Running Lesson #1 - Don't Go With the Cheaper Shoes

At the outset of one of my favorite movies, Forrest Gump makes a mistake that I made when choosing a pair of shoes last Summer. He looks, points, and utters...



"Those look like comfortable shoes!"

...and the woman replies, "my feet hurt."

I made the same mistake when picking out a pair of Adidas running shoes down at the Saint Augustine outlet mall. Now, don't get me wrong (and don't sue me, Adidas)...they are good quality shoes for everyday use, and I put them to use when going to places like the grocery store, my daughter Mary's swim meets (even when volunteering as a timer), etc. I'll go even further and say that they would be great running shoes for a young, skinny person going out and hitting the pavement...heck, I could have worn flip flops when I ran back in the 80s (in fact, I think I played a few games of ultimate Frisbee in flip flops). But for a 243-pound, 46-year-old, no-longer-an-athlete guy looking to get his body back in shape, these shoes started leading me down a path of injuries.

Great everyday shoes...But not good for me on the road

In an earlier post, I recapped my first run back on July 23rd, so I won't get into that again; however, I'll give you a quick recap of the first month on the road...

I had a .75 mile marker to which I would run/walk, and for the entire first month, that was the distance I would go. Each time out I would try to run a little farther than the previous time out...and I was actually able to do so all the way to the point in late August where I actually ran the entire mile and a half without stopping...Yippee!! In addition, over the course of this first month, I lost five pounds and had dipped under 240 pounds (to 238.3), which was a welcome change from the weight loss plateau I had hit over the preceding months.

Sounds good, right? But here's the rub...I was in incredible pain every day, and it wasn't the muscle soreness that I had expected. Oh, that muscle soreness thing happened the first week, and it was tough sitting down and even tougher standing back up, but that subsided after the first couple of weeks.

The pain that arrived, though, was joint pain in my knees and then in my left foot...no, not in my ankle, but in the ligaments across the top, outside part of my foot, which I thought might be a stress fracture. By the end of the first five weeks of running, Aleve, ice, and heat became my best friends...and it certainly felt like my body was crumbling under me. I might have talked a tough game, but inside I wondered whether I would be able to keep this up.

The pain in my left foot got so sharp after every run that I knew I had to go see a podiatrist. Fortunately, I didn't have a stress fracture, but he gave me a few "to do" items to undertake right away:

1. First, he told me to slow down. You see, I had tried to get back to the pace that I had run back in the mid 80s, but my body was no longer conditioned to run sub 8:00 miles. As such, he told me to make a conscious effort to take shorter strides, focus on each step, land lightly, and lower my mph!
2. Second, he told me to rest more. I had started myself on a pretty aggressive, five-day-per-week schedule (M-T-W-F-Sa), but two days rest were not enough for my old bones and joints...so I switched to running just every other day.
3. Third, he told me to go get custom fit for a pair of running shoes. He explained that the shoes I had didn't have the support I needed and that the folks at the running store would help me find just the right shoe for me.

So off I went to the Jacksonville Running Company to get this first pair of custom fit running shoes...

Now that's more like it!

With these shoes, along with slowing down and giving my body days of rest between running days, the joint pain and foot pain subsided within the next week or two. Now, I'd be lying if I told you that I run pain-free today, as I still get nagging aches and pains today that go with running (especially during long runs)...but nothing is permanent (and Aleve or other pain medications are no longer required).

So, in short, don't skimp on the shoes. Go support a local running store...the folks at the Jacksonville Running Company are terrific, and I'm sure there are people in stores just like it in your cities and towns as well.

With new shoes, less pain, and a fresh outlook, I started to see that running was becoming much more than just losing weight and getting back in shape...it was becoming something that had a purpose, that had meaning...and without even knowing they were doing so, a few people were showing me through their own actions what that purpose was.

But more about that next week. Until then, enjoy your journey...