Considering it has been a very long time since the last time I wrote a shoe review, I figured I’d make a return for a shoe that has gained a special place in my running life. Over the past few years I have been coaching indoor and outdoor track at my school, but this Fall my daughter made a switch from soccer to cross country, and I have now become a volunteer coach with the XC team as well. Coaching has been a great experience, and one of the benefits of coaching cross country is that I get to run with the team every day after school. I’m fortunate in that my school, Coe-Brown Northwood Acad ..read more

The original Helios came out in 2013 and used the concept of La Sportivas Vertical K shoe but in a more traditional package.  Essentially the Helios 2.0 and SR remain fairly unchanged at their core compared to the original.  Some upper modifications and rubber compound changes being the most notable. Because the SR and 2.0 are fairly similar I’m going to review them together. Upper and Fit In regards to the upper, the SR and 2.0 are nearly identical.  The upper is secure while still being fairly sock-like and generally suits the type of ride and application La Spo ..read more

End of the first day at the Fat Dog 120 mile. Enjoying a high alpine section on a perfect evening before what would be my biggest struggle of the year through the night resulting in my only DNF for the year. Yes, unfortunately it is now February and a best of 2016 post is old news, but better late than never. While things were a little lighter on the blogging front for me, I still had a full year of running, racing, and got to try out tons of new shoes and gear in the process.  I ran the Carlsbad Road Marathon in January, Gorge Waterfalls 100k in April, Quad Rock 50 mile in May, Bi ..read more

When I first received the Hoka Speedgoat, I was pretty sure that I would never run in them. I had heard from other runners that the fit was way too narrow, and upon taking them out of the box I was rather shocked by just how narrow the toebox looked. It honestly looks like a cross-country spike upper and last on a Hoka sole. After trying them on and confirming the tight fit, I put them back in the box and they sat in my basement for a few months. (Disclosure: these shoes were provided free-of-charge by Hoka for review purposes.) After our first snowfall back at the beginning of winter (snow ha ..read more

Pickled Feet 6 hr. Photo Tempus Photo Design Although I had some bumps along the way in my running in 2015, I consider it a good year, and one in which I learned a lot and grew as a runner and person even though my race results don’t show too much. I started the year off with a 50k in January at the Wilson Creek 50k. I ran a good race, then transitioned to marathon training for the remainder of January and February in prep for the Richland Runfest in Richland, WA. I ended up with a 3:03:17, which was a 12 min PR for me (previous PR was from the Spokane Marathon just 4 months earlier; my only ..read more

Back in early August I had the fantastic opportunity to go to the Outdoor Retailer Show in Salt Lake City for the first time and check out the new shoes that are coming out late winter/early spring. Below are the mountain running shoes I had the opportunity to see at the show. Of note, Outdoor Retailer tends to attract more trail/outdoor oriented shoe brands, and not all running shoe companies were present.  Notably, Nike, ASICS, and Mizuno were not present, so I don’t have any info on their 2016 releases. Also of note, I choose to segment the trail market into what I call, for simplicity ..read more

Topo Athletic has evolved quite a bit in the few short years since their inception late in 2012. Their first offerings were Tabi style shoes that featured a separated big toe.  Pete has a great intro into Topo and his thoughts on the original Tabi versions in his review of the MT.  My history with Topo is similar.  I tried on the RT a while back, but just couldn’t bring myself to run in them.  I had an extensive history with Vibram FiveFingers in my early running years, even running my first marathon in a pair of KSOs, so I’m not one to turn away from a product just be ..read more

The original Zoom Terra Kiger was one of my first shoe reviews, and after carving up v1 to better suit my liking, Nike released a fantastic update in the Zoom Terra Kiger 2.  Other than retaining the original outsole design, which I thought was still lacking, the shoe was tweaked in just the right way in the midsole to create a much more protective, sharp, and stable ride. Kiger 2 also retained a light and fast feel with a fantastic upper, which is still one of the best uppers I’ve ever stuck my foot in. One of my closing lines of my Kiger 2 reveiw was, “If they can dial in the outso ..read more

Salomon is a major player in the trail market not only with their shoes, but with well supported international teams, high quality video content, and full apparel and pack lines they are arguably the most recognizable brand in the trail running world.  Their shoes, however, have not fit my tastes very often aside from a few of their very expensive S-Lab line, namely the Fellcross 3 and Sense 3 (which I still struggle with on a few areas). I was a little leery giving the Speedcross Pros a review (disclosure: the shoes were provided free of charge from Salomon) since I really don’t li ..read more

I wasn’t aware that Dynafit was in the trail/mountain running shoe market until this year when I first saw a picture of a runner from the Transvulcania Ultramarathon wearing a shoe I didn’t recognize (rare these days). After a short google search I found out they were made by Dynafit.  A month or so later, another runner recommended I check Dynafit out, so I reached out to make contact with the folks there.  They sent me a pair of the Dynafit Feline SL (Disclaimer: the shoes were provided free of charge for my review) and I’ve since put some good time in them. Specs MSRP, $149.9 ..read more