New shoes, new discovery

I have been sold!

Yesterday, I discovered my old pair of faithful Nike Air Span 4 (which fitted with a large front of the shoe) was almost "koyak" - the heel portion of the shoe had almost degraded at one part to a rubber portion, although the shoe remains largely intact and also still well preserved. I cannot remember when I bought this pair of shoes, it must have been almost more than 1.5 years ago. I can only remember I ran Penang half last year with this, and with all the races since then to now, I think it must've clocked its useful number of miles. That said, I was pretty comfortable with the shoe and how it fitted my large feet (!), and with some right socks, I had not have blisters for a while.

Whilst browsing around yesterday at the New Balance store in 1-Utama had a pair of interesting new release of the New Balance 1224 - I was even more ecstatic to discover that Pacesetters had 30% discount (whoopee - this discount paid more than enough for my whole year of membership!).

I also discovered one thing I suspected a long time before - I am really flat footed! And worse also I tend to lean on the heel balance backwards. This is why when I did the Sundown, my sole was so tingling painful for such a long while I could not even sleep right after the race!

I've never been on a new balance before, so this morning took it out for a run (very excitedly) and made 3km before it started to rain! Now, I can't wait to drive to the gym to continue the run, the sorely missed training because I've been too lazy to get up to do the Bukit Aman trail.

Verdict on the shoes so far : Very stable, and good support for long races, but seems to be a bit heavy for short races. Good space on the front of the shoe, and fits well after 1 km, it was sunk in.

Still thinking of which shoe to wear for the singapore race.

Footnote 1: And... wishing all the rest of the guys, all the best in Penang. It was too rushed for me, as I had something on Saturday and had to go for another trip on Monday, so I decided to chill. I will try the 30km on that day at Bukit Aman (hopefully can wake up) to celebrate all of you guys running the Penang race.

Footnote 2: Pacesetters members, are you aware of NB discount of 30%? Its a good deal!!!