Who else knew that my new running shoes are pronounced ‘Sockony’ and not ‘Sa-Coney’?

Ok, so after much umming and ahhing and not a little encouragement from the runnorfolk Facebook community I finally went out and bought some new running shoes.

Inside the store was a very nice assistant eager to help.

“I normally wear ‘Sa-konys’ I explained feeling expert.

“Ok,” he replied. “I’ll go and see if we have any ‘Sockonys’ in stock.”

What’s this Sockony? I wondered in mild panic. That’s Sau as in Sauvignon, not Sa-u as in Sam (as if anyone would every think that…). A bit like ‘i‘ as in ignorance or idiot, as opposed to ‘i’ as in ice, or incident or implosion. There was no malice intended, no denigration, no implication of illiteracy or running thickedness. But, of course that didn’t stop my mind whirring.

So what do I say now? Do I need to correct myself? Is the other assistant in the shop looking at me as if I’m some kind of dunderball?

Familiar face

Actually, I know him.

“Didn’t you used to own the running shop in Nelson Street?” I ventured.

“Yes, I sold that a few years ago, and they’ve turned it into houses now.”

It’s Pete, I thought.

“You sold me my first proper pair of running shoes – Asics. You’d get me to run up Nelson Street in them.”

Pete helps out a couple of days a week now, it turned out. And he’s also running the City of Norwich Half Marathon, like me on April 15.

Put a sock in it

Meanwhile, his colleague returned with my new running shoes – that’s the Saucony shoe, while I was still trying to get my head around the new pronunciation

“So it’s Sockony, not Sa-Coney, then? I’ve been getting it wrong all this time!”

“That’s what the reps say when they come in.”

Oh, I like that, that’s good. See what he did there? Very courteously didn’t contradict me, clever that. May be a British thing, or even a Norfolk thing (no really I’m being serious), or just good training?

May be it was just nothing, like the proverbial mountain out of a molehill.

But now it all became clear and I realised why this previous post made no sense whatsoever, despite my feeling it was a clever play-on-sound with a Lionel Richie song.

(Here’s a quick tip for anyone thinking of writing – if you think something is funny, it probably isn’t).

But back to the new shoes and while I went in thinking I was going to go with the same old pair again , there was a bit of competition.

We could have cut to the chase of course, but I’d driven along the new NDR – that’s Broadland Gateway of course – to get here to buy my new running shoes, so why rush things?

Extra support

So out came another pair of Asics – quickly dismissed as they felt too narrow (they are narrower than other brands apparently), and a pair of Brooks – that’s as in Books and not Breaks.

Actually I like these, I told him, they feel like they’ve got a bit more support.

Which they have apparently as well as a bit more cushioning, and a slightly different angle, unlike the Sauconys which tend to force you on your toes a bit more, or so he told me.

Hmm, I told him about the debate I’d been having about whether or not to get my new running shoes this close to the Norwich half. And about how some people have more than one pair of running shoes, a fact I’d remarkably only discovered this week.

Of course, he suggested I could always come back after the half and buy the Brooks too, particularly if I was thinking of doing a marathon, it has been shown that rotating shoes during marathon training can reduce the risk of injury.

I’d heard that too, I said.

New running shoes decision time

Yes, he’s right I could get another pair – and in fact lots of comments on the Facebook page had given some useful tips on when and how to buy new running shoes – online would you believe – all of which had been an eye opener to me and made me question what century I was actually living in.

But that’s a problem for the future.

“I’ll take the Sauconys,” I said. (Honestly did you really think I wouldn’t?).

Now back to more pressing matters, can I afford to run in them for the first time on Sunday – my weekly long run…?

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