Middle Age Spread

Middle-aged spread. We’ve all heard of it. Many of us have experienced it. I’ve been battling it and have recently taken up running (something I never thought I’d do, much less, enjoy.)


I’m up to two miles a day now. I might be in danger of running in one of those five-kay things you hear about.

Anyway, I needed a new pair of athletic shoes as the ones I had were approaching twenty years old. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve got pretty weird feet. They’re size 10 ½ which are not big at all for someone my height. However, they’re really, really wide. Like a platypus. In the past, I could get away with 10 ½ EEE shoes but I found some Nike EEEE shoes so I ordered those.

They hurt my feet. They weren’t wide enough.

I sent them back and tried some New Balance extra-wide shoes and they didn’t fit either. I’d also ordered a casual pair of shoes (quadruple E) and they didn’t fit. I was getting tired of sending shoes back.

Finally, I went to Zappos.com where you can enter in your shoe size and then it lets you see what they have. I just selected the widest shoes possible: EEEEEE - - sextuple E.

My shoes arrived. I held my breath as I slipped them on.

They fit like a dream. Both the athletic shoes and the casual ones. Size 10 ½ EEEEEE
(The casual ones are the same color as a chocolate Labrador.)

My mom asked me how much I paid for them.

I have absolutely no idea.