As I mentioned previously, my new running buddy and I went to a real running store to be properly fit for real running shoes, an adventure that had my stomach tied in a tiniest, whiniest of knots. Running shoes and running stores fall deep in the realm of Things Fit People Do in my brain. I had all the same fears in my head that I had when I walked outside for the first time: I certainly don’t look like a runner (yet). Will I get strange looks? Raised eyebrows? Laughs or disbelief?

Writing those thoughts out, they sound ridiculous – and they are/were. No, no one raised their eyebrows. No one laughed, and no one required proof that I run. Of course they didn’t.

The only looks we got were from the other people who had been waiting in the busy store when we were helped and they weren’t. (Not our problem, the dude came to us.) And while I wouldn’t go so far as to say the guy was friendly (you can only ask so much from an overworked employee in a busy store), he was very helpful. The only person uncomfortable in the store was me.

For anyone out there with similar brain blockage, I’ll share the process so you can see for yourself just how far down on your worry list it should be.

I wore the crappy shoes I currently run in, so he had a starting point. He asked how they were – they’re fine, just sometimes a bit tight in the toe – and then felt where my toe was inside the shoe, checked the shoe size and asked what size I wear in regular street shoes. Next, he had me take off my shoes, roll up my pant legs, and stand in front of him so he could see if my feet had any tendencies to roll or whatever. (I was “fairly neutral”, stance-wise, and very glad I’d bothered to shave my legs that morning.)

He brought out one pair for me to try on, had me jog a bit in the back hall of the store to test them out, and then brought out two more for comparison. He ended up hitting the nail on the head with the first pair: they felt like little clouds on my feet.


{My new runnin' shoes. Fancy, no?}

And that was it! Easy, stress free. Just another thing I get all worked up about that ends up being 100% no big deal. They’re needless, these mind games that we play – a fact that I need tattooed on my hand, apparently.

Do you remember your first running store adventure? Or are you a running store virgin like myself?