Back in the fall I bought my favourite shoes ever:

My happy shoes 🙂

I loved the colour and more importantly I loved the fit of these Aisics.  i bought them on a Saturday and I ran 32km in them on the Sunday.  Knowing I had bought my dream shoes I figured I may as well pick up a second pair since the price had been lowered.  The next chance I had, I picked up another pair, different colour, but exactly the same shoes.

I spent the fall running in my first pair and they never failed me, including during my first marathon.  Once in a while I grabbed the second pair to use for a short run.  Somehow the left shoe never felt quite right but I just kept putting it down to it being a little stiff and needing to be broken in.  A week ago I did my first long run in the second pair and completely destroyed my big toenail.  Now, we all know black and missing toenails are a badge of honour in running.  While the rest of the world may think it is disgusting, for runners it almost a rite of passage.  But this one just pissed me off.  I knew it was because of the shoe and not because of any great running accomplishments that I had sustained this injury.  But for the life of me I could not figure out why I was having such a problem when my other pair was so perfect.

Finally I thought to compare my right shoe (which was fitting fine) and the left shoe that was causing the problem.  When I put them together for comparison I discovered that the left shoe, while labelled as the correct size, is in fact a half size smaller.  That half size combined with winter socks and going down hills, makes quite a difference in how a running shoe fits.  Needless to say, I am more than a little irritated.  I am long past the 30 day return policy, nor do I have a receipt.  Regardless, I have emailed the manager of the store and am hoping to hear back this week as to what to do next.  Right now all I know is I have learned a new lesson; don’t just check the size printed in the shoe, compare both shoes to make sure the sizes match.  Who knew???