My advice for shin splits would be better stretching as well. I've been through a couple nasty cases of shin splints that were prompted purely by my lack of proper stretching.

Only reason I'm certain in saying that is because I was running with the same pair of shoes for something like 5 or 6 years and put thousands of miles on them. If it was the shoes I'd probably be crippled by now. Granted, body type is something to take in to consideration as well, but blah, blah, blah

Nice work Atomic, keep it up! Will this be your first 5k?