Gadget helps runners track their mileage

Posted by Rick Cleary

By: Kevin Pates, Duluth News Tribune

If you’re a runner who likes little, uncomplicated, technical gadgets, the Shoe Odometer may be worth a look.

The new gizmo counts the mileage of your daily excursions and, thus, lets you know when it’s time to replace your running shoes.

For the average Joe and Jane runner and walker, that essential information makes for happy exercising. If you stay with your shoes too long, your legs scream.

“You put it on a pair of new shoes, check it once in a while, and when it says 300 to 500 miles, you know your shoes are worn out. It’s pretty simple,” says Darrin Johnson of South Range, who has used an odometer since December, while preparing for Saturday’s 33rd Grandma’s Marathon. “This way, instead of guessing how many miles you’ve run, you have a pretty good idea and it makes you more careful in monitoring your shoes.”

The $39 odometer, on the market since November, weighs a half-ounce and is 2 inches long and 1 inch wide. If you’ve laced a timing chip on your shoe for a race, the same thing applies. When the heel of the shoe is significantly raised off the ground, the odometer motion sensor goes to work and starts counting.

It was developed by Rick Cleary, 46, of River Falls, Wis., a runner who spent 16 years as cross country and track coach at River Falls High School. The electronics are made in Madison and assembled in Woodville, Wis., and are expected to last six to 10 years. About 500 have been sold.

“This is a functional device that counts every step and is pretty accurate. It’s straight forward and something a lot of people were surprised wasn’t already available,” said Cleary, who has run a few marathons, including Grandma’s.

Pedometers, which are step calculators worn on the waist or wrist, are rated by runners as not particularly accurate. They cost from $30 to $60. On the opposite end of the exercise spectrum is a Garmin GPS Forerunner watch for about $300 that charts distance, pace, time, heart rate and calories burned.

The odometer, which took two years to develop, comes with a default setting of 1,350 steps per mile. Cleary suggests going to a track and counting the steps in a measured mile, and then inputting that figure for a more accurate individual count. A calculator on the odometer’s Web site, shoeodometer.com, uses an athlete’s weight and shoe wear pattern to provide a projected number of miles in the life of a shoe. Get your number, lace up the odometer and change shoes when needed, with the hope of avoiding overuse injuries.

“I log my miles in a book, but I’m usually too lazy to go back and add those figures up,” said Johnson, a University of Minnesota Duluth physics instructor, who did some calculations in the odometer development. “You can also look at the tread of your shoes to gauge if they’re wearing out, but sometimes the tread is hard to read. I like just looking at cumulative miles [on the odometer] and knowing the total.”

Johnson, 43, one of the top 40-and-older runners in the Northland, logs about 70 miles per week and rotates running shoes, but keeps the odometer on the shoes he uses on roads, typically a pair of Asics Kayano, which cost $135. The other pair is for trails and he isn’t as concerned about the wear on those.

So far, Cleary says odometer sales have been split almost evenly between runners and walkers.