Using Shoe Goo to repair running shoes

I go through my running shoes rather quickly, since I like lightweight (thin-soled) shoes and I wear the insides first thanks to my funky feet and bunions. In order to save some shoe-money,  I decided to try to extend the life of my nearly-dead New Balance shoes by using Shoe Goo. A trail runner I know uses it on all his shoes, but kind of preemptively. I wasn't sure how to go about saving a pair of shoes with it.
You can buy Shoe Goo online or at a hardware store. I walked to the True Value on Oak street, where I accidentally wandered onto a movie set and got yelled at. *sigh* Hollywood South, y'all! The Goo costs about $5.

The Goo

My shoes were pretty worn when I started:

You can actually see white foam THROUGH the gray outsole, it's so worn!

Try #1: I spread a thin layer of Goo on the worn areas with a plastic knife. Then I started hallucinating about purple ducks until I had the bright idea to put the shoes outside. This stuff is stinky! You have to spread the goo quickly as it starts to set immediately. After two days of drying (to be on the safe side), I took my shoes out for a 9-miler.
Results? Not good. Everything I applied was worn off or peeling!

The toe area wore off; the heels peeled.

Try #2. I realized that the layer of Goo I'd used was too thin to make up for the severe wearing on my shoes. I peeled off any remaining shreds of goo and tried again. This time around, first I roughed up to surface with a serrated knife since I was out of sandpaper and was too scared to venture back to Oak street. Then I squeezed lots of Goo onto the area, spreading it as I went. The Goo starts to set in just a few minutes, so once the surface was set I pressed in indentations where the treads used to be.

Thick Goo layer

I waited a day to be sure the Goo was completely dry before I wore the shoes for several runs. After about 40 miles they look like this:

After use, the Goo gets opaque. Notice no more white foam showing through!

The Goo is obviously taking some pressure, but it's holding for now. There is some lifting at the edges.  As for feel, I really didn't notice that there was anything different about the sole. The shoes didn't feel brand-new, but they also aren't continuing to wear.One thing I should mention is that the dried Goo makes horribly squeaky soles, so I sound like a one-man high school basketball game when I walk on my wood floors. Also I would estimate you can treat two pairs of shoes from one tube of Goo, so it costs $2.50 a pair. Or $1.25 a shoe...
So, my recommendation? Apply it sooner rather than later and you can probably get a few more months out of your shoes. For $5 it's worth it, but don't expect miracles. I'll use it on my shoes, but I will also rotate Goo'd shoes with newer pairs.
Have you ever used Shoe Goo? Would you try it, or are you skittish about messing with your running treads?