My new, free shoes

This afternoon Alli and I went for a trip to Hyde near Manchester to visit Sweatshop and to pick up my new shoes. I was so excited so it was just as well that Al was driving or I would definitely have got a speeding ticket.

The manager, Jason, was extremely knowledgeable and pleasant.  He had a female assistant, from another shop, with him who wanted to learn about running shoe fitting.  She put me on an unusal looking machine with mirrors, glass and lights.  It was showing the pressure areas of my feet green, so that she could assess my arches, etc. 

The amazing machine also formed some special innersoles shaped to the contours of my feet.  However, these weren't included with the shoes but could be purchased for around £40. 

I was then asked if I had any preferance to the make or model of shoes that I wanted and I remembered the wonderful Mizunos that I had fallen in love with at Bourne Sports, so I suggested them.  Funnily enough, Jason said that he would have recommended Mizuno or New Balance too because they are broader and would suit my wide, high feet best. I didn't even know that, I liked them because they were so light and comfortable, it was like not having shoes on.

The next step of shoe fitting was to walk back and forth barefoot in the shop so that the lady could watch my gait and any problems that might be with it.  Jason also watched me walk and told the lady that he had picked something up within 10 seconds of seeing my feet and was prompting her to come up with options of what it was.  He said I was doing something with my right foot, which I couldn't possibly remember what it was as he used the technical terminology for it.  He gave her 4 options of different problems that could cause this gait problem I had and she had to guess which one it was.  I rember that one of them was bunions, which he said it couldn't be because I didn't have any.  The other was some kind of virus, which he said I didn't have either.  The third I don't know what it was but apparently I didn't have that either. 

I have something called Haglund's Deformity; which sounds really horrible but I have looked it up on the net and it doesn't seem that bad.  Haglund’s deformity is a bony enlargement on the back of the heel. The soft tissue near the Achilles tendon becomes irritated when the bony enlargement rubs against shoes.  This often leads to painful bursitis, which is an inflammation of the bursa (a fluid-filled sac between the tendon and bone).  This is what I must have had after all when I thought I had a medial ankle sprain. At least I know now and I can hopefully prevent it from coming back by doing loads of achilles stretches.  To some extent, heredity plays a role in Haglund’s deformity. Inherited foot structures that can make one prone to developing this condition include:

• A high-arched foot
• A tight Achilles tendon
• A tendency to walk on the outside of the heel.

After that they finally brought me several pairs of shoes to try, with and without the special insoles.  They explained the difference between each pair but let me decide for myself which I prefferred.  The lady put me on the treadmill with the first choice of a Neutral shoe, the Mizuno Rider 15, which I quite liked but they seemed to lack the springiness that I had gotten used to with my Karriomors.  She then let me try a pair with an arch support which felt dead strange and forced even more of my weight on to the outer edge of my feet.  Previously, Jason had already predicted that i wouldn't like them and now I can see why. 

I mentioned the what I called spring in my current shoes and the lady knew what I meant straight away.  She asked me to put on a pair of Wave Enigma, which I liked instantly, even before trying them on the treadmill.  I knew then that they were the ones for me. They were not in the sale and should cost a staggering £115.00 but I didn't have to pay a penny and sadly I couldn't buy the insoles either.