New Running Shoes

Saturday morning I ran in the USO Ford Island 10K. I didn't run to win the race. I just ran to say I did it and to be a supportive member of the team going from my boat. I managed to run 3.5 miles in 40 minutes before I stopped to walk for a little bit and let my heart rate come down a bit. I finished in 1 hour and 17 minutes. Our TEAM from the Mighty MSP won first place (they used the top five times from each time to determine the team winners). We had 15 people in our team. One of our guys took 3rd place overall. Five of our guys placed in their age group. What was our prize for our team winning? ...$75 worth of chocolate.

Well, I wore a hole in the back of the heel of my old running shoes, so I decided it was time to get some new ones. I tried to find some before I ran in the Ford Island 10K on Saturday morning, but started my search too late. The thing is, I've been trying to run at least 3 miles per day / 3 days per week, so I put a good number of miles on my shoes.

I went to the NEX (Navy Exchange) first. They had some nice shoes. Most of all, I liked that they segregated them by aisles of high-arch (cushioning), stability control (flat feet), and normal shoes. Unfortunately, all they had in the high-arch section for me were sizes 8, 9, 14, and 15. They might have had more in the back, but there was one sales guy working there, and you had to take a number and wait in line for him to help you.

I found a good website, www.roadrunnersports.com (actually recommended by my friend Rich). Using the "Perfect Fit Finder" on the website, I clicked on "high arch" and "under-pronator" (my feet tend to roll outward), and it gave me a list of shoes that would work well with my feet. I printed out that list and took it with me to the mall in search of shoes.

At the Foot Locker, the first girl who tried to help me saw the list in my hand, heard me say the words, "high-arch" and "under-pronator" and quickly realized she was in over her head. She excused herself for one reason or another, and next thing I knew, I had the store manager helping me. He was actually very helpful and brought out several pairs of shoes for me to try, but none of them were the ones I was most interested in off the list. He could tell that he didn't have my "glass slipper" if you will, and so he recommended I go to either the New Balance store down at Ward Center or to the Running Room.

We went to the New Balance store Saturday afternoon. The lady watched me walking in and could tell that I was an under-pronator and recommended the New Balance 1061s, which just happened to be on the top of my list from the roadrunnersports website and had really good user reviews. I tried them on and it was so comfortable that it was like putting on my favorite old pair of running shoes.

We'll see how they hold up at Command PT on Wednesday. We have Command PT every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday when we're in port. Normally on Mondays and Fridays, we do about 25 minutes of warmup calisthenics before going for a 2.5 mile run. Guys have the option of splitting off to swim in the base pool or go to the gym, as long as they are doing some form of physical exercise during PT time.

Wednesdays we are starting something new though. We're meeting at the base gym and having a personal trainer named Mark lead us in some insane circuit training exercises. First he led us through some warmup exercises with a lot of running in place (alternating butt-kickers and knees-high). Then we ran the steps of the bleachers around the basketball court (up the steps, down the steps, counter-clockwise around the basketball court to the next set of steps, up the steps, down the steps, counter-clockwise to the next set of steps...). Then he had a series of about two dozen exercise stations set up around the edge of the court that we each rotated through. I was absolutely drenched with sweat last time we did it, and I look forward to doing it again for another great workout.