I am a cheapskate, movements and early consideration of the Bondis

I am a bit skeptical of nearly any “movement” in running, other than the movement of running.  Folks who claim with particularly religious fervor that drinking this, eating that, wearing this or not wearing that is the key to everyone’s running success come across as myopic in their view to me. 

For me, the movement is movement itself.  Get up and move.  Do something you enjoy.   Move more.  Move faster.  Move longer.  Move longer AND faster.   If you start with that, then the rest sorts itself out.  You will figure out if it is running for you or if it is square dancing.  If it is running you will figure out if you like roads or trails or the track.  You will figure out if you like no shoes and eating chia seeds or if you want to wear clown shoes and drink beer while on the run.  Or whatever. 

All that stuff is fine tuning your journey.  We got a bigger problem in this country with folks NOT moving.  But they probably don’t read this anyway.

So that said, it is obvious as to why I have been skeptical of the Hoka movement.  When the Hokas came out, I was less put off by their look (ridiculous) and more disinterested because of their price.  170 bucks?  No thanks.  That is 3 pairs of shoes, maybe four and at least two.   And then of course, the movement folks made me only dig in more.  Tell me I got to try something and I am less and less likely to do it.  For this very reason, I have yet to read Born to Run.  Stupid I know.

But then there were some folks who I trusted or knew via the blogosphere who tried them out and were pretty sold on them.  Dave M as a local and highly respected competitor.  Simon G and Karl M next.  And I read a review by Marshall U.  But Jeff V is a guy who I trust a lot and he spoke very highly of the shoes (in a balanced way of course).

Still 170 bones.  Ack.  I sheepishly put in a resume for their ambassador program and was both relieved and disappointed that I did not get it.  Really, I am not deserving of any sort of sponsorship given my lack of racing plans.  I wanted a way to try the shoes out without shelling out all that cash. 

Enter the TalkUltra photo facebook contest.  I put up a photo that someone (who I cannot recall) took of me in the PPA 2008.  Anyone who did the 08 Ascent recalls the insanity of that day:  rain until tree line, sleet and snow with thunder and lightning above it.  Hundreds of runners turned around at the A Frame.  Hypothermic underdressed runners at the summit.  And in August.  Stuff we laugh at now, but was not funny that day.

I made the cut to the finalists by way of the the TalkUltra guys consideration.  I then put out the social media bat signal, and quickly got a couple of hundred votes – more than enough to secure a win and a pair of the Bondis.  170 bucks saved!

The Hokas arrived Friday night, and so now I have worn the shoes twice.  My wife and daughter gave me quite a bit of lip as to how silly they looked and wanted to know if I would start running with a bright red nose too.   So far, all I have done is a couple of easy road runs.  About all I can say is this:  they don’t suck.  For me, the biggest endorsement I have been able to give shoes is that they don’t hurt my feet. Seriously.  At least for the roads. 

I remember the first time I saw the Crosslites by Sportiva and I thought the soles on those things were awesome.  So I got a pair (won in a race … can’t spend the big bux).  And yeah, while they had the best outsole ever for trails, their heel counter was so tight that I was nearly singing with the Jackson 5.  They hurt.  I can’t really wear them for any sort of running so they have become the shoes I wear around the yard for green grass and lawn derby we dads play on the weekend.  I have yet to slip in the yard yet.

For what it is worth, despite being significantly larger looking than a regular road shoe – the Bondis feel the same in weight.  They don’t feel heavy at all.  They slip on pretty easy and are comfy.  Like I said:  they don’t hurt. 

The lacing is a bit too “shallow” on the neck collar, but not too bad.  What I mean by that is I like to be able to pull on the laces a bit and still have some room to crank on the laces even more if I want.  In other words, the two sides of the shoe have a lot of room before they start to get near each other over time.  This means that over the life of the shoe, they have room to stretch.  If they are close coming out of a box, you don’t have that room and at some point, you can’t really crank on the laces.

I need to get them on a trail and see if they work there.  I am a bit concerned about rolling an ankle in them because that will incur a multiple story fall to the ground.  

Apparently they do have a low heel lift but I didn’t notice that.  And I don’t think I notice when shoes do either.

I guess I am assessing if these are a shoe I would wear in a race like Pikes (not sure if I will do that anyway).  I am certainly not sure about that as I have gone with road flats there fairly consistently. 

And ultimately if I would feel shelling out 170 bucks is worth it.