Pronation Pride

Before the day ends, I'm excited about one fact. That fact is not that I managed to brush my teeth or that magnificent experimental dinner I'd cooked prior to that, or the magnificent concoction - of Old Monk, peach juice, Jaljeera, Eno, and Tang - prepared prior to that. It has to do with one thing I could feel a pride (or a relief, at the least) about - that of my gait.

I bought a pair of cheap Nikes yesterday.
Reading into reviews of my new shoes, I was thrown into a world of shoe jargon. As a consequence of my curiosity, I ended with an education into the things that matter into purchase of a new running shoe - not all feet are created alike, and its the same with the shoes, which are designed with a target audience in mind. This target audience, in turn, is defined by the physical built, and more importantly, the gait of the particular person. There's a term called 'pronation' that applies here, which basically tells about the kind of muscles one's running motion is employing, which in turn affects how well the energy of the impact (and its consequent push) is distributed across the body - the better the gait, the better the distribution, and hence the more the stamina, and the lower the chances of running injuries.

To measure the gait, ideally an expert at the shoe store could help. But in a country where a salesman could fit anywhere, from a shoe store to a lingerie shop, and remain equally ignorant about the customer's needs and the associated jargon, one needs to find ways to do things themselves (अपना हाथ जगन्नाथ, as it popularly goes here). In that need did I come across the Wet Test to determine my foot type. This foot type, in turn, tells whether one's gait is "underpronated", "overpronated", or "neutral". [Hint: neutral is the desirable one] So alongside my brushing, I decided to wash my feet and try judging my pronation. What one does is soak their feet in water, then comfortably stand on a surface, where their imprint could stay long enough for inspection. For this purpose, a piece of plain paper is recommended, and so I'd kept a brown paper bag from office.

What I found was, that the shape of my imprint matched a normal arch - means the impact of my runs distributes well, and that I could wear just about any shoe (and preferably one with a normal arch). That is exactly what this new shoe offers. To couple that with its lightweight sole and my lightweight physique, it feel a perfect match. With the ADHM and HHM in a coupla' months, this is a welcome end-of-season-sale addition into my kit.
[Now only if I could do some graffiti on my shoe to make it a fairytale]

Two things to feel good about myself as the day closes - One is the neutral gait, as you can see in the pic above. The other of me being marginally above the median in some particular measurement, of which I can't post a pic.

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