Worse comes to worse, call these guys in DC and ask for a recommendation. They're really good.

You'll never hit the big time with ugly toenails.

Any career I might possibly have in foot-related porn would be for very specialized tastes. While they're perfectly functional and don't hurt other than when they're expected to interact with shoes not designed for them, I have terribly weird feet -- think like a combination of something you'd expect to see on a hobbit or on Fred Flinstone.

Some people have attractive feet. Some, like me, have flat feet with poor muscle tone, bunions, and heavy veins. Fuck it, I'm still wearing sandals.

I can't recommend anywhere in Midtown, but getting fitted for running shoes really helped me. If they're good, they'll watch you walk and stand barefoot or in thin socks, and they'll try several pairs on you without letting you see the size. Because you need a bigger size in running shoes usually (I wear a nine and wearing 7.5/8s mostly), and most women are sort of conditioned to think that they must have smaller dainty feet.

Mine are high-arched and sturdy, engineered for carrying around something the approximate weight of a rhinoceros. They'd look fine in the abstract, they just don't particularly closely resemble most people's feet, so they're a little disconcerting. And not really the shape that conventional shoes are expecting them to be. I wear sandals anyway, because otherwise I'd have to wear stockings in the summer and that's just not going to happen.

I can't recommend anywhere in Midtown, but getting fitted for running shoes really helped me.

Yeah, I've heard this a lot, I just don't know where to go.

I think best is Jack Rabbit Sports, but it's south of you - in Union Square http://www.jackrabbitsports.com/contact.php

Otherwise, I've been to Super Runners Shop, of which there are a few around (http://www.superrunnersshop.com/locations.htm), but JRS is more of put-you-on-treadmill, examine-your-ugly-ass-feet kind of place

Union Square is one subway stop south for me, no problem to get to at all. Many thanks.

i have come to terms with the fact that if i want to keep running seriously, i'm just gonna keep having the same toenail fall off over and over again. it's happened twice so far and it is super disgusting, but i've never been able to find a pair of shoes that prevent it.

My sister has become an avid runner, I think Jack Rabbit in Union Square is her place, as well.

9: I don't actually mind the black toenails esthetically all that much, but twice now after a run they've been so sore I can't sleep because the sheets are touching them. It's funny, they don't bother me while I'm running, but a couple of hours afterwards the pressure under the nail starts building and it's miserable for a day.

11 - they're probably likely to fall off. that's what happened to me the first time and i was like, huh, what's going on, then months later it just kinda died. they can hold for a long time though.

Having ten toenails is overrated. Means you didn't cut hard enough.

If you have one day that's particularly bad, consider taking a drill bit and twirl it through the center of the toenail, so that the pressure can be relieved via bloody geyser. It'll feel better and it's super cool to see.

The running shoes that have worked best for me are these. I've got flat, hairy, hobbit feet.

Count on Heebie. She didn't mention it's worth getting a hematoma just for the geyser, but it is!

It seems that you must have ill-fitting shoes. Isn't a well fitted shoe snug enough across the arch that it doesn't slide forward within the shoe, and long enough that the toes don't bump the end?

It seems that you must have ill-fitting shoes.

Hence the bleg for a store with competent professionals who will sell me well-fitting shoes.

So you gave up on the Nike Free, text?

LB, you do know that if they have high heels and pointy toes they aren't running shoes, don't you? You are a young trophy wife, after all.

When I got my running shoes fitted, the guy's shoulders sagged. Pretty obvious that my feet aren't designed for running.

If I can't run three miles in stilettoes, I'm giving up any claim to be called a Real Woman™.

Huh. I suppose I am, then.

My feet are designed for running, just not for running shoes. If it weren't for health department regs in the gym, and broken glass and such outside, I'd be running barefoot happily.

The nike free wore out. They were good too though.

If you really think you'd be happy running barefoot, you might consider just running in a racing flat or a vintage type trainer. Or in chucks. We really don't need all this crap in running shoes, is my uneducated opinion.

I've run in chucks in the past, and been fine with it. In my mid thirties, though, while I talk big about running barefoot, I want a professional to reassure me that I'm not setting myself up for a lifetime of joint pain if I actually do it.

Oh god, the idea of running in chucks makes my shins hurt.

It never actually did hurt me, but people look at me as if I were crazy enough when I talk about it that I'm afraid I'm doing myself damage without knowing it.

I haven't been there (yet) personally, but Eneslow on Park and 32nd-ish certainly fits the nerdy requirement and has a reputation for selling only good-for-your-feet shoes, and they do carry running shoes.

I've been fitted at Jackrabbit which was good although I think they make a bit much out of the scientificitude of the whole business. The little treadmill movies they make will tell you whether you overpronate, though, if you don't already know.

Also, the salesguy Terry is wicked cute. Fyi.

I'm definitely not a professional, but for me the joint pain ended when I stopped wearing big clunky running shoes. This guy may or may not be a crank, but he says some of the same stuff my (crank) track coach used to say.

I've never had joint pain at all -- only foot pain, and only directly attributable to the shoes (that is, not sore bones or tendons in the foot, just things like blisters and black toenails). I just want shoes that won't actively injure me -- I don't need much else from them.

I take it back about chucks - it depends what surface you're running on. I was picturing asphalt. But playing soccer, it's not like cleats offer any support or anything, and everybody seems fine in them. I'd say if you're running on ground, anything is fine.

Jesus Christ, even pointe shoes didn't make my toenails fall off over and over again. That is fucking wrong, LB.

Jackrabbit's kinda fussy for me. I go to Paragon.

If Jackmormon went to Jackrabbit's, they'd have a thousand kids in a year.

all named Jack.

Doesn't New York City Road Runners have a store on the Upper East Side?
Also, text, I'm assuming that the New Balance 991 that I (and it feels like half the world) run in are the typical big clunky running shoe?

There are bigger, clunkier ones. I used to run in the Brooks Beast, which is a horrendous brick, because the people at shoe stores told me I had to. But I run much better, and with less pain, in what are basically pieces of cloth attached to a narrow strip of rubber. But whatever works for you.

I would give them marathon-runner numbers to wear, so I could tell them apart.

If 20 Jackmormons went to Jackrabbit's, in 250 years the entire surface of the earth would be covered with starving Mormabunnies.

I run, when I run rather than elliptical, in my New Balance 857s, which are pretty clunky, but they tell me, necessary.

One thing to mind: My sister had a bad experience after getting fitted for proper running shoes because while the shoes were fine for correcting her gait, her body had adapted over the previous 23 years to having flat feet. Changing the shoes changed her gait, which stressed muscles she hadn't previously relied upon, which lead to some ankle pain.

They would start eating each other before long.

I really like the Nike Air Zoom Skylon's because they are super-light but still have good cushioning. I had them fitted at a proper running store (in Oxford, though, so no good for you).

I don't really run, though. Shin splints.

But the nail thing, as Jackmormon says, that's just wrong.

cleats were hell on my shins

Who was running across your shins?

(And had you criticized their fashion sense beforehand?)

my ankle braces the talk of the town, nae.