Back in my 20s, there was a period when I wanted to lose weight, so I did push-ups, planks, and squats at home as part of home training. I lost weight and felt great, but after I stopped exercising, my belly started to stick out and I slowly gained some weight again.
After turning 30, I kept telling myself I should work out, but only in my head. My body started feeling uncomfortable, digestion got worse, I had trouble sleeping, and there were many times when I couldn't focus mentally or emotionally. I thought about doing bodyweight exercises, but after seeing posts online saying running is one of the best exercises for the human body, I decided to try running first.
I gathered information about running from the internet and YouTube. Most of it was about running shoes. That's when I learned there are stability shoes and cushioned shoes for beginners.
While looking into it, I was surprised that Nike running shoes weren't actually as overwhelmingly popular among runners as I expected. Let me share the brands I discovered this time.
The brands I already knew were 나이키, 아디다스, 뉴발란스, and 아식스. Of course, many more brands make running shoes, but as I looked into them, I learned that each brand tends to be grouped into certain categories and product series.
The brands I got to know this time were 호카, 온, 브룩스, 써코니, and 미즈노. I also found out that 푸마 makes some really nice running shoes too.
At first I thought I'd buy shoes right away, but since they cost around 100,000 to 200,000 won, I became much more careful about which model to choose. Since I don't have steady income right now, money comes and goes, so I had to think about it seriously. Around that time, I found out online that 데카트론 sells affordable clothes and accessories that are good for running. I remembered Decathlon because I had seen the brand a lot in the London Underground while traveling in Europe in February. I ended up ordering about 100,000 won worth of stuff there.
I bought 2 tops, 3 bottoms, a cap, and socks, and it came to 110,000 won, but since it was my first purchase, I got a 10% discount.
The delivery arrived in 2 to 3 days, but even before the package showed up, I still hadn't chosen my shoes. There was actually a model I'd had my eye on even before I seriously decided to start running. No matter my level, the pair I wanted most was Nike's Vaporfly 3 and the Vaporfly 3 Prototype version. Vaporfly 3 was in the low 200,000 won range on KREAM, but by then the price had gone up quite a bit into the mid-to-high 200,000s. The Prototype was over 400,000 won 🥲
But after watching YouTube reviews saying those shoes have carbon plates and could feel like too much for a beginner like me who doesn't care much about speed or records yet, I gave up on buying them. If I keep running consistently later on, maybe the day will come when I finally get them.
So after searching through a lot of videos and blog posts, I started thinking Hoka Bondi 8 might be the best choice for me because of how much cushioning it has.
Still, I wasn't sure whether I should buy it or not, and then over the weekend I found that Naver Marathonia was selling the Hoka Bondi 8 at a 20% discount for 175,200 won. The problem was that I had no way of knowing whether it was a parallel import or an officially imported product with official AS support. So I sent them an inquiry through Naver TalkTalk, but since it was the weekend, they didn't reply, and I only got an answer on Monday. Thankfully they said it was eligible for AS, but when I checked the page again, the price had already gone back up to 219,000 won 😅
I was disappointed that I missed it, but thanks to that, I was able to let go of the model. As I spent more time researching, I started seeing people say that Clifton 9 is more suitable for actual running than Bondi 8. I had only bought Hoka Recovery Flip (270) before, but they felt slightly big on me, rubbed the top of my foot, and even caused pain between my big toe and second toe, so I wasn't sure whether I should stick with the same size.
If you look at the bottom of the Hoka Korea product detail page, there's a size chart for wide sizes. So I measured my feet based on that. I used a tape measure.
My foot length was 250mm and my foot width was 110mm. If I bought based on foot length, I should wear 255, but if I bought based on width, I should wear 280. That meant with size 255, my foot width would be 5mm too tight, and with size 280, there would be 21mm of extra space in length. I usually wear 260 to 270, and among the many YouTube videos I watched, 러닝84 풀코스 마라톤에 도전하다!🏃♂️🏃♂️ 러닝화 전문샵 사장님이 기안에게 해준 특.급.조언은?! was especially helpful when deciding my size. It said your feet can swell while running, and the impact of landing can make them spread out a bit, so you should wear something slightly bigger. Because of that, I spent a lot of time debating between 270 and 275.
I wondered whether measuring with professional equipment would be better than my own tape-measure method, so on April 27, after watching the Hangang drone show (the drone show was really cool, but there were so many people), I visited the Hoka Lotte World Mall store. The measuring machine was showing a Linux boot screen, and there was a message asking for a key to update it. When I asked a staff member, they told me it was broken and couldn't be used, so since I was already there, I tried on the Hoka Bondi 8 Wide and Clifton 9 Wide in size 270.
Bondi 8 felt soft, but the arch support was so high that while it was comfortable, it also felt a little strange. It also felt more like an ugly shoe than the Clifton did.
Clifton 9 felt comfortable and nice, but since I couldn't actually run in them, I kept wondering whether I should really buy them and whether I should go with a bigger size.
People say these two shoes feel like walking on clouds, but I've never walked on clouds, and honestly, I wasn't sure they felt that soft either. They just felt like comfortable shoes to me. No matter how soft the foam was, it still seemed to stay within the range of what you can realistically expect from a shoe.
I usually prefer buying online with discounts, so since offline stores rarely have good discounts, I mostly went there just for the experience. I only tried them on and left. People say Hoka doesn't discount often, but it seemed like they sometimes run promotions during live shows or around May and November, so I decided to wait a few more days.
While I was at it, I also considered buying Hoka Clifton 9 Wide on KREAM, but I kept seeing people say that even parallel-imported products can pass inspection there, which made me anxious that not only would there be no AS, I might even end up buying a fake. There were actual reviews on KREAM like this (병행수입 제품이면 구매 안했습니다 and 병행수입 제품 파는 크림,,), so I started thinking I should avoid buying performance-focused shoes there. I figured fake shoes would perform much worse.
But in the end, I bought the Hoka Clifton 9 on KREAM! The reason was simple. A few brands are officially on KREAM. It's really hard to find them because they don't show you the brand list by category, but some of the Hoka products listed on KREAM have a checkmark icon. Those are products sold directly by the brand. When I looked at them, there wasn't any discount at first, but over the weekend they handed out a coupon that let you buy brand products at 20% off. I went all the way through the checkout flow for the Clifton 9 Wide in size 270 just to see whether the coupon would apply, and it did. Hoka itself doesn't seem to run discounts often, but I think this one was done on KREAM's side instead (I'm not really sure how they split the cost).
I bought this pair for 151,200 won. I chose size 270 because 275 was sold out. When I tried them on at the offline store, there was enough room in the length, so I didn't think my toenails were going to fall off. Since I'm a beginner runner, I also didn't think I'd be running long enough to lose toenails anyway.
After buying the shoes and before they arrived, there were still a few things left to get. A wired pair of earphones and a running belt. I do have AirPods, but I felt like they might fall out while I was running, so I decided to buy wired earphones instead. And I heard that putting your phone in a running belt is safer and more stable than holding it in your hand or using an armband. Since I use an iPhone Pro Max, it really didn't seem realistic to run while holding it.
I bought wired earphones for the iPhone 8-pin connector at Daiso for 5,000 won, but I still don't like that you have to connect them to Bluetooth first. I even plugged in the cable, so why do I still need Bluetooth? I also had the volume set way too high at first, so now I listen at around two bars, and there was another problem where incoming calls didn't switch over to Bluetooth right away and had to be changed manually.
The running belt worked out well because I found a secondhand listing for the exact brand I wanted, so I bought a fluorescent FlipBelt (FlipBelt Classic Running Belt) on Karrot for 5,000 won.
The one I bought was an older version, so the logo and design are a bit different, but the function seems to be the same. If you order one directly from Amazon, it'll probably cost over 40,000 won, but if you search online, you can also find similar ones with the same kind of functionality in the 10,000 won range. FlipBelt comes in a wide range of sizes like XS, S, M, L, XL, XXS, and XXL, but when I bought mine, I didn't check any of that and just roughly held it up and brought it home.
I think I learned a lot over about two weeks while buying all sorts of things for running. Today I installed Nike Run Club (NRC) and went running along Yangjaecheon, and even though it was hard, it made me want to keep going.
Now my YouTube algorithm is full of running-related videos 😁 I'm going to keep running and get healthier~
Below is a list of shoes I wanted but couldn't buy (I'll become a running expert and buy them someday..!! 😇)
- 푸마 - 패스트알 나이트로 엘리트 2 (349,000원)
- 써코니 - 엔돌핀 스피드 4 (209,000원)
- 아디다스 - 아디제로 보스턴 12 (179,000원)
- 뉴발란스 - 프레쉬폼x 1080 V13 (179,000원)
What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely. From an acting point of view, that's how I approached the part.
— Christopher Reeve
