So I’ve decided to publicly post my thoughts on the running shoes I currently own, as well as those that I acquire over time. After hiking through the Catskills last week, I found that my presumptions about my present boot situation were correct. As a result of my pursuit of minimalist running shoes, sandals, barefoot running, and otherwise shunning raised heels, arch support, and the associated loss of ground feel that popular shoes/boots provide, I’ve found that my boots are indeed too supportive. Yes, too supportive, after hundreds upon hundreds of miles, I can no longer tolerate the suffocation of my foot, loss of ground feel, and handcuffing of ankle flexibility. This, of course made me reconsider my hiking footwear, and I’ve decided, against the recommendation of most hiking footwear specialists, to forgo boots, and instead wear a pear of lightweight/minimalist trail running shoes for upcoming backpacking adventures.

This decision is mostly based on the requirement of my boots for me to land on my heel, especially during descents, and while in the Catskills I found that my knees were more sore than they would be after a 15plus mile hill run, in spite of the fact that I had only hiked less than 10. While descending I found that landing on the forefoot alleviated the knee discomfort, but as a result of the stabilizing effect of the boot with regard to my ankle, it was more difficult to be as nimble as I would be in a trail runner. So, after much thought, I decided to purchase a pair of New Balance MT 101’sThese, of course are the shoes designed in part with/for ultra-runner Anton Krupicka. They have a 10mm drop, which I’m not too excited about, but will refrain from judgement on until they have substantial enough mileage. They have an aggressive tread shown here:
which I’m looking forward to testing on a variety of terrain/trail conditions.The MT101 also has a rock stop, which I’m hoping will be advantageous during some upcoming treks/runs through the White Mountains, as well as the Rangeley Lakes region in Maine, not to mention my regular runs through NJ, where according to most AT through hikers, is where boots come to die.

Initially, the heel-forefoot drop of 10mm is slightly disconcerting, but on a short jog, seems not to interfere with my form, and while the shoes is heavier than my MT10’s, (7.1 oz for the MT10, 7.8 oz for the MT101)which, so far I love (real review on those to come shortly) the addition of the rock plate, and slightly more reinforced upper have me excited, plus, who doesn’t need another pair of trail running shoes!?

For the record, I’ve decided that while I intend to review shoes on this blog, no shoe that I intend to use for substantial running/hiking will be reviewed with fewer than 100 miles on it, this should allow me to become rather comfortable with the shoe, and accurately note it’s pro’s/con’s. But in this particular case, I’m just too excited about new trail runners to not talk about it! (something tells me that this is a likely trend)

Upcoming shoes to talk about:
New Balance MT10 (63.86 mi)
New Balance MR10 (245.62 mi)
Vibram Five Fingers KSO (56.9 mi)