Monday, August 12, 2013

Why I stay with Brooks Glycerins

This weekend I bought my seventh pair of Brooks Glycerin running shoes at Super Runners Shop on Amsterdam on NYC's West Side before our group run. It is a great feeling when you can either order your running shoes online or simply go into a running store and tell the sales associate what size you need and pay and leave. No one ever sells shoes to me. I buy shoes from them. Big difference.

Why Brooks Glycerins? Two reasons: (1) Shoes are everything in running and (2) never tinker with what works for you as a runner. I learned this after a bout with plantar fasciitis in my first marathon, 2007 NYC. While in St. Louis before the 2008 STL Marathon, I was at the Fleet Feet store and an associate who ran marathons (never use an associate who doesn't run, so never malls or Foot Locker!). She put her index finger under my arch and told me I have high arches, and put me into a pair of neutrals -- Brooks Glycerins.

I have run pain-free ever since, save for a bout with ITB that just required hip strengthening in PT. I basically change Glycerin colors when I need to retire a pair of shoes at 300-400 miles. I have four pair currently in rotation as I train for my 12th marathon, NYC this November. I tinker with other neutrals on occasion, but not very often, and a while back I donated 8 pair, including a handful of my first Brooks. Wear whichever running shoes work for you, but my advice is to stick with any model that works.

Here is my history in Brooks Glycerins, from newest to oldest: 






















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