My First Guest Post - And Airr Sofsole Review

My friend Patti has been having some IT band issues (at least, in our professional opinions that is what it is) and mentioned that she thought she might need orthotics. I told her I had a pair of Airr Sofsole inserts sent to me by Implus Footcare. The best person to review a product is someone who has a genuine interest in them and I thought it would be a great chance to help her and get a good product review for Implus in exchange. I offered up the inserts in exchange for an (honest) review, and she jumped at the offer.

So I gave her the inserts a few weeks ago and patiently waited for her to give them a shot. The review has finally arrived and thus ... my first guest post! Patti is lucky enough to be the author of post #900. I thought about waiting for a real monumentus occasion and posting this in honor of my 1000th post but didnt want to keep everyone in suspense.

So here is Patti, without any edits or censoring ;)

Product Review: Airr Sofsole
Cushioning: max
Arch: med

During the 2008 Chicago marathon, other than the horrible UTI that started up around mile 15 (yes ladies, ouch) my feet were the only things hurting at the end of 26.2. Since then, I’ve been finding that during long runs, my feet will start to feel tired, which then leads to my hips feeling tired.

At one of our recent long runs (when Dawn was too drunk to show up) I ran with a different set of ladies. One knew a lot about running gear. I figured I’d take advantage and ask her if she had any suggestions for my tired feet. Of course, she did. Apparently there are several reasons you might need an insert or orthotic. Collapsed arches are common for women who have been pregnant, not me. High arches were the more likely reasons I was feeling the pain I was.

Because Dawn and her blog are super famous, she was sent some goodies. And because I’m super broke, Dawn decided to share her goodies with me.

Today I pulled my inserts out of my shoes, surprisingly easy, and shoved in the Airr Sofsole insoles. Honestly, less than a minute and they were in. Perfect fit. You can trim the toes if necessary.

My feet did feel strange in my shoes, like there wasn’t quite enough room for them to be fitting in at first. I got over this feeling and didn’t notice a real difference in overall feel while wearing them.

I walked the 2o minutes to the gym, fine and then ran on the treadmill for a good 40 minutes. My knee wasn’t giving me any pain, I hardly felt the IT band issues I’ve been having, and my feet felt well supported. On the walk home, it was a bit more uncomfortable. Because my foot was sitting higher in the shoe, the back of my ankle was rubbing against a part of my shoe. This would probably subside with more wearing, or be fixed with different socks.

I was glad to be able to try them out for a 4 mile run. I know it’s not the same running on a treadmill as it is on the street. If Dawn will let me, I think I’ll try them out on this weekend’s 6 mile taper run to see how they work out.

Overall, I would say they were very easy to use: easy to get in and out of the shoe, easy fit, and easy to wash and dry. For the short time I used them they didn’t hurt anything and I think they helped to minimize the pains I’ve been feeling when running.

In response: I was not "too drunk" to run, but instead merely revovering from an evening in which I had consumed a few adult beverages and stayed out past curvew.

Running Log
Time:34:27   Distance:3.49mi   Pace:9:53

Splits:
1 9:56
2 9:42
3 9:53

A couple of late night miles, yet again. Due to the death of my Mizuno Nirvanas, I had to go back to some pretty old shoes. I have a pair of not-so-old shoes, but they have dog poop on them. I didnt feel like cleaning them off today, or any day really (and thus, the reason they have been sitting in the garage forever now). So instead I had to go back a pair prior to that. And the sad thing is, the old shoes (like 2007 ones I should have gotten rid of but luckily didnt) were way better than the ones I have been running in.

I do think that the running gods were on my side tonight though ... I didnt hit a single stoplight. What are the odds of that? (Note: I ran through approximately 10 stoplight intersections ... 1 or 2 of the smaller intersections were red, but there wasnt a car in sight so I just cruised through).