Sports scientists recommend that runners retire their running shoes every few hundred miles.

But how does a runner really know when their existing pair of running shoes are ready for their final rest? Well, in my case, my Asics Gel Kayano 14′s are falling apart – ‘literally’.

There is no grip on the soles; I am running on polystyrene rather than rubber. There are holes in the side of the shoes, and they have lasted me the best part of 500 miles and two and a half years. But you know what? They are an inseparable extension to my feet; they are my friends.

They have seen many a road and many a canal trail, different cities, races and eye-opening sites that make a pretty lady look like Jabba The Hut (I’m talking scenery boys and girls). From my first run as an amateur panting for air to being a self-proclaimed moderately fit young man; each individual mud stain represents a victory against being a lazy numpty and sitting on Facebook all day doing nothing but shortening your hamstrings.

Unfortunately, however, you always have to say goodbye to that which you love the most. After my last race, the 2011 Liverpool Half-Marathon I bid farewell to my two friends as it was like running on knives. To the bin? No! To the top part of my wardrobe in my mother’s home in Liverpool where I can pop in and take a whiff of that piquant mud/shit/rain/sweat smell? Yes!

The replacement for my Asics Gel Kayano 14′s are their newer variant, the less than good looking Asics Gel Kayano 17. The dirty black, gold and white running shoe has been replaced with a red and white version. So white that it just looks out of place, so out of place that I can’t wait to dirty them up with some mud next time I go on a wet run.

I set a personal best of 1 hour 47 minutes and 28 seconds during the 2011 Liverpool Half-Marathon. I was pretty pleased and it’s great knowing that I feel I can progress even further if I keep training and pushing myself to do better. I’m my own best competitor and I love beating myself and improving, and it’s strange to think how a little experiment running to my Grandad’s during the summer of 2008 has developed into what will probably be a lifelong hobby.

To 500 more miles and another pair of destroyed running trabs!