Pleasantly annoying running shoes issue - I'm running faster.

Hi All,

I am competing in my first half marathon this Sunday and I was perfectly happy with the pace I would run at from my training runs. I wasn't looking to set the world alight and was aiming for below two hours and five minutes.

The running shoes I have been using, I am ashamed to say, were rather old (eight years plus) so I decided to replace them. They had given up any cushioning that they once had and I got a little lecture from the salesman about the state of them.

So now I am the proud owner of a new pair of running shoes.

However, all my runs in said new shoes have been much quicker, well for me anyway. I've been knocking off several minutes in training runs with these new trainers.

Can shoes make that much of a difference or is this just psychological?

The problem now is I am not sure how to run the half marathon. Try sticking to the original pace or push for a faster time. My last long run was 21 Km and under 2 hours, well ahead of schedule.

Cheers

Neil

I'm guessing a mixture...and I am guessing!

New shoes are likely to match your gait and therefore help your posture and make you more efficient.  This is going to make you feel beter etc etc....

It's unclear from your original post whether the shoes are making you faster for teh same effort level, or you are running faster but putting more effort in.

I'd say to run the half marathon at your usual level of effort and if you go faster - that's a bonus.

Although, surely if you've run 21k in the new shoes then a half marathon shouldn't be a problem - only another 100m unless I'm mistaken?