Top notch shoe

By heretic Ranked #1973 - Men's Trail Run Shoes May 4, 2007

Background: I live in So. Cal., southern orange county up against the local mountains. I run fairly rocky and steep hardpackish trails, and also run when wet, I'm new to running in general, mostly only doing mountain biking prior to taking the running plunge. This is my first pair of trail running shoes, I was very concerned about stability and not tweaking an ankle, one reason I chose these.

I'd say shoes have awesome stability good traction, and keep your foot dry. They also feel light and are fairly confidence inspiring on downhills. Padding is good, for my feet I've found on anything over 40 minutes I start to feel it more in my feet that I'd like to. That may just be because I'm running too flat footed, or because I'm not fully broken in yet. I've always had issues with blisters, amazingly I've had none with these shoes, fit is awesome requiring no break in time for me.

For the type of mud we get where I'm at, these pack up quite badly, the tread spacing is narrow and doesn't clear. Even running the day after a decent rain, it's really too muddy for them. That may just be our flavor of mud.

I'm really enjoying the running and right now I'm looking to purchase another pair of shoes with extreme mud shedding capabilities, and perhaps another pair geared toward longer runs like the La Sportiva Pikes Peak.

To summarize:

Pros:
Awesome stability
Awesome Fit
Good traction
Nice tough toebox, and roomy in toe area
Zero blisters or hot spots
No break in time for me, and my feet were noob and blister prone
They feel light and agile
Keep your feet dry
Good padding, thick base

Cons:
Pack up with mud (at least where I live)
Might need more padding for longer runs, may just be me

View Details: Montrail Hurricane Ridge XCR Trail Running Shoe - Men's

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