Buying shoes.

If you talk to Deirdre, my wonderful wife, she'll tell you not to mention "buying shoes" to me, especially if the shoes are from Nine West and are black.... I don't understand women's shoes and have gone to such degrees of self-torture as to track all shoe waste I mean "purchases" separately so I can report back to her at month end, but I digress....

With my newfound knowledge on the topic of proper shoe fit (see previous post), I was actually excited to go buy new running shoes. After all, I could not begin my traithlon training in earnest with my two-year old Adidas which were a full size too small! Hello shin splints & plantar fasciitis! Not to mention, this shoe purchase was for me and for a PRACTICAL purpose and not yet another pair of black closed-toe pumps, but I digress....

(I love my wife very much, really, she feeds me well and just brought me snack of sliced apples).

Since the Big Feet Store, who opend my eyes to the basics of proper foot care, don't stock many shoes for normal feet like me, I chose Luke's Locker in Fort Worth to go find my perfect pair of running shoes. Coach Tom negotiated a 10% discount for TNT participants.

I entered the store on a Saturday afternoon to find a bustling store of what appeared to be a very helpful and attentive staff. I scanned the room and noticed seemingly experienced runners trying on new shoes. Good sign.

(Let me shift to the present tense to better tell this story...)

A younger teenage employee approaches me and offers help. I accept and give him the advice that I received at the Big Feet Store after my computerized foot scan and proper foot sizing. Size 12. Medium support.

He brings me a few pair of his recommend shoes. I try them on.

He proceeds to "verify" my proper fit, by... GASP, sticking his thumb above my big toe!!

"Noooo! That's not how you do it," I exclaim. "The toe position is secondary to the positioning of the widest part of your foot to the widest part of the shoe." Haven't you had your eyes opened like I have, is what I'm thinking to myself.

He had not been so enlighted.

I try to enlighten him and teach him everything I learned about proper shoe fit, about how 85% of Americans are wearing the wrong shoe size.

He looks at me like a crazy person. I begin to feel like a crazy person.

So, rather than worry about converting this lost soul, I get back to the task at hand. This store has a trendmill on the "showroom floor" so I take my top choices for a quick jog and find the perfect fit in a pair of Asics GT-2110s.

Shoes have model #'s and even model years, didn't you know?