Shoe obsession is a complex thing, covering many areas of the human condition that I don't dare to cover on this blog. I must admit however, to having a vague obsession with running shoes. If you're a runner I think you'll empathise with me here. There is no piece of kit more important to a runner than shoes - the right ones enable you to participate in your sport to your absolute maximum, and the wrong ones can leave you nursing injuries that will keep you off the road for weeks.
My shoes have a lifecycle, which goes something like this:
- Buy new shoes, use them exclusively for running
- When worn out (say around three hundred miles, depending on course conditions) use as casual wear
- Once appearance has degraded further, use as gardening or other work shoes
- Throw them away
Wait. I lied about the last point. I don't throw them away. They just go in to the garage, to my own personal running shoe graveyard. Furthermore, once a pair has found its way to the graveyard, I buy another pair to feed in to the new cycle.
The result is that I tend to have at least six pairs of running shoes floating round the house, when really, I only need two at the absolute maximum. One road, one off-road. Well, I say absolute. Those and a spare pair of road shoes too, just in case. And an extra pair of old off-roaders for screw shoe conversion in the winter. Maybe three off-road pairs as I do the odd bit of running on rocky trails too. Actually, make that four. Some of those trails are pretty wet and grassy, and that's a whole different tread pattern.
You know what? It looks like I don't have enough shoes. Damn. I knew it.
This bloke trying to work it all out.
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