Cynthia Phillips

I started training for my 3rd marathon in Aug 2017. I was in the best shape of my life: strong with only 18% body fat and was running faster than ever! I was determined to break 4 hours in this marathon. Then during a training run in early September, I hurt my foot somehow. I rested and iced for a few days and resumed running successfully until early October when I started experiencing awful heel pain and slight pain on the right side of my foot.

Got an x-ray and found a heel spur! I managed to continue running on and off, although much slower, until February 2018. I did not race in the marathon as intended but did get to do a slow half marathon after getting a cortisone shot. The shot 'wore off' in February and the pain came back even worse.

I quit running for 5 weeks. Then started back again slowly. The pain slowly came back so I went to a specialist who put me in $200 custom fit orthotics to help my plantar fasciitis. After a few weeks in those (I followed instructions and slowly increased the time I wore the insoles little by little), I started experiencing EXCRUTIATING lower back pain.

It was 10x worse than the foot pain so I stopped wearing them but could not run without some sort of insole in my shoe because my plantar fasciitis made traditional running shoe insoles impossible to run in. So I decided to try Protalus since they were half the price of the custom fit insole, and I felt if they worked, I could afford to buy a new pair on a regular basis.

I noticed an immediate difference in my pain level! The Protalus M100 was cushioned enough for running (unlike the custom fit insole) and provided support for my heel. After one month the back pain was GONE and I am almost completely pain free in my foot. I have put 75 miles running in the Protalus M100's since June 14th (today is July 11th).

I am running very slow compared to last September, but am noticing that it is getting easier, less painful and I am slowly increasing speed. I am so glad I gave these a try!