www.roanoke.com

I have been having trouble with running shoe lately.  It would seem that my big toe is making holes straight through my socks and then straight through the mesh that goes along the top of your foot.  I have been hypothesizing for months, but today, my thinking has taken a 360.

See, at first, I was thinking that the hole first formed on the mesh of the shoe, and then the rubbing on the sides of the hole was making the hole in my socks.  If that were true, then why am I making a hole in my shoe?

I had been wondering if my shoes were a half size too big.  But I have been wearing size 8 Asics for years.  About 9 years. The 2000/2100 series to be exact.  When I find a good deal on the last year's model, I will buy six pairs and put them in the closet.  So how can I just now since I have been in Iraq dropped a half size in shoes?  That does not make a lot of sense.  Besides, I am only running 30 miles a week right now.  The New York Marathon is still 7 months away.

So I was still left wondering how I was making the hole.  I even considered ordering shoes a half size down.  Until a buddy of mine from VMI visited my trailer today.

Nathan Blythe served in the Army and deployed to Iraq twice.  Then he got a job managing the interpreters (terps) throughout the Baghdad area.  So every month, I see him to turn my terps' timesheets and then again to get them paid.  He visited our base today to pay the terps, so we invited him over for steaks off the grill.  See, the colonel here presented my team with bronze stars today, more to follow on that.

Anyhow, I invited Nathan to my trailer, and showed him pictures of my kids.  He saw three pairs of shoes lined up beside my bed, all with holes in the mesh of the upper.  "Having problems with your shoes, I see?" he asked.  Unobservantly, I went on and on about my theories that I have already explained.  Only then did I look down at his shoes.  Holes in the mesh of the uppers!

He never has had this happen in the States either and has been wearing New Balance for years.  He gave me a new hypothesis.  The dry air here has toughened our toenails.  Our toenails tear through the socks and then the mesh, which itself takes a beating from the sun.  He may be on to something with this.

Solution:  I am looking at buying a pair of trail running shoes that has a reinforced upper.  We shall see.

Nathan (left), VMI Class of 2002 and I, Class of 2004

Our shoes (two of my pairs), all with matching holes.

A close up of the mysterious holes.