I'm looking to buy some new walking shoes and I wondered if anyone can recommend any makes. I need something with a firm thick sole with plenty of grip and that doesn't wear out after about 6 months. The ones I've had lately have worn out very quickly and they weren't cheap!

Thanks Armorel: very helpful, and yes, I do need to see someone about the knees. Interestingly, running has made them stronger.

I'll check out the Merrells.

The other dilemma is how big the shoes need to be for the post-breakfast section of the Hundred. Last year, on my size 6 feet, the size 7.5 shoes I wore were too tight and I had to stop and try to shrink my feet in the River Dart (successfully). Buying size 8 seems bonkers, given that only once a year will I walk far enough for my feet to swell that much. Will it matter if they turn out to be too big, even on the Hundred? Only one way to find out...

I guess I'll have to do it... and use them as "guest" shoes the rest of the year for anyone who comes to stay with nothing to walk in.

S

I bought some running shoes after having (freee) gait analysis at a running shop and found them superb for the fairly short-distance running that I do. Because I also walk in running shoes, it seemed an obvious move to wear the same shoes for walking, so I did a 40-mile walk in them and got really uncomfortable; after a few hours the shoes were just too tight. I also started to get blackened toe nails when wearing them for walks. After much trial and error, I have now accepted that the running shoes I wear for (long distance) walking need to be a full size larger than the ones I wear for ( shortish distance) running, and I no longer expect one pair of shoes to do both jobs (although for a trail runner who runs reasonable distances there might be more convergence).

For the 100, I've bought some Merrell Proterra shoes and I'm finding them the most comfortable walking shoes I have ever had (although the soles have a treacherous lack of grip on mud or slopes).

Whether gait analysis would in principle be helpful to walkers I'm not sure - but if your knees are complaining I would have thought it worth seeing if someone can identify precisely what the issue is and whether it can be helped by the right choice of shoes.

I'm contemplating getting a gait analysis done at a running shop, now that I'm embarking on the stressful process of buying some trail shoes, with the Valleys Hundred in mind. Not an easy process when you're a male with size-six feet, because few stores keep small shoes in stock. I had to travel to London to buy my Asics last year.

I expect not to run a single step of the Hundred but otherwise I like to do both trail running and off-road parkruns. I get hamstring problems and my knees feel all of their 52 years, but I don't think of myself has having "issues".

So: have any walkers tried getting gait analysis done when buying shoes? Was it worthwhile?

And am I being too stingy, expecting one shoe to serve for both kinds of activity, as at present?

Bearing in mind that I'm in a new career and my salary matches the size of my feet...