Wednesday 29 September 2010

GORETEX TRAIL SHOES. Love them or hate them?

 The trail run I do frequently virtually from the back door  up towards Troutbeck Park farm is a special with fantastic scenery (see below).  But one niggle is for the first mile the trail runs along the bottom of a steep slope, down from the "Garburn Trail".   Naturally,  it is strewn with many streams which  open uncontrolled
onto the trail and besides being extremely dangerous when turning to ice, at other times of year the feet take an immediate soaking. Quite annoying with another 5 miles to run but  during the summer months the shoe upper dries out fairly quickly as rain water runs out of a mesh upper.
 Many runners, of course,  just put up with having wet feet and socks.  They are content that any water going in can largely flow out if their trail shoe has a mesh upper.   A good number of runners, however, can't tolerate wet and cold feet particularly when running in snow and choose trail shoes with  a waterproof, breathable membrane in the shoe upper usually GORETEX.    These can be up to £100 and above but Complete Runner customers have favoured largely 2 offering from Asics which are available again for this Autumn/Winter season.   The gel trail LAHAR 2 Goretex at £70. Great value!

A very competitive offering even without the Goretex lining with its two way lugs which provide traction for uphill and downhill.   The other Asics shoe which has gone well provides medial support for the overpronator with similar uphill/downhill lugs similarly, is the Gel MORIKO 5 Goretex at £85



Obviously  the runner who encounters deep puddles on the run , by which the foot gets totally submerged, is bound to experience water is going to go down into the shoe from the top;  by passing the Goretex lining.    Others have said that the  breathability of a conventional upper suits their foot better as their feet perhaps sweat more than average.
So perhaps the "jury is out"  on Goretex trail shoes or at least "hung"!   For myself  I think I might just invest because I know if my favourite Lake District trail run is so rain sodden now in September one thing is guaranteed ......it's only going to get worse!  
This is it on a good day.....on a bad day the path becomes a river!

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