Week four has been painful (so much so that I am going to devote an entire post to it soon). But I kept up with all my miles anyway. #noexcuses

I’m 99% sure that my shoes caused my plantar fasciitis, so the obvious remedy here is to get new shoes. Turns out they’re pretty serious when they say you should only use your shoes for 300-400 miles– that’s about four months… I’ve had my shoes for a year.

Apparently it’s recommended to have a few pairs of shoes when you’re running the amount I am, so my parents agreed to get me one pair and I decided to get a second one too.

We ended up going out on Black Friday to try to find me some. I don’t think I’ve ever been Black Friday shopping because that’s when all the crazies come out and no deal is worth that.

But my foot hurt, so I did. We went all over, even to a super fancy running store to get my feet fitted. I had planned to spend about $60, maybe $70, on these new shoes. Well, long story short, that all went out the window.

I have Asics now, and I wanted to stick with the brand because according to my mom’s podiatrist, Asics and Brooks are the best running shoes for your feet.

After visiting five or six stores, finding out that my current shoes are a half a size too small, and learning that special running socks are a thing, we returned home far from empty handed, but with no running shoes.

I ended up finding the ones I want (Brooks Ghost and Asics Nimbus) but none for less than like $120. No thanks.

Thank God for Haley, who knows some great online sites for running shoes. When we got home, we found the best deal on Road Runner Sports. Haley’s used them before, and they processed and shipped super quickly (I ordered them late Friday night, and they’re supposed to come on Tuesday).

Throughout this whole adventure, I mostly learned that with running shoes, you get what you pay for. And since I’m up to almost 20 miles a week, I need nice (read: expensive) shoes.

My $90 Asics Nimbus are shipping to me as we speak.