I’m sure this is not exciting to anyone other than myself, but I’m always amazed at how great it feels to run in a new pair of shoes. Perhaps this is because I usually wait until my old ones are seriously thrashed and beyond due for retirement. When I compared my new Hardrocks to the old ones, it looked as if the new ones had a half inch more cushion in them and were significantly narrower, even though they were the exact same model.
I have seriously beaten my old ones to hell. It doesn’t seem like they have that many miles on them (but I don’t keep track). I think adventure racing really accelerates the wear and tear on equipment – even shoes. Anyway, it felt like running on pillows when I took these guys out the first time. Awesome, awesome, awesome!
I also realized that I have a ridiculous amount of shoes that have been retired, or are semi-retired. I now have 4 pairs of Hardrocks, a pair of Salomons, a pair of Brooks Cascadias, a pair of New Balance somethings (they were free), and some Asics road shoes. And that’s after I got rid of a few, even older, pairs. If I add the 3 pairs of mountain bike shoes, 1 pair of cycling shoes, and 3 pairs of climbing shoes, that makes 15 pairs of of sport-specific shoes in the garage. That really seems ridiculous. That also may be the reason the garage smells so hellaciously awful!
I know the feeling. The biggest reason I tried some new trail shoes was that my Hardrocks smelled so damned bad. I like the new color… the gray/blue ones I had just kinda turned brown. Not sure why I even care, but I like orange/red trail shoes.