New Kicks for Raceday (Updated post-race)
Who doesn’t love new shoes?
Yes, maybe it’s a little crazy to wear new shoes for the first time during a 50k race (I decided last night to sign up for Whoo’s in El Moro 50k on Saturday in the OC), but this is my third pair of the Nike Zoom Terra Kigers and the other pairs worked for me right out of the box. Hopefully I’ll have time to run a few miles in them tomorrow morning just to be sure, but I’m confident they’d be fine if I need to wear them for the first time on Saturday. (Famous last words?)
[*Update 5/10/14 – I did wear the shoes for the first time during the race and they worked out perfectly. I had to adjust the laces a bit mid-race, but didn’t have any fit issues or feel like they needed to be broken in. After a strong first 12 miles, I suffered a bit for the rest of the race. I finished in 4:28:41, a new PR. I’ll publish a full race report soon.]
As a quick update to the review of the Kiger I did back in November, I still dig these shoes and they’ve been my go-to trail shoe since last I started running in them last fall. In my initial review, I complained about them being a little narrow and not working for me on longer runs (once my feet swell a little) or with any but my thinnest socks. For my second pair, I went up half a size and they were great! I can wear any socks I want and they’ve been comfortable up to 26 miles (my longest run in them to date). I don’t see any reason why they won’t work in a 50k, or longer even.
I’ve worn them on rocky technical trails, dirt roads, on snow and ice and never wished I was wearing a different shoes. I’ve never worn them in thick mud or on really slick, wet rocks, but I think they’d be fine there too. People have commented on (worried about?) the fact that there’s no rock plate. I’ve never thought about it. The Kigers have good protection and in these shoes at least, I’ll take the lighter weight without the rock plate.
That second pair has nearly 400 miles on them and I think they’re about ready for retirement. Or at least no more long runs. The upper is still in great shape, but the lugs on the outsole are pretty worn and they’re beginning to feel a little tired underfoot.
They’re filthy, but no tears or serious wear on the uppers. It’s a little hard to see, but the area around the toe where the upper meets the outsole is starting to fray a bit, but any issue that might happen there is a long ways off.
You can hopefully see that some of the lugs are pretty worn down (especially around the ball of my foot) but other than that the soles are still in decent shape.
In these two, you can compare the old pair with the new. The lugs aren’t huge to begin with but it’s taken almost 400 miles to wear them down to this point. I’d say that’s a perfectly reasonable rate of wear.
I’ve heard rumors that a new version, the Kiger 2, is in testing with Nike but I haven’t seen anything about a release date, so I assume it’s still a ways off.