If the Shoe Fits

My husband and I have decided to do a triathlon this summer. I am a swimmer. My husband is a biker. Neither of us are runners.

Well, today we went on the adventure of finding running shoes for our poor feet. We knew that we needed to get good shoes. (Everyone who has done serious running says so, and we believe them.) So, we took a trip down to Boulder to a shoe store that we've noticed before. It's at the corner of 28th and Pearl Street and is called Boulder Running Company.

We got there a bit later then we expected to, and found ourselves entering the door right as a guy was running over to turn off the OPEN sign. Oops. We felt a bit sheepish, and when they asked if there was anything we could do, we told them we were interested in running shoes, but that we didn't want to make them stay open late. No need to worry. The guy just smiled at us, said "No problem", and ushered us over to some benches. Another guy came over to help.

I must say, I've never had better service. They asked us what we were planning on using the shoes for, how often we planned to use them, our experience level, and what type of surface we'd be running on. (They git a lot of triathletes, and we had some fun conversation about it.) With shoes off, they had us stand on the floor with our feet shoulder width apart, squat down, and stand up again a couple times. Then we stood on one foot at a time. They were checking how our feel were aligned with our legs and ankles. Turns out we are both have overpronation (our feet roll inward). After that, they measured our feet and were in the back finding some shoes for us.

My first pair was a bit tight. I have wide feet. That was soon remedied, and we were taken over to the treadmills to see how we ran in the shoes. While we ran, they videotaped our feet to check that they were in proper alignment. They would pause the video on each foot and make a mental line from the heal through the ankle, explaining what they were doing all the while. All in all, I tried on about six pairs, ran in four, and found a perfect fit. My husband also found a pair that fit well (the first ones they had him try on, actually). All this took about 20 minutes, without feeling rushed. (I have spent hours before trying to find a good walking shoe at chain sporting good stores, and the fit was never this good).

Wonderful experience! The only problem was that the shoes were rather expensive (about $100 a pair), but when we thought about the service and the injuries the shoes would likely prevent, it seemed quite reasonable.