My Shoes: ASICS Gel Kayano 20, ASICS Gel Kayano 21 & New Balance Zanthe Fresh foam

Before I started running in earnest, I was using some crappy Reebok shoe that I bought from a factory outlet. It supported me fine whenever I was doing 2.4 km on the treadmill, but when I started running on the road (my first long run was 8 km), it was literally in pieces at the end of the long run.

1st Running Shoe: Gel Kayano 20

Around mid-2014, I went down to Queenstown Shopping Center where I bought my first my first proper running shoe: The Gel Kayano 20. I remembered going to the salesman of one of the bigger shops and telling him that I intended to start running longer distances, and I wanted a good pair of shoes. I was predominantly still running 2.4 km on the treadmill, but I was starting to go up to 5 km distances.

He made me stand on some heat sensitive gel to see whether I was flatfooted or neutral. I was somewhere between neutral and flatfooted (if I remember correctly). I used this pair of shoes mainly on the treadmill in the gym in Batam.

2nd Running Shoe: New Balance Fresh Foam Zanthe Boston

Probably around Apr/May 2015, after John convinced me to try out for the Osim Sundown Marathon, he brought me down to Novena and I bought this pair of shoes. It sure looks nicer than the Gel Kayano 20. At this time I was still based in Batam, and I wanted this pair of shoes for my weekend long runs.

However, there was a problem, whenever I ran with these pair of shoes, the middle of my right sole will have a sharp pain that won't go away for after a day after I had completed my run. Basically, when I ran on Saturday, I was limping on Sunday. The situation got a bit better over 3 long runs, but I still was basically in pain on Sunday.

John mentioned something about heel-toe elevation, and I decided to go down to Novena to ask the the specialists at The Running Lab. After I explained my situation to one of the more experienced looking specialist, he immediately pointed out that the Gel Kayano 20 had a heel drop of 9 mm, while the New Balance was only 5~6 mm. This was probably the reason causing my pain (confirming John's suspicions). He told me that I had to start from 1 to 2 km runs and slowly build up again if I wanted to switch to this shoe.

I didn't want to start again, with the 1/2 marathon less than 2 months away, so I bought my next shoe immediately

3rd Running Shoe: ASICS Gel Kayano 21

Got this pair for $249 (I think I got the Kayano 20 for $200 only). Pain went away immediately! I was so happy that it went away.

So far this has been my main running shoe and it has been working well. I should probably take out my Kayano 20 and use that for my weekday runs to rotate the shoes.

Future

John has been advising me to go back to a less structured running shoe. He believes that this will enable me to run faster. I will probably stick to the Gel Kayano 21 until the end of the year (where I will run my full marathon at the Standard Chartered Marathon) before I switch over to less structured type.

I have been reading up about shoes in general, and there are discussions over strucural support, foot pronation etc. I'm considering going to see a specialist one of these days to get some professional advice on which type of shoe to wear.