Guest post by Phil, who has previously written about radio runner and the Hurden 18.
I don’t really care about my appearance. As long as I am regarded as super hot by the leading actresses and models of the day, I am quite relaxed about my ear hair.
So, I am not exactly a boxfresh type of guy – but I am loyal to my product purchases.
That means I’ve worn the same brand of work/casual trainers for 15 years and my typical black jeans/T-shirt combo gets heads ignoring from Paris to Milan.
Since I took up running about three years ago, this loyalty (laziness, you say?) has also appeared in my race choices.
This April will be my third year of pounding the pavements in the Manchester marathon. I have only ever run one 10k race (Regent’s Park – four times) and my parkruns have all been about Finsbury Park baby.
Back in the day when I needed to buy my first pair of running shoes I did not have a Scooby Doo, Fred, Velma or Daphne about what to do.
I sought some advice from a shop. I took their treadmill test to see what would be the best type of shoes for my hooves.
The genuinely helpful assistant gave me three options. There was colourful trainer number one, running shoe two with bright colours and the third one scorched my eyeballs.
I had no reference point to make an informed decision, so I chose the most comfortable. Here began my loyalty/lazy/love affair with Asics.
Those bright green Asics Gel-1170 have been with me through some tough times. The hills of Dublin and straight lines of Manchester marathons, being chased by three dogs and one squirrel (separate occasions) and some long, lonely training runs.
I have two pairs and feel great affection for them, although they are getting a bit threadbare. So when Lazy Girl offered me a new pair of shoes for my reflections on trainers for this blog, I said yes – as longs as they are Asics.
I am a bit shy of the new pair, which appear to me to be, well, trendy in a two tones of blue kinda way. But I strode out with them at the weekend and fancied they were getting some admiring glances.
Maybe I’m a fashionista after all.
Phil’s new Asics were kindly provided by Millet Sports. Hooves, model’s own.
What did he think of the functional properties of the shoe?
They were good at being blue.
As I’ve said before in another blog, you shouldn’t buy a pair of shoes because I or anyone else told you they were good and so this isn’t a critical evaluation of the shoes. This is a blog about finding something you like and sticking to it, whatever that may be.
Ah okay, I understand. I’m glad he’s getting on with them and does not regret switching loyalties! 🙂
I ofc mean switching model loyalties as he is still an Asics Admirer!
Ahh, shoe loyalty. I have four pair of my favorites stashed away from when they went on clearance. That’s not lazy, that’s planning ahead!
Oh I’m exactly the same. I’ve been running in New Balance 1260s (used to be 1226s until they updated!) for about 6 years now. I did try briefly to branch out (still within NB, mind) but I came crawling back.
I was actually really impressed with Runner’s Need about a year ago – I went in saying I was looking for a new pair, they didn’t stock NB at the time and said that if I’d been happy with them for so long, then there weren’t going to try and sell me something else as you usually like a shoe for a reason! Which was a refreshing approach – nice to know these chains aren’t always about the hard sell!