Phase 2: NEW SHOES! Beginning review of Skechers Forzas

So, total weight loss since January: 43 pounds.  I'm super excited.

I took the next step into my half-marathon adventure - new shoes.  I haven't bought running shoes since 2009.  I debated about buying walking vs. running shoes, but I hope to actually do the race 5 minutes walking, 2 minutes running, so I figured running shoes would be better.

The Houston marathon people gave registrants a discount code for Skechers, who is one of the new (or relatively new) sponsors.  At first I laughed.  Skechers - really?  I love Skechers, but they always seemed kinda fun and fluffy shoes rather than serious sneakers.  I've been out of the loop, so I had no idea they came out with a performance line, got Meb to be a speaker for them, and they've actually been getting pretty decent reviews.

As I'm still a bit too intimidated to go back into a running store (because clearly, I do NOT look like a runner.... yet), I went ahead and bought some online.  I have serious overpronation issues - hence my ankle issues from 2009 and my arches have fallen.  FALLEN.  On a side note, the doc won't do surgery to life them because my feet were pretty flat anyway, so I just have to be careful about what shoes I wear.  Anywhoo, Skechers Forzas are the stability, motion-control shoes, so I decided to go for it.  I usually wear running shoes a size up (in case of swelling - most runners do this), but that makes my shoes an 11.  In size 11, the colors were extremely limited, so I settled on a navy and pink. I usually prefer light-colored shoes (because I feel weird about wearing white socks with dark shoes), but I knew this wouldn't be my last pair before the half-marathon if all goes well.

They came in today, and I am super excited to try them on.  Right out of the box, the smell of chemicals and rubber is strong, but I know that will go away.  The color is much darker than it shows on the website, but it's not bad.  I like the hot pink near accents and the blue color wheel that is seems to go through.  I put them on my feet and DAMN.  I can feel the arch support/motion control/overpronation support that I need.  And they are extremely light weight.  I'm embarrassed that I can't remember which Asics or Brooks I used to wear (whatever the highest motion control ones were), but these feel so much better so far.  They're not clunky feeling at ALL.    I'm really intrigued by the inside feeling the most -  I feel like I'm wearing orthotics.

Ok.  Time for a walk to break them in.

Ciao!