Wanted: Faster Running Shoes To Make My Legs Go Faster

I've been looking for a light weight racing shoe for running marathons and half marathons to replace the Zoot triathlon racing shoe that I sometimes wear. I love the Zoot tri shoes, but I want to save them for when I do triathlons and get light weight racing shoes just for runs.

During the Mercedes Half marathon I wore my regular training shoe, the Brooks Glycerin 10.  It's a great shoe for me to train in,  but it's a little heavy for racing.  I wore the Zoot Tri shoe in Mobile for the half and the Brooks Glycerin Sunday and could tell the difference in weight.  I thought that by wearing the more cushioning Brooks shoe that the bottoms of my feet wouldn't feel so beat up after the race as they did in Mobile, but there wasn't much difference than when I wore the Zoot tri shoe.

The choices I am considering for a light weight running shoe are the Newton Women's shoe which is only a little lighter than my Glycerin 10.  I love the color!

Image from Newtonrunning.com

Newton Women's Distance U

I also found out there is a new pink performance running shoe coming out this Spring by Karhu.  The Karhu reps were at the Mercedes marathon expo and had pictures of it.  It is very cute and pink and worth checking out before I purchase anything.  And did I mention it's PINK!

I love the Brooks Glycerin 10, but as I said before it is pretty heavy for racing at about 9.6 oz.  I really want something under 8 oz for a racing shoe.  I wore the Glycerin 10 in the Chickamauga marathon and the Mercedes Half marathon.

Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon

Brook Glycerin 10

For most of my races the past couple of years, I have worn these Zoot triathlon shoes.  The difference between these and regular light weight running shoes is that these have built in lace locks that makes it easier to pull on in the transition area after taking off your biking shoes.  All you have to do is pull them on, give the laces a quick yank and go.  No time wasted trying to tie them.

Similar one here - Zoot Tri Shoe

Before I got these to do triathlons in, I had to put lace locks on my regular running shoes.  They weren't as easy to deal with as already having them built in the shoe itself.  The Zoot tri shoe itself is designed to tug on quickly and easily.

Image from Profile-design.com

I've worn these Zoot tri shoes at Rock And Roll New Orleans Marathon,

Heading to the Port a let where all well hydrated runners hang out pre-race

At the Buster Britton Triathlon,

Buster Britton Triathlon

Mobile Half marathon, and many other races throughout the past few years.

I have two other pairs of Zoot Triathlon shoes that I don't wear as much.  One pair is turquoise and the other is white and pink and very similar to the ones above except the laces are white instead of black and they are a little stiffer than the ones above so not as comfortable.  When I went to Hawaii two years ago to do the half ironman triathlon in Kona, I absent mindedly packed up one of each.  The right Zoot shoe with the black laces and the left Zoot shoe with the white laces.  What's worse is they made it all the way into my transition bag like that.  I didn't realize I had two different shoes until I was in the transition area ready to put them on race day.

Imagine my surprise after swimming 1.2 miles, biking 56 miles and then reaching in my transition bag and discovering what a stupid mistake I had made.  I said a short prayer right there in the middle of transition for God to PLEASE make one of them a lefty and one of them a righty or I was going to have to

1.   Put two right shoes on and run "awkwardly" for 13.1 miles hoping nobody would notice

2.  Run barefoot for 13.1 miles and hope there was skin on the soles of my feet at the end of the run

or

3.  Abandon the entire race right then and there and that would have been a toughy because I'm not a quitter and I had just flown thousands of miles all the way to Hawaii just to do this race!

Lucky for me I had a lefty and a righty so the entire run part of the race became a science experiment to find out which Zoot tri shoe felt the best and most comfy to me during a race.  It made the run go by just a little bit faster since I was going over in my head which foot was crampy, which one felt all cushiony like it was in a glove, etc.

Guess it's easy to see which pair won!  Unfortunately, they are getting a little worn out.

Tried Out My New Brooks Running Shoes Today

Brooks Glycerin 9, my new running shoes

I ran with the Running Nazi this morning.  We only ran 8 miles instead of 13 miles (our usual long run) because I haven't been feeling well.  I either had an allergic reaction to something (probably that sage I put in the dressing that my mom told me not too) or I am fighting a cold.  Of course, the Running Nazi showed up for the run sicker than I was.  While I was just "fighting" something, she was full blown sick.  Sore throat, bad cough, congestion, eyes burning, but like I've said before, that doesn't stop her at all.  She would've run 13 miles today if I wasn't such a wimp.

 I wore my new running shoes for the first time.  Ken (aka The Murph) gave them to me for Christmas.  I have been looking for a replacement for the fuchsia Brooks Burn running shoes I have been wearing for years.  They stopped making them a few years ago and I had several pairs stockpiled in the back of my closet just in case. " Prepared" for the day they stopped making them.  Well, they did stop making them and I went through my last pair training for Memphis marathon a couple of years ago.  Since then I have tried a couple of different brands including a pair of Mizuno's that I really liked, but felt they didn't last long enough and they were sort of a weird, icky color, not pink.   Brooks has several different styles, but none that seemed like the Burn.

Brooks Burn - my all time favorite running shoe...  (sigh)

I first bought the Brooks Burn running shoes at a race expo.  I fell in love with them immediately because they were pink, of course.  I didn't care how they would feel on my feet.  They could've rubbed blisters and made my toes turn black for all I cared.  They were PINK!  Fortunate for me, they didn't rub blisters or turn my toes black.  In fact, they turned out to be the BEST running shoe I have ever worn in my entire life.  They were light weight!  They were fast!  They held up to all the abuse I put them through!  Most of all, they were PINK!  Fuchsia to be exact. (although Brooks calls them "red"... whatever!)   The perfect color for a running shoe.  I will never find an exact replacement for these running shoes, but my new Brooks Glycerin 9 running shoes are fairly close.  I don't really like all the white on them with only a little pink trim.  It would be much better if the colors were reversed with the pink replacing the white and the white replacing the pink.  They aren't as light weight as the Burns or the Mizunos and they are a little clunky.  For now though, these will do, but I am still in search of the perfect Brooks Burn replacement.

Brooks what were you thinking when you discontinued this awesome shoe.  Brooks, Pleeeeasaaaase!!  I need my Brooks Burn back.   And please don't make them that funky light blue color like the Burn 3 or that turquoise color like you did with the Brooks Pure Cadence.  Fuchsia only please!  I need to design running shoes.  They would all be shades of pink.

I disturbed a sleeping Phantom when I started taking pics of my shoes in the closet so he gave me the stink eye and left.  My last pairs of running shoes are in the back.  The turquoise/greenish ones are the Mizunos -not a bad pair, just not pink....

Old Brooks Burn on the left, New Brooks Glycerin 9 on the right

You can find Brooks Glycerin 9 running shoes here.