4 miles and some new shoes

4.27 miles, to be precise. I forgot my running shoes this weekend (along with almost everything else that I needed for the weekend - basically have my cycling kit, a laptop and the clothes I'm standing up in), and it was time anyways, so it was down to Runners Need for a new pair. Times have changed a bit since the chaps passed you several pairs of shoes, then watched your gait as you ran up and down the road outside the shop: now it's all treadmills and video cameras on your feet. Which is quite scary really : I had no idea that I turned my ankles in quite so much - almost 90 degrees much in the case of my right foot, not quite so bad on my left. But lovely to be able to see how quickly that could be corrected, just by choosing the right running shoe. Which is a men's Brooks Adrenaline GTS 9 in a size 7.5.

Now you might have thought that running was a cheap sport. You get into your trainers, go out on the street - no membership fees, no price-per-run. It's not. As soon as you start running distance - and by distance I mean anything over about 15 miles a week - you're into serious shoe money, of the sort that only my girlfriends shopping in Covent Garden can equal. The Adrenalines were £85, and to keep my feet safe, I now need to replace them every 3 or 4 months. Which is roughly equal to a deal on a gym subscription: £28 per month (my works gym is £15, but that's subsidised). Then there's race fees (because you can't run for long before wondering what it's like to run in company agaist the clock), which are admittedly partly offset by the free t-shirts that most of them give out, although a love of bright colours seems to be important for this right now. And then there's the Runners World magazine habit, and all the detritus that seems to come with running distance - the funny-shaped water bottles, runners pouches, lightweight jackets etc. None of which I bregrudge - I'm just sticking to the trainer tax (and there are ways to make those cheaper: Adrenaline 9s are £76.50 at wiggle, Adrenaline 8s were £40 at prodirectrugby.com and so on - basically, go back one version at the right time and you can get your shoes for roughly half price) and race fees for now.

So, having bought my trainers, I needed somewhere to christen them, and it's only a week to the Bluewater 10k, so I really do need to go out and pound those pavements. D duly threw me out for a run that we'd mapped, discussed, planned on a 3-mile route that even I couldn't get lost on. I got lost. It involved a park with activity stations - I found a park with activity stations, but this being London and London being full of parks, it was the wrong one. Never mind - I ran round, made a guess at the right way home, checked a local bus-stop map and miraculously (for me) set off in the right direction. Running verdict? Right knee blew out again (swelled up during the run and had to be manipulated back into the right place relative to my leg) but no other problems with the shoes - feet v. comfortable in them. Run quite a fun one through some well-mixed urban terrain - projects to city farm and victorian ornamental park. Could have run on for a mile or two, but not sure about anything longer than that - will have to work hard before I can start to attempt the underround seriously.