Munzi Wave Runner 15 shoes: or Who Knew?

[Catrin]

I've been dealing with athletic shoes that don't fit properly for some time but have been holding off replacing them. My feet are hard to fit...then my gym announced a very nice discount at several local athletic gear/running shoe stores & I figured it was time to stop the pain.

I am not a "runner", though in the course of my group training we do a fair amount of running. For example, last Sunday's workout featured sets of deadlifts and renegade rows that included 200 meter sprints between sets. 5 sets in all. To my surprise I actually did all of the sprinting without stopping OR having a heart attack (and no knee/ankle problems later). I did wonder about the latter on that last sprint - and I doubt it was an actual sprint - but I did complete it in under the 1 minute cutoff

I went to a couple of stores - tried on lots of different shoes including cross trainers. The last one had a fitter who put me through my paces, both walking, jogging and running, and noted that I've high arches (not news) and a neutral stride (had no idea what that meant but I do now).

I wound up with Mizuno Wave Rider 15 shoes (the white/dark shadow version as that was the only color they had) and I have to say that they are the best things that have EVER been on my feet. Who knew that I've been wearing the wrong size athletic shoes for all of my 52 years? For regular shoes I take a 8.5-9, but these are size 10! They are also wide, which was another surprise as I thought my feet were more narrow. They are wide enough for my forefoot and my toes finally have enough room (all of them, not just my big toe) but my narrow heel is held nicely by these shoes & I've the arch support I require. No heel slippage at all, unlike all of the other shoes I tried. I've been wearing the same size in athletic shoes as regular....size does indeed matter. My feet seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when I tried them out, and tomorrow will be their first real test.

I seem to be inching closer and closer to running...it will be interesting to see what kind of difference it makes to have shoes that actually fit