I was very thankful for this holiday as it gave me an extra day off which brought with it some much needed rest. Last week I was averaging 5 hours of sleep a night so thankfully I was able to get more than 8 hours of sleep every night of this long weekend.
The extra day off also allowed me to finally drop by Second Wind, the running store I've been meaning to visit for a while now. With running being very popular in the Philippines, a lot of running stores are coming out of the woodwork. Probably the most popular one is Runnr in Bonifacio High Street. When I went there a few months ago, I ran on the treadmill to have my gait analyzed. It's such a cool concept where they can look at how you run and suggest the best running shoe for you, but I was very turned off when after my gait analysis, they offered me the most expensive running shoe! It made me feel like the gait analysis was useless because whatever the result, they would've sold that shoe to me.
So when my friend Alvin told me about Second Wind and how the folks in that store actually give you several options with different price ranges, I felt it was a much better option.
And true enough, it was. When I arrived, the guy there, Neville Manaois, asked me a few questions - how often do I run, what distances do I normally cover during training, what running shoe did I use before, etc. He then took a look at my foot and at the sole of my flip-flop to see where the wear-and-tear was. He mulled over the information for a bit then asked for a few pairs of shoes to be brought out - one Asics, one Brooks, and one New Balance. I try them all on and they all feel pretty good and I said, "I don't know which one to choose!" He then told me that I should just opt for the cheapest one, the Asics Gel 1150, which was a couple hundred pesos cheaper than the Brooks pair and more than a thousand bucks cheaper than the New Balance pair. So after buying my Nike cross-trainers the other day, I now have a pair of Asics Gel 1150 running shoes:
Listening to Neville explain what shoe I needed (apparently I needed stability; all this time I had been using shoes that provide motion control) along with the pluses and minuses of each shoe which he knew by heart made it clear to me how much of a running expert he was. The fact that he suggested I pick the least expensive pair also gave me the impression he was more interested in ensuring that I have an overall good running experience instead of earning more money from me. Needless to say, I stepped out of Second Wind with one of the best purchasing experiences I've ever had.
Second Wind has two branches: one in Teacher's Village and one in Ortigas Home Depot. If you need new running shoes, I suggest you visit one of these two stores:
Second Wind QC
88 Maginhawa Street, Teachers Village QC
Tel No. 7992089
Second Wind Pasig
Ortigas Home Depot. Julia Vargas Avenue. Pasig
Tel No: 9140283
Operating hours:
Monday – Friday: 11am - 7pm
Saturday: 12nn - 6pm
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