Put your best foot forward

You know that feeling when you finish a long race? The feeling of sheer joy and utter exhaustion, often accompanied by cramps, shortness of breath and the overwhelming desire to just collapse?

As unappealing as this will sound to most people, it's the moment a lot of runners CRAVE. I know what you're thinking, and yes we know we're weird - we're okay with it.

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Thinking back on some of my toughest races and moments like the one I just described, I discovered something quite peculiar. After all those miles, my feet take the most severe beating, but wind up in much better shape than the rest of my body.

Some call it the benefits of evolution, I call it the advantage of good shoes.

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Recently, there's been a lot of hype surrounding barefoot running. Sure, that's how humans ran for thousands of years, wearing animal furs or loin cloths...but how many marathon runners have you seen in loin cloths lately?

Exactly.

Some say the evolution of the running shoe has made runners more lazy, leading to bad form and injury. Well, the evolution of television has made people lazy, leading to obesity and unemployment. That's a lousy argument.

My point is, today's running shoe is like a luxury car. It's comfortable, looks good and if driven right, will be the best on the road.

Of course, there's more than one luxury car just as there are several shoes to choose from. In the past five years i've probably gone through at least 15 pairs of shoes. I've tried them all and have always come back to one.

Brooks.

With all due respect to some other shoe makers, Brooks has gotten it right. When I take to the roads, I lace up my Brooks Adrenaline GTS 12's and when I hit the trails, I do so in my Brooks Cascadia's. Something about these shoes makes it feel like they were made just for me, molded around my foot and giving me the perfect mix of comfort and performance.

My encouragement to you: Find the right shoe. Head to your local running store and have yourself properly fitted for shoes.

You'll be amazed to see what happens when you put your best foot forward.