Hi. I'm looking for a specialist running shoe shop in the North Wales/Chester area. I've been suffering from some rather painful lower leg pain recently and have been advised to have gait analysis but am struggling to find a shop with any real knowledge in my area. Can anyone recommend a good, knowledgeable shop?

the nearest shops to you are hard to say as we don't know exactly where you live
(don't tell us)

get in touch with your local running club and ask where they get their shoes from

it is well worth getting your gait analysis done even if you have to travel a bit

Where do you get your shoes from at the moment?

I'm sorry i can't be more helpful hopefully there may be someone on the forum from your neck of the woods!

At the moment my trainers are coming from JJB, but as we all know the staff don't actually have a clue what they are selling, so I've just gone for a women's Nike running shoe. Chester is the biggest city within travelling distance, if anyone knows of any shops there it would help.

Hiya, I've been looking for ages & finally found one - Triactive Sports, Rufus Court, Chester (by the old Odeon cinema) 01244 313777. Have no idea whether they're any good or not - have an appointment this afternoon so fingers crossed as these blisters & shin pains getting boring now!

Blimey! What a result! often these "Where's good near me" posts end up unanswered as everyone is spread so widely across the country.

Let us know how you get on this afternoon bartiebat - and welcome to the forum!

It was ace! He looked at my "old" trainers & told me right away the symptoms I was getting (I couldn't run a mile without getting blisters so was all plastered up for 10!), then videod me running on a treadmill with my shoes & watching it back was quite scary. Usual story I guess - overpronation. Anyway, after trying a couple of pairs on & watching the video footage back on the treadmill for each I came away with a new pair of trainers & against advice ran 15.5k in them the following morning - no blisters, no shin pain, just sore muscles because they're not used to going in the new direction! Ran 3 miles yesterday - no problems at all. Very pleased indeed - it's nice to only have to overcome the issues the lucky "straight" runners have....finally I just now feel really annoyed that places like JJB will sell you expensive trainers without knowing whether they'd suit you

Glad it went well Bart.

Your experience is similar to mine,which is why I always advise people to find a "proper" running shop.

The next thing is to keep track of your milage and think about new trainers at around 500 miles.

that's great to hear, was it the shop you mentioned in your previous post ?

If it is hopefully NO GO will pick up on it as he's in NORTH WALES.