I agree with you very much Ped! We're very much pampered nowadays - and I know there's a lot of people who strongly disagree with the nature of todays running shoes that tell our feet how to run...

I can't help but wonder where I'd be now if I didn't manage to get the relief I did from shin splints... I may have ended up giving up! I think/hope that over time - if I work on muscle imbalances and running technique etc - it may help to correct some of my overpronation, and allow me to rely on a trainer with less structured cushioning and run more efficiently.

Perhaps we now need these structured/cushioning shoes as a result because of how we've gotten much bigger and less active as a nation? I can't imagine many runners 'back in the day' being medically classed as obese as many are today (myself included when I started this running malarkey).

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Having done a bit of work (biomechanics assessments) with the British Army in the past, I was shocked at the number of cadets/senior staff who were injured or working with the physios to get fit again.
With the amount of fitness training that the army have to do, I would have thought they would make sure that recruits had suitable footwear. Every single person who was injured was wearing Hi-Tec shoes....
Not wanting to argue with TimeKilla though, his arms looking bigger than my legs!!!

Yeah, I hate the idea of my feet being told what to do!
I've started to wonder if there's a difference in the vulnerability to over-use injury between (for example) two similar-aged runners; one of whom has been a runner since childhood, the other someone who has taken up running as an adult.
... But then again, there are too many variables to be taken into account for a meaningful answer to be derived from the question, I suppose.

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GONE RUNNING

The silver shadow was based on the Brooks chariot.
As for the army giving you the best? Laughable! They give you them because they are CHEAP!

... The original Brooks Chariot was a great shoe (before they started messing around with it in the mid-80's).

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GONE RUNNING

Oh my..... a Chariot fan!
Still available at the Brooks outlet store in Seattle!

... But basically no longer available, or "updated" to such a degree as to be (to all intents and purposes) a different shoe altogether?

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GONE RUNNING

Aaah, nostalgia.

I always wanted a pair of Hi-Tec silver shadows, they looked the biz back in the early 80's.

My parents couldnt really afford to give me spanking new trainers costing more than a fiver.

Those were the days!
Trainers for a fiver!!!!

My Dad wore silver shadows for 5 full marathons and more than a dozen of halfs, he has never had an injury and doesnt believe in all this fancy new stuff. For interest my podiatrist says run in what you are comfy in, if you put it on and its comfy and you dont get problems then its the shoe for you everyone is different no right or wrong just different.