New Balance shoe report – John Mckenna 28^th March 2011

Shoe – Trail 625 all terrain.

Time period - 3 weeks,

Test kilometers around 100km

New Balance kindly gave me this shoe to me to try out as I do a lot of trail walking / running and I am looking for a shoe to take on an Ultra Run within the Mongolian Gobi desert in July.

Sizing

I usually wear running shoes that are 2 sizes too big as most of my running is in very hot weather. My shoe size is a 41, so I usually wear a 43.

As I was not going to use these in the desert I went for a 42, this size still felt a little tight, NB does half sizing so I went to a 42.5, this made a big difference making the shoe feel so much more comfortable. Good support around the heal, nice looking sole, all ready to go.

Test Drive – 32km

I picked them up and headed straight down to my favorite spot, the mountains just behind West Lake in Hangzhou, the track is a mixture of steep stone steps, cobbled roads, a Bamboo forest and some forest trails, total 32km, a good mix of terrain to test them out.

Straight from the box, the shoes were comfortable, you could feel the forefoot cushioning and as I had been learning to run on my forefoot (no heal strike) I was looking forward trying them out.

Very nice, you could really feel the forefoot cushion as you ran, my running partner even commented that my feet/leg action looked springy. The shoes gripped well, it was a dry track, and I did not have sore feet when I got in.

Once I finished I inspected my feet, I had some rubbing on my right heal which if I went any longer would have turned into a blister. I put this down to always wearing shoes 2 sizes to big thus the heal area would be wider, with the 42.5 the heal area would be narrower, I am not use to a shoe that actually fits..

Took the shoes out for another 40 or so kms, all road running, the heal section loosened up and had no further heal issues.

I ran once in the rain, I found the soles to be very slippery on painted or smooth surfaces, you have to take care; on a dry surface the grip was good.

Headed out again to the mountains with having done around 70 kms in them They had broken in nicely with no heal rubbing this time, got back feeling good.

Conclusion

A very comfortable trial shoe with good forefoot cushioning, the shoe is light and breaths well, I would recommend them and have done so already to my fellow runners.

For the desert, I would select the same shoe but in a size 43.5 or 44 as my feet swell a lot in the very hot weather.