Wooden Shoe Like to Know!

Ah, shoes.

My wife has unfortunately caught onto my fascination with shoes. As I sit on the side of the bed, taking off my shoes for the night, I will occasionally pause, shoe in hand, and stare. She'll ask, "What are you doing? Are you pretending rocket ships again?" And it's true... the sleek oblong-ness of a well made shoe seems, to me, as if it were meant to be a Space Cruiser, speeding to Aldebaran with a load of emergency supplies and the 4th Marine Expeditionary Force... meant to bring relief to the beleaguered pioneers on humanity's most distant space colony.

Shoes are meant to hold things. Of course, those things are our feet, not the 4th MEF. But my feet are pretty messed up... they started very flat, and only went down hill during my time in the Infantry... so it's hard to find just the right shoes to make anything comfortable. I believe I have finally found such shoes, thanks to the good folks at New Balance and their willingness to produce 4E widths!

Behold, the size 12 width 4E MT910... Things of beauty.

Photo by me, MT910 Trail Shoes on Woodpile

These bad boys are trail shoes, so they're meant to be a little more rugged, which is a plus for the plus sized gentleman about town. They are the perfect width; my feet don't spill over the inserts one bit! (That's the quickest way to tell if a pair of shoes will fit: pull out the inserts and stand on them...  if the edges of your feet go beyond the insert, the shoes are too narrow).

They even perfectly fit the orthotics I just received from the VA, little miracles in themselves... they're carbon fiber with a shallowed area under the second metatarsal joints to provide relief for some nerve damage I acquired in the Marines. Plus, there's a carbon fiber "rib" that runs the length of the orthotic up under the big toe area to support pushing off from that joint (and therefore reduce the chance of gout). They're pretty effing high tech, and they match the shoes brilliantly.

No, by the way, I don't work for New Balance... :) I'm just lucky to live near a factory store, so fine pieces of footwear can be had at a discount.

So, if these shoes don't help me work up to 5K, no shoes ever will. We're off to Aldebaran! OoRah!