I love my Mizzy Creation 11s. Love them. I usually alternate between two pairs of shoes for several months, but it just so happened that my next shoe purchase was happening right before the Winter Classic 10-miler. I was hesitant because buying runners before a longer run is just not smart - unless of course it’s the exact same model as your last pair. This wasn’t the case for Kay Miller. I actually enjoy trying shoes for a few years and then switching up to a different brand. Makes life interesting and ultimately, the goal is to land on The Shoe and use it for the rest of my life. Many people have found Their Shoe. I kind of like not having just one.
My shoes were like lovers*:
In 2000, I fell in love with Mizuno Wave Riders weeks after I fell in love with running (we had seriously insane running sessions during post season and one day it just HIT me that I actually enjoyed that ball of fire in my lungs)
In 2002 I tried the Adidas SuperNova Classics. No girl wants to admit she ever gained “The Freshman 10” and I will be the first to admit for YEARS I did not think I had, until I saw pictures, which in all fairness, was coupled with serious thigh muscle...it was just buried in cereal and bread:) I ran my first half marathon in Novas and felt as if I were running on clouds. I actually enjoy checking off the “Philly” box when I signed up for races. Street cred.
So I stuck with Addy’s and Mizzy’s for a while. Then they changed the Super Nova, I lost some of my soccer butt and they became too much shoe for me, so I went looking for a lower profile. A dear dear friend went to work with Brooks, so I tried a few of them (Adrenaline, Glycerin) finally landing on my favorite: the Trance. I lived with this puppy for a while. We had amazing moments together. When they didn’t sell them at the Marathon Sports in Brookline, I had no time to waste. I went for the shoe that the “classy masses" loved: The Asics Gel Kayano. The mother ship. A solid shoe. We dated, they were good to me. They’re now retired to the closet with the rest of my kickarounds.
About that time, my Saucony Omni (poor decision. a good shoe for sure but waaaaaay too much shoe for me) were having a mental. My arch began pricking. This was the breakdown. And so, off to Runner’s Alley, where I fell back in love with my first love: Mizunos! Creations!
Two days before the 10-miler, I call my friend, unsure of how these Creation 11s are fitting. A few short runs on the treadmill and I felt like I was running on a waffle iron. I went back to RA and explained, is this normal? This slightly stiffer feel and the fact that my middle toe feels the waffle iron? I’m neutral this should work, right? 48hrs before I run a frozen hilly windy course and I cannot run in the Saucony’s. They were on Valium in my closet. The Creations must work. $120 bucks later they WILL work. And work they did. They worked so hard I paid them overtime. I love them. They are low-flying angels. My legs feel great my legs love them. Only weird thing is that the sole started shredding away on the heel tread a few weeks ago. Not sure why; none of my other shoe’s tread wear this way. But it never affected this runner. My friend, Colin works with Mizzy and was curious about this. So I’m trying out the Rider (again!). I get them one day before a 24-hr road race. I run 19 miles:) This is going to be sweet. Hopefully these tar-tamers will be easy on these feet.
Aside from the performance and techie likes and dislikes of the shoes I’ve run in in the past, the shoes that line up like so many warriors in my closet before being shuffled off to the Reuse-A-Shoe bin, I really love running. I’m just now thinking about it, thinking about the time I broke my toe and ran through the pain because I was part of a triathlon team and so badly didn’t want to disappoint. The way my IT band clicked painfully and made me nauseous for weeks, the achilles cuts I suffered from a pair of misfits, the Mt. Washington Road Race that tore my hamstrings apart for six months, the early morning runs with Pois at JP Licks, Wednesday evenings at Niketown, the Charles River. Mary and I marking every European city with a 45 minuter. Whether it was pain, pride, progress or the pursuit. All worth it. All run through or sidelined or tacked up on a wall with the memory of what it meant, what it means. The early morning promise you make for yourself about yourself. Your legs, your heart, your shoes, have another run in them. Just one more run.
xo
kay
*i don’t profess to know technical terminology about running shoes. i just know what I wear and how it feels and I try to describe it. I have no clue what lovers are either.
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