Kelly the Culinarian: The New Shoes Edition!

Thursday, July 21, 2011

The New Shoes Edition!

I've been meaning to get myself new running shoes for months now. There was a Groupon a while back for $50 at Dick Pond Athletics for $25, which I've been holding onto for a while.

On my long run Sunday, it was very evident to me that the time had come for new shoes. I was starting to get matching shin splints in the exact same place on both legs and some faint hip pain.
So last night, I headed out to the Dick Pond in Carol Stream. I'd been meaning to get there anyways to drop off information about the Fort2Base Race. I definitely needed a GPS to find this place, despite being pretty close to the house, because it's in an inconspicuous industrial park. It's a tiny little store front, but it's packed floor to ceiling with everything running: clothes, fuel, shoes, hydration belts and socks.

After walking on their treadmill for a few minutes, the employee there noticed I slightly pronate, but not enough to justify getting a large shoe to correct it. She also wanted to know about my mileage level, training goals and any injuries or issues. She recommended several shoes and brought out three pairs for me to try one. One I immediately discarded, the other felt great out of the box and the third I wanted to try in a different size. I ended up taking home the second pair, Asics Lady Gel 1160, in raspberry, which was unfortunately the only color option.

And for those of you who go into a running store and assume you're going to pay a ridiculous mark up because of the quality of service you receive, let me point this out: Amazon's price for this pair is $92. Dick Pond's price was $85 before I used my groupon. I ended up paying a total of $66 with socks, which I had a got a certificate for in my last race goodie bag.

I celebrated the occasion by taking out my new shoes for a 3.5-mile run this morning. I'm still feeling a bit of shin pain, but not nearly as searing as what I felt two days ago. I'm super happy not only with the purchase, but with the service and price. The salesperson even told me that if I went for a brief run and didn't like the shoes, bring them right back.

P.S. - Have you entered my Fort2Base Race entry give away?

1 comment:

Amber said...

You're the second person I've read this week who bought some Asics sneakers! I'm in the market for new ones myself, and I might look into a pair of these. I like Nikes myself but my last pair were no bueno.