted ankle. Plus they’re nice and dark and don’t show dirt (I know, that’s not really important. But still.)
So, I may not be hitting Nordstrom every weekend, but I may be becoming a shoe girl of sorts after all …
(another plug for TrySports: I promise they are not paying me to say this, but they are excellent. Go there. Get them to put you in the right pair of shoes. Then sign up for a free membership and tell them I sent you, and I will love you forever! And, ok, I’ll get a $30 store credit so I guess they are paying me in a sense … You’ll be supporting my running career!)