It’s not common but it can happen. At the worst opportune moment, your shoes fail you. Maybe it’s on a training run, or worse yet, it’s during a race or somewhere where you are miles from getting help or another pair of shoes.
I’ve seen it more than a few times.
Shoes that fell apart where the upper joins the midsole. Shoes where the upper material was so flimsy it came apart running in an adventure race. Shoes that partially melted when left too close to a fire in the desert in Chile (that was user error though!). Shoes with seams that did not hold, leaving gapping holes in the uppers. Shoes where the outersoles came apart. Shoes whose shoelaces won’t stay tied. Shoes that simple fell apart.
Then the other day a story on Facebook caught my attention. One of Nike’s elite runners was running the Berlin Marathon this past Sunday and had a major shoe failure.
Keya’s Eliud Kipchoge won the marathon, but the insoles of both shoes came up and out the back heel counter of the shoe. He had run in the shoes previously in Kenya without incident. Here’s a link to the story on The Wall Street Journal’s website.
In the marathon, the shoes failed around the first kilometer! It’s hard to be certain, but he missed the world record by just 63 seconds. Setting a new world record was his goal for the race. Nike said he was testing a new prototype.
I feel for Mr. Kipchoge.
Sometimes stuff just happens. Sometimes though it happens because of user error, as in one of my examples above.
Your job is to make sure that whenever you lace up your shoes, they are in good working condition. How often do you take a few minutes and check your shoes? Take out the insoles and clean out the shoes and wipe off the insoles. Check the insoles to make sure that aren’t flatter than a pancake or even worn through. Make sure the back edge of the insole around the heel hasn’t folded over or formed a hard, thick edge. Check your laces for worn spots that could break, Check the shoes top to bottom for seams coming apart or weak areas. Check the midsole to make sure it still has life left in it. Make sure the inside fabric of the heel counter doesn’t have holes in it. Make sure the outersole hasn’t loosened at the edges and that it isn’t work through.
That’s your job. It really pretty simple. But you’d be surprised how many times I’ve seen runners in a race that they’ve paid a lot of money to enter, and trained hard for, only to wear shoes that should have been replaced.
Don’t let your shoes fail you, -and make sure you don’t fail your shoes.
