These are my second pair of Hoka running shoes, Hoka Mafate
3 trail, will I never learn?
The first pair were Hoka one one Stinson trail shoes which I
bought for running the Pennine way in 2014.The Pennine Way is a National Trail
in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail runs 267 miles from
Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire
Dales and the Northumberland National Park and ends at Kirk Yetholm in Scotland.
The Hoka one one Stinson trail shoes felt great from the
moment I first slipped into them, until I stood up and became aware just how
thick the sole is. Add this to the rolling motion and the combination has a
strange effect on your balance, at first I found it difficult to stand up straight
and found myself constantly correcting my balance.
However, as soon as you start running it all begins to make
sense, the first thing you notice is the immense amount of cushioning, running
becomes floating, the shoes soaking up the impact of each step. The hard trail
under your feet becomes a lush grassy lawn which caresses your feet and pushes
you effortlessly onward.
The rolling motion which supposedly helps you burn up the
trails does just that, it’s quite unique and does genuinely feel like you are
being propelled along the trails.
Ok, so that’s the good bits, unfortunately there are also
some obvious failings with these shoes that more than make up for the great
performance.
I ran most of the 267 mile route with these shoes and the
most noticeable fault is the lack of grip on anything other than dry trails.
Wet trails are a nightmare, slipping and sliding become normal and great
caution is required to avoid falling and getting injured. We coined the term
“Hoka Hoka” to describe the amusement of my dancing around on muddy trails.
The second and perhaps most disappointing failing is the
durability, after a sometimes entertaining and mostly enjoyable 7 days of trail
running I discovered a split in the upper where it joins the sole on the inner
edge of the shoe and on closer inspection I could see that the whole right shoe
was lower on the inner edge like the sole had been compressed, I also had to
replace the speed laces as they had started to fray.
After less than 300 miles and only one trail, the shoes were
starting to fall apart. I paid £110.00 from Pete Bland sports
http://www.peteblandsports.co.uk/ which is a lot of money to me. I had seen
several friends wearing these shoes and good reports from them had influenced
my decision to buy some myself, however it soon became aware that poor
durability was a common failing as my friends began to report similar issues.
Anybody with an ounce of sense would learn to avoid such
overpriced poor quality shoes, so why did I buy another pair of Hoka’s? This
time I spent a little time reading reviews and decided the Hoka Mafate 3 trail
shoes would be right for me, plenty of cushioning, a good amount of grip on the
soles and much improved durability.
Again, I paid £110.00 from Pete Bland sports
http://www.peteblandsports.co.uk/ which is still a lot of money, however I had
decide to join some friends to run the “Wash”. The Wash is the square-mouthed
bay and estuary on the northwest margin of East Anglia on the east coast of
England, where Norfolk meets Lincolnshire. It is among the largest estuaries in
the United Kingdom and is fed by the Rivers Witham, Welland, Nene and Great
Ouse.
The sea bank runs from Hunstanton to Skegness and because
you have to follow the various rivers inland to find a bridge on which to cross
them, it is approximately 90 miles long and almost completely flat. Perfect to
a long distance shoe like the Hoka’.
This trail has nothing particularly challenging about it
other than the distance, so the 3 of us had decided to forgo the usual road
support and run this self-supporting, buying food from the two towns we had to
pass through along the way. We also decided to run this on the shortest day of
the year to ensure we spent the longest night of the year on the flattest
trails in the UK. Self-flagallation for a long distance trail runner who
usually has the English Lake district for his running pleasure. This challenge
is part of the “Totally pointless” series which has only recently been
developed by a friend of mine.
(Self-flagellation is the act of hitting oneself with a whip as
part of a religious ritual)
Back to the Hoka Mafate 3 trail running shoes.
The first thing I noticed was the apparent improved
durability, the shoes felt much stronger and looked like they had been made
better while still remaining ultra-light and rather good looking.
Getting the shoes on was the first challenge, despite buying
them ½ a size bigger than normal, I struggled to get my feet inside the bloody
shoes. The speed laces restrict the opening but with the use of a shoe horn i
did eventually get them on and they felt comfortable, although a little firm.
After an initial short run I was happy enough and ran in
them several more time to break them in ready for the “Wash” run.
King’s Lynn was the first stop after approximately 30 miles
and I bought 2 large packets of strip plaster for the back of my feet where the
shoes had started to create quite painful hot spots. A couple of layers of the
plasters and problem solved, we were on our way again. Boston (Lincolnshire) was
at 60 miles and one of our team of 3 dropped out here. Skegness was the finish
and after 23 hours and 45 minutes of running my feet were killing me.
I have quite complex orthotics and suffer with Sesamoiditis
which can be quite painful, after this 90 mile run my feet were blistered and I
decided, that perhaps I had not given the Hoka’s enough chance to settle in before
doing such a long distance in them.
Over the next two or 3 months the blistered settled and the
spring multi day challenge soon arrived and what better shoe for running 280
miles over 7 days than a freshly broken in pair of Hoka Mafate 3’s. Day one and
only 35 miles into the run I had 2 big painful blisters and no will to live.
Blisters this bad with 245 miles still to run was definitely not good so I decided
to switch to New balance road shoes.
Despite 6 & ½ days of pain the run was completed but I have
learned a valuable lesson, unfortunately I’m still trying to work out just what
that is.
