Happy feet.....

    Early last week an email arrived and went straight into my Trash box. I decided to fish it out and have a look at it anyway, and I'm very glad I did. It was from Runner's World and contained a discount code offering 30% off New Balance shoes from a shop called Rat Race Adventure Sports in York. It must have been my lucky day because all I could find that interested me, some Minimus Trail shoes, already had a 40% discount - from £70 down to £42 - so the Runner's World discount code would further reduce them to £29.40. Better still, they offered free postage - not to mention a free poly bag to return them if they weren't suitable. You can't get better than that.  After a quick phone call to confirm my 30% discount was valid on top of their 40%, I couldn't get my order away quick enough!
  

Light and flexible..The New Balance Minimus MT 10 GY

   I love New Balance trail shoes and their MT 101's have long been my favourites but, for reasons best known to themselves, NB have phased them out. All five pairs were comfortable straight from the box. I must easily have run a couple of thousand miles in them over some rough terrain with no problems whatsoever. But the two remaining pairs are now showing considerable signs of wear so it's become necessary to replace them soon with something similar - or better. The New Balance Minimus MT 10 GY will hopefully fit the bill.  I believe they were designed by one of my mentors, Anton Krupicka, whose antics I may well have tried to emulate if only I'd  discovered the joys of trail running a little earlier in life. I reckon if these shoes were good enough for him to hurtle up and down mountains in, they should be good enough for me! However, they arrived with a cautionary note saying "This product increases strain on the foot, calf and achilles tendon......should be introduced SLOWLY into a running exercise routine.....initially limiting use to just 10% of overall running workouts".   

   

These shoes are made for running...and that's
just what I'll do.....

They're incredibly flexible and while slipping them on I couldn't help thinking it felt very much akin to pulling on a sock. They're designed to be worn with or without socks but they didn't feel quite right without, so opted for the thinnest pair I could find. They felt snug and comfortable as I set out for a short three mile run, intending to keep close to home in case of problems. There weren't any. The Vibram soles took everything in their stride over bits of tarmac, field paths, tracks of gravel and mud, or climbing steeply to contour round Castle Hill side. It was a beautiful autumn day and I didn't want to go home. Three miles got extended to four, then five until, by the time I'd done half a dozen fast repeats across a local cricket field, my watch was reading 6.09 miles with 641ft of ascent. I was happy with that and could have kissed those shoes as I slipped them off!  It later struck me that 6 miles is perhaps a little more than 10% of my 20 mile running week. I never was very good at maths!