It's always something.

My current shoes, the ones I bought and posted about in March (here), have served their purpose but have become extremely worn out.  They have over 400 miles on them now and when I turn them over and look at the bottoms the tread is completely worn off of the heel on the outside edge on the left shoe, and close to being gone on the right.  Coincidentally the more worn side is the same side that I developed the patellar tendinitis on.  I loved these shoes, and the 3 or so pairs before them of the same model that I've run in, but I thought that maybe my shoe choice might have something to do with my injury.  Since I was going to Columbia to pick up my race packet before the Roots N Blues run anyway I decided to visit a running store there that does shoe fittings.  I brought my current shoes with me and explained to them about my injury and wondering if a new style of shoe would be appropriate.  They thought yes, and that I should go with a shoe without such an elevated heel height.  I tried on all different brands of shoes but Mizunos just conform to my foot so well that nothing else felt quite right.  The end result was the Mizuno Wave Precision 13...in bright pink and lime green!

I was in love with these shoes!  Super cool color scheme, felt great on my feet, and they did well on the trial run on the pavement out in their parking lot.  Plus they were somewhat cheaper than the Wave Creations I was used to buying so that was an extra bonus.  I knew I wouldn't wear them to the Roots N Blues half, but I was anxious to break them in so they would be road-ready for Chicago.

I ran in them for a 4 mile run this past Tuesday.  Everything started out great, but about half way through I started feeling some pain in my outside foot on the left.  I finished my run and chalked it up to the fact that I started out with too many miles in the new kicks.  Yesterday I decided to just go for 3 miles and to do the run/walk ratio instead.  Not good.  Even before I had the first mile down that same outside area was hurting again and feeling lots of stress.  I finished the 3 miler, but knew that these shoes would never work for Chicago...or any runs from now on for that matter.  I was very bummed.

So my first course of action after my run was to get online and order another pair of the trusty Wave Creations.  I placed my Amazon order last night around 7pm and selected next day shipping with my prime membership for $3.99.  Today I got an alert text on my phone at about 1pm that they had been delivered! That is crazy...shoes delivered to your doorstep in 18 hours...and tax-free too!  They aren't as cool in color scheme as the Precisions were, but I did get a bolder color this time around in the Creation model.

I am really hoping to be able to break these babies in during the next week so I can wear them to Chicago...my other Creations are really too worn down to make it another 26.2 miles, continuously at that.

So, you know me.  It's always something!  I'm going to keep the Precisions and wear them for non-running.  They feel fine to walk in, just not enough support for my heel-striking running gait.  I wouldn't normally spend that kind of money for some everyday tennis shoes, but since it happened this way I might as well keep them : )