Paradox of the New Shoes

You've seen my shoes. They are old and gross, and I knew long ago that I would need a new pair before doing the marathon. I also knew that it wasn't a good idea to run a marathon on a brand new pair of shoes. I did some research, and it seems that people generally buy their new shoes about a month before the big day. That gives them plenty of time to break them in. So last week - 1 month out - I bought my new running shoes. And yes, they are a bit stiff.

Now here's where I messed up. You want to break in your new shoes before the marathon. This weekend I'm supposed to do 20 miles, which might as well be the full distance as far as my feet are concerned. So I feel like I should have broken in these shoes LAST month, to prepare them for this run. Of course, last month I had to do 16 miles, and you shouldn't run 16 miles on new shoes. So I should have bought new shoes in January. But January was the half-marathon, and the last thing you want to do is run a half-marathon in new shoes. I should have bought new shoes in December. But then they'd be almost 4 months old by the time the marathon came around and I'd need new shoes.

Ergo, you can never buy new shoes.

(I think the way out is to use old shoes for the long run, then break in the new shoes during the shorter midweek runs. Which I usually skip because I'm still recovering.)