My advice? Choose them offline. Which is what I did about 4 years ago, when I first discovered New Balance’s line of anti-pronating running shoes… then the 859, it’s since been “upgraded” to the 850, and after the hundreds of kilometers I ran last year I needed a new pair a mere 9 months after the last pair of 850s arrived.

Amanda made them a Christmas present to me, and they arrived a couple of days ago courtesy of an eBay shop, Running Outlet. Amazingly they sell the shoes at about 60% of the typical retail price, and as I know exactly what size, width and model I wanted it was bargainous.

I tried them out this morning – without breaking them in… but more on that shortly…