Running smoother

Well it's twenty degrees cooler today, overcast and drizzly. Much better. I'm now halfway through my final exam, which I need to complete and submit by Thursday. Yesterday I finally went to get some new running shoes from Running Science, a shop just down the road. My pair of Hi-Tech Silver Shadows have served me well for about 7 years, but are now disintegrating around my feet so I couldn't put off buying new ones any longer. All the staff at this shop have degrees in sports science, physiotherapy or podiatry, so you know you're going to get served by someone who knows what they're doing, not a teenager on work experience. I was a little scpetical - to quote from the website, "We know you need a shoe that will perform how you want it to and when you want it to". Aside from finishing a sentence with a preposition ("a preposition is not something with which one should end a sentence"), as well as being a little presumptious about what they claim to 'know' that I need, I'm not entirely sure how a shoe 'performs' - and I've no idea what is meant by "when I want it to". Whatever it's meant to do, I only need it to do so when it is on my feet. I certainly don't want them performing when I'm not wearing them.


So anyway, I had my feet filmed on a treadmill to provide an analysis of how I walk and run; apparently I have a slightly splayed right foot, but otherwise am quite normal in the gait department. Which is of course a huge relief. However I do have an absurdly long second toe (to be fair I didn't really need this pointed out - it is something for which I blame my mother entirely), and feet that are almost as wide as they are long. 


On finding out how much running I do, and upon seeing my trainers, the girl who served me didn't quite tell me off but made it clear that I should get new running shoes at least every twelve months in order to prevent all sorts of unpleasantness; presumably including being castigated in shoe shops for a laissez faire attitude towards my currently uncollapsed arches. I did, though, manage to negotiate a bit of a discount. The upshot of it all is that I now have a new, ridiculously comfy pair of Mizunos. I took them for a 'spin' last night and, to be fair, they are considerably better than my dilapitated old pair. Which they should be, frankly, for the price.