I had an unusual experience in my quest for off-road running shoes today. The running shop I went to first was very busy so I thought I'd go and get a cup of coffee or something and wait for the queue to shorten. Almost immediately however I spied another sports shop that I'd not seen nor heard of before. Apart from the tall, gangly shop assistant it was empty of people, so I went in and got chatting to said shop assistant called Steve, who spoke with a strangely strong English accent and despite having broken his wrist two days prior playing football for "Oz Spurs" (who had unfortunately for him come up against their arch-rivals "Oz Arsenal" who played in a "spirited manner", hence the broken wrist) immediately went to town throwing shoes hither and thither in a gratifying attempt to fit me with some decent offies whilst regaling me with his personal experience of the shoes and the general shoe industry thoughts on shoe construction for off-road use.
And the unusual experience? Well apart from a total lack of normal shoe-shop gimmicks, the shoes we agreed upon as being best for me were also...
ta da... the cheapest!
Amazingly, they were only
one third the price of my Brooks Adrenalines. This sort of thing never happens to me normally, so I'm still a little nervous: half-expecting the shoes to fall apart when I hit the trails, or for a cruelly located seam to invoke a sudden onset of savage blisters... we'll see.
So now I'm onto yet another brand of shoe, this time Nike, and their Alvord VI trail shoes. With "aggressive lugs" and "encapsulated air" and in a rather fetchingly gothic dark grey, they should do the trick. Reviews all seem positive at least. But it did get me to thinking about the various brands of shoe I've tried over the years, and the only conclusion I can reach is that they've pretty much all got a good shoe for me if you choose carefully. Certainly no one brand has stood out for me to the point where I'd stick loyally to that one brand forever more.
Anyway, all I have to do now is get off-road and check these new 'uns out.
Very soon, Hortense, very soon.
No! No! November...
