As someone who has been running for nearly a decade, it has become 50 percent of my personality. If you’re a runner, I’m sure you can relate—although my running shoe rotation beats yours (sorry). I have zero shame in admitting I upload my post-run stats on my Instagram story, but my daily gloating days have come to a halt thanks to every runner’s worst nightmare—the dreaded stress fracture.

A stress fracture is a hairline crack in the bone, caused by repeated impact over time. In my case, I was training for a half marathon, slowly building my mileage back up since my last training cycle. Clearly, something went wrong along the way, because now I’m sporting a bulky orthopedic boot to heal my second metatarsal foot bone.

This injury has been tough both mentally and physically, but having a solid pair of walking shoes (well, one left shoe) to help keep me level and comfortable has been key in keeping me able to walk seamlessly around the city. I’ve tried a few that caused knee and ankle pain from posture imbalances, but I finally found my secret weapon for serious stomping sessions: the new Hoka Clifton 10.