First, Happy New Years! I hope everyone had a safe and fantastic holiday!

Typically a new year brings fresh goals, new perspectives, and renewed motivation. In addition, my new year brought a new pair of running shoes with it!

With no real intentions of obtaining new shoes, I went to my local running store last week. My then current shoes, Brooks Glycerin GTS 21, had about 320 miles on them. The soles were completely flat and wore down, however I thought they still had some life in them yet. My feet, specifically my toes, had other plans.

My last few runs all started off well but I noticed some interesting pain as the miles started passing by. The tips of toes started to hurt. Very light pain at first but it did grow as the runs went on. I did my best to ignore it and continued the runs, which is pretty stupid if I’m being honest.

When I got back to the house and removed the shoes everything appeared fine. No bruising, pooling of blood under the toe nails, or blisters. The toes ached though, and they straight up hurt when touching them. It actually was painful to walk after a few minutes.

I first decided to buy new inserts, as the current ones were as old as the shoes. I have extremely flat feet and inserts assist with proper pronation. My thought was that, after 300+ miles they were likely flat as a pancake. So I ordered a new pair. They did not, sadly, resolve the issue. So to the running store I go.

The ladies at the stores were extremely helpful. They talked through what I was experiencing. They also discussed what I was training for and how I was training. After a decent bit of conversation I tried 4 different shoe pairs; Saucony, Brooks Glycerin GTS 22, Brooks Adrenaline GTS 24, Brooks Adrenaline GTS 25. Immediately, I did not like the Saucony. They just did not feel right. The Glycerin had a good feel to them but still didn’t rock my world. The Adrenaline 24 was the same, with them feeling just a little too wide. The Adrenaline 25 felt fantastic and natural, so I went with them. Plus they had a nice bright green in them, which is always a good thing.

Eager to fully try them out I went on a short 3 mile run the next day. Aside from the stiffness of new shoes they were everything I wanted. No pain, my running gait felt natural, and I didn’t have pain in my toes at the end. I know I need to log some longer distances, however I am feeling very positive!