Adidas vs. Brooks: Finding the Perfect Shoe, part 1

Remember back in the 90s when the Nike Air Jordans first hit the stores?  Finally, the answer to many young basketball player's prayers...the perfect shoe.  The formula was simple-beg your parents, find the store, find the size, drop the $100 plus dollars and hit the playground with a new swagger in your step.  With these shoes, a player could jump higher, run faster, and hit the basket with a one handed dunk, tongue out, spectators cheering.  Of course, many of these dreams were not realized on the court, but having the perfect basketball shoe went a long way in upping your cool status.  

Finding the perfect running shoe is a bit harder, and much more important, to an amateur runner training for an event.  The right shoes absorb the shock with each footfall (up to three times your body weight!) allow plenty of room for toes in the toe box, and last for miles without losing too much support.  Being a voracious reader, I had researched shoes when I first started jogging.  I learned about pronation, supination, and motion control.  I loved the Runner's World spring and fall shoe reviews.  I compared different models on the internet and browsed the aisles at Sports Authority.  But, due to expense and the fact that I was more of a recreational jogger than a "real" runner, I had never gone to a specialty running store to get fitted, which is the most recommended way of buying your first good pair of training shoes.

So after a long Saturday run and an informative shoe clinic at Sierra Running Company I was finally ready to take the plunge.  I had discovered that my flat feet caused me to over pronate, which led to painful arches and shin splints, among other possible injuries.  And it was true!  After every run in my cheap Nike cross trainers my arches ached and throbbed.  My poor toes were cramped in the front of the shoe, and my discount store inserts did little to support my non existent arches.  

I was concerned, at first, that I might have been buying in to the snake oil and sleight of hand of the crafty salesman, but everything I had learned at the shoe clinic was affirmed in all of the research I had done previously.  So with bated breath and a budget, my husband and I dropped the girls off at grandma's and headed to Sierra Running Company.

The store was fairly busy for a Tuesday afternoon.  We were helped immediately, however, by a young woman with a pleasant demeanor.  I was asked to walk in my socks to the front of the store as she knelt and peered at my feet and ankles.  She stood almost immediately and announced that I had flat feet and was over pronating.  She then walked briskly into the back room and returned with two boxes of shoes.  I tried on at least six pairs...Adidas, Brooks, Saucony.  The only brand that was conspicuously absent was Nike.  What, no Air Jordans?  Not even a Nike Shox?  But these thoughts were chased out of my mind the moment I stood after lacing up the Brooks Ariel.  It felt like my knees popped out into a more comfortable position and my feet were now resting in their proper place.  They were made, as I read in a review later on, for "heavy runners with flat-as-a-pancake feet", which described me to a T!  The shoes felt great, and my mind soared with the possibilities of pain free running, shaving minutes off my mile time, and soaring past the finish line with tongue out (I'll probably be really thirsty) and spectators cheering.    

The Brooks, however, were not cheap.  Even with my 10% MASH discount they were the most expensive shoes I had ever looked at.  And to a...I'll not say "cheap", I'll say "thrifty" shopper like me, parting with the money wasn't easy.  But this was an investment.  Training to run 13.1 miles in the wrong shoe would only set me up for injury.  And what would I accomplish on the sidelines with shin splints and throbbing feet?  With a little prayer I handed over the money and took the box home.  

Now to put the shoes to the test.