It was a cockroach
Crawling around the jungle
Like a small black tank.
One of the reasons Kimme and I met is because I use to do outdoor gear reviews and after one of our trail runs while the group was mulling about, recovering, munching and chatting, she mentioned that she liked my little essays. I made a note of that and months later built up the courage to ask her out.
I have gone through a lot of shoes, most of those being running shoes and most of those being trail running shoes. What to take to Panama and what to leave wasn’t an easy choice. Kimme and I thought it might be fun just to give a brief synopsis of my hits and misses now that we’ve been here a couple of months, so here’s what I brought and a few brief comments.
In no particular order other than what I thought was a quick aesthetic arrangement, my shoe choices for Panama from top left to bottom right were-
Birkenstoks
Teva Terri - Fi
Saucony Kinvara
Salomon Speedcross CS
Topo ST
Hoka Clifton
Saucony Kinvara TR
Salomon Mantra
Salomon Sense
Asics Racing flats
Luna sandals
(blank spot - Lake cycling shoes)
The Birkenstoks I bought as comfortable formal occasion shoes. I got married in them, but there hasn’t been any occasions here to merit wearing them.
The Teva Terri-Fi’s I bought shortly before coming here on sale at Sierra Trading Post. Kimme also got a pair and they’ve been the big hit in the line-up. We do a lot of walking here since we no longer have a car and the heel pad in these shoes are great along with the tread. I didn’t wear sandals often in L.A. and I didn’t think I’d grow accustomed to the dirt on my feet feeling. I’m not one of those rugged ultra dudes that ever want to develop blisters the size of my fist and Go-Pro it and brag about it on a blog. I’m a bit of a priss when it comes to my little darlings. I want them to feel warm and comfortable and happy. And though the grit feeling is never going to go away, these are hands down my go to walking about town shoes. We’ll be ordering another pair to bring back with us when we return to the States.
The Kinvaras are the road shoe I’ve had the longest but they didn’t get much wear Stateside as I rarely did road work. Here though they’ve been in the rotation on our Tues/Friday interval work and tempo runs. They’re beginning to develop some tears, and though they haven’t caused me any discomfort, I doubt I’ll get another pair. At this stage of the game I feel I’m better off with a bit more cushioning underneath me.
The Speedcross Css use to be one of my favorite shoes and when they went on sale at Runners’ Warehouse I snatched up a pair. I thought the tread and the waterproofness would be perfect for the cloud forest trails. The tread is great but I wouldn’t get the Cs versions again. Once you dunk your foot into a stream or water is brought in through your socks, the water stays in and it feels like your feet are sloshing around in a wading pool. I’ve had to stop just about every time I’ve used these to wring out my socks.
The Topo St’s I thought I might use if there were any races here, or for speed work, but I haven’t. Instead they’ve become my jump rope shoes. Which isn’t to besmirch them in any way. They work great for that purpose, but just not enough shoe underneath for me to do road work on.
The Clifton’s I enjoy (though that bastard beat me twice last year) for dry trail work and my tempo runs. Tempting me to look at Hoka road shoes if I can find any on sale. They’re damned expensive.
The Kinvara TR’s have become my go to wet trail running shoe. Decent grip and squish the water out quickly so are very comfortable on our long three hour journeys on the Quetzal trail when we know we’re going to have to tolerate wet feet for extended periods of time. The only problem with these are the problem that any shoe with aggressive tread is going to have out here. To get to the mud requires quite a bit of road/rocky trail work that is wearing out the tread. Still in the mud, creeks, roots and other slippery slime, I do want a tread with an aggressive profile. Reebok has some shoes that may be worth looking into. Not that I’m dissatisfied at all with the Saucony’s, I just like to try out different shoes.
The Mantras I brought as walking around shoes but for now they’ve been upstaged by the Tevas. Maybe when the rains hit they’ll see more use.
The Asics, I’ve used for our one road race here and will use them in any future races in distances of less than half-marathon. I was thinking I might use them for speed work like I did on the treadmill in L.A. but I don’t feel there’s enough shoe underneath to work on the roads for me.
The Luna sandals I only toyed with on short trail ventures in the Santa Monica Mountains and brought them here thinking that I’d tuck them into a back pocket on bike rides and take them out when I wanted to take a break and get a drink or bite to eat, but they’re just a bit too cumbersome for that. They’ve become house slippers and in the future will be replaced by far less expensive sandals.
The blank spot in the picture should be filled in by my Lake bike shoes which I wasn’t sure I would have a use for out here, but now that I’ve got a bike, I’m glad I found a spot for them. The B.O.A dial lacing system gave out on me once in the States and though they are very comfortable and I like being able to dial in tension on the fly, I’m much more at ease with the Velcro straps on my Mavic’s back home. Plus they breathe better and it’s warm enough here to where I’m sure once I get back to the States I’ll be using those predominantly here.
Can’t recall off the top of my head what other shoes are in the bins back home. Right now I’m pretty happy with the choices I’ve made but if I find a decent pair of either road or trail shoes here in David for a reasonable price I’ll probably give them a go and let you know what I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment