Michael: The Third Shoe

The world is spinning
And if I don’t close my eyes
I’m going to fall.

Thursday, January 24, 2019

My feet and legs recovered surprisingly well from the San Diego 50. So much so that you’d think I’d be content to stick to whatever plan I was using and just tweak it a bit for next month’s 60 miler. Yes and no on that.

I am planning on using the same shoes for about the same distance next month. I used Hoka Torrents, my favorite trail shoes to date, for 30 miles and New Balance Summits for 20 miles. But next month’s race is going to be about a third longer as far as time goes as I expect it to take about 12 hours as opposed to the 8:17 San Diego took. I’ll also have the opportunity to change gear every 12 miles as opposed to just once at San Diego. For those reasons I’m going to throw a third pair of shoes into the rotation.

But what shoes?

Damn, there are a lot of shoes out there.

Initially, I was drawn to the super light shoes like the new Arcteryx Norvan SLs because I picture myself as a fast gazelle like runner and they just look so cool. However they’re damned expensive, and in a 60 miler that’s going to average around 5 mph, that’s not exactly at gazelle tempo, so maybe something with a bit more cushioning would be a better option.

But still, damn, there are a lot of max cushion shoes out there. After all the research, I have settled on the Brooks Caldera 2s if they’re still available from REI in the color scheme I want when I get paid next month. At the $100 price point in the color I find acceptable (topo map green), they appear to be a bargain. If my size 10 is gone, I’ll go with the new Topo Ultraventures in the grey and orange for $130. Not a price I want to pay, but I just can’t bring myself to wearing the Brooks in that ugly blue/green stripe style that’s on sale everywhere.

I know, for such a significant event as a 100k, style and color should be secondary to function, and to some extent it is. The two shoes get very comparable reviews and I haven’t worn either brand in quite a while, so I can’t use recent experience as a tie breaker. So as silly as it is, I’m going to let my preferences for color and style decide if it comes to that.