Clicking My Heels

I love my Asics, I really do. But when I saw these in my Roadrunner catalogue, I fell in love. I mean, the pink sole?? Awesome. It's too bad they're racing flats. =( I bet every runner has a story about their feet, and I have mine, too. Want to hear it? Great!!

So... it all started when I was a little ballet dancer. My feet have always rolled in (overpronated), and I had to strengthen them A LOT for ballet. I used resistance bands, foot exercises, everything! I wanted to be a professional dancer (oh, how I loved to dream) and the only way to do that was to have perfect feet. In 8th grade, I finally got my pointe shoes. I loved them- they made me feel so strong. My first two years en pointe (yes, it is spelled with "en") were great- my teachers were very experienced and were able to tell me exactly what I was doing wrong and whether my shoes fit correctly. My 3rd year, I switched dance schools, and that's where things got bad. My feet were callused and messed up, and my teachers didn't spend time helping me with them. Not good. =(

Of course, this affected my running. I started noticing a sharp pain in the ball of my right foot, and when I went to the podiatrist, he told me I had sesamoiditis. He said that my sesamoid bone had shattered, and if I hurt it anymore, I would need surgery to remove the shards of it! Ew! We tried everything- gel inserts, custom orthotics, even steel plates in the bottom of my shoes. Nothing worked. My breaking point was when I ran a community 5k- my feet hurt like never before. I thought my arches were literally going to break in half! It was horrible. No shoes fit "great" and whenever I tried a new shoe store to get more opinions, they always had me try the same one! I'm still looking for that perfect shoe- one with enough arch support to keep me from pronating, but enough cushioning to keep my sesamoid bones from breaking again. Anyone have any ideas?