Field note · May 20, 2023 · 2023 · May, week 3 · 1 min read · by Jay
The shoe you trained in
The Nimbus 24s did the training weeks in May and the 1080 v12s did the half and Honu, because only the shoe that's already done a long run gets a bib.
This isn't a shoe review, and we're not going to talk about stack height or carbon plates, because we don't race in anything we haven't trained in and we don't name anything we haven't raced in. What follows is what was in my closet in May 2023 and how it got sorted.
Two pairs were in my rotation that month: the Asics Gel Nimbus 24 for the training weeks, and the New Balance Fresh Foam X 1080 v12 for the two races, the Hibiscus Half at the end of May and Honu the week after. The 1080s got the races because they'd already done the long runs. That decision came from a Saturday morning in April, when they went past ten miles without a calf filing a complaint, and for me that's usually the only review that counts.
The rule we run by is simple: put the race shoe on a long run before the race, at least one, and the longest one in the block if you can. A new shoe has a drop, a stack, and a fit that your calf hasn't met yet, and the long run is where that introduction should happen, well before race day. If the long run goes fine the shoe gets the bib, and if it doesn't, you found out on a Saturday with nothing on the line.
We write this down because the internet is full of people buying a race shoe the week of the race, and at our age a calf that disagrees with a shoe at mile ten usually costs the next three weeks of the season. That's how May went for me: two pairs, one trained and one raced, and nothing new in the box on race morning.