The Wrong Shoes
The right shoe
Several years ago I was sidelined for six months from training and the marathon I was shooting for due to an IT band injury caused or aggravated by running in the wrong shoes. I made a couple of mistakes the day I bought those shoes. Firstly, I based my decision on their flashy appearance (They were red, how cool is that?). Secondly, these shoes were for “fast runners” and somehow I thought that wearing them would make me faster. Ha! The red shoes were super lightweight and had almost no cushion, zero support and were meant for sprinters moving fast over short distances. The truth is I am not a sprinter and I will never run fast. My body build, physical idiosyncrasies, running style and long distances require a shoe with more structure, a stiffer sole, lateral stability and cushion to protect the joints in my feet, knees and hips for the many long hours I spend running. I found out the hard way that while running, fashion statements are not nearly as important as comfort - a truth that makes itself painfully apparent to me at around mile 12.