New running shoes

I think I’m finally at a point where I can favorably offer an opinion of my new(er) Brooks running shoes. I recently bought a pair of Brooks Defyance 6 (and YES it bothers me that they spelled defiance this way – really, is anything gained by intentionally misspelling a word to use in a product name?) These are the newest iteration of my previous shoes and I’d liked those well enough to stick with the brand. I used my Defyance 5s for about a year until I started noticing the signs that they were wearing out – unusual aches and pains that I was reasonably sure I couldn’t attribute to normal exercise. To be honest, I was disappointed the shoes didn’t last longer but we all know how hard I am on clothes and such. Well, maybe only I know that – but take my word for it! For the record, I logged 297 miles in them before I switched over.

But when I did switch over, I thought maybe I’d made a mistake. The nagging pains continued and forced a weeklong break from running to figure out what was going on. My feet felt heavy and the shoes didn’t feel as I thought they should – we were not one with each other! However, six weeks after buying them and 13 runs later, I finally feel like they’re comfortable. Maybe it just took me that long to break them in? Whatever the reason, I’m relieved. I really didn’t want to have to try out another pair!