Required Reading

Shelby and went on vacation a couple weeks ago and this is the book I brought along. Very inspiring and enlightening. Really showed me how much I don't know about running and that there is so much more to running that I need to tap into. The books really dives into the world of ultra running and it's history, why people run, why we are always getting injured, and how we can learn to run more often with less injury.

Nocturnal Challenge 18hr.

I had intentions of doing a full race report for this one but I've let it get away from me and now it's too late. In short, the Nocturnal Challenge was great race and well put together. Race started at 1:30 on Saturday and ended at 7:30 Sunday morning. Dealing with the heat for the first couple hours was a challenge but since most of the race was in the dark the suffering was short lived. Tons of biking in this race- not our strongest discipline so we skipped some bike cp's to have more time for the trekking sections. One of the coolest things about the race was the wildlife- several deer including a nice size buck, cattle, a gator, and a fox. Good to see the racers we've gotten to know and catch up. Dave and Katie were great teammates as always. I'm really blessed to get to race with them. Third place finish overall so a good showing for us. Here a couple pics.

I'm Back

I'm back....maybe. I have good intentions of beginning to keep this blog up again so we'll see what happens. Since I've last written I really haven't done any racing and I'm starting to really miss it. Been training a lot though- probably putting in more running miles than I ever have before for this time of year. Been on the bike pretty consistently as well. Lost 10 pounds since the ACC so I'm hoping to keep that weight off and maybe lose a little more. Anything to help me keep up with Dave and Katie on the run sections. Mims is signed up for the Nocturnal Challenge in a couple weeks and I'm really looking forward to it. It'll be an interesting race- starts at 1:30 Saturday afternoon and ends by 6:30 Sunday morning. I'm thinking the first couple hours are going to be pretty tough with the heat. Nice thing is we have ropes course/ zip-line to look forward to that night. My brother Ben and I are still planning on doing the Suwanee River Challenge in October so I need to come up with a way to get us in the boat consistently. I may end up meeting him to paddle after Audrey goes around 7:00. That should guarantee us a little cooler weather for the training. That's about it- can't wait to race.

Hey Asher.

Atlantic Coast Conquest

Last weekend Mims the Word was back in action at the ACC in St. Augustine, FL. I had been looking forward to this race for a while and really loved the fact that it was just 30 minutes from home. We went to a brief pre-race meeting Friday night and got our maps. Everything looked pretty straight forward with the only real strategy being in the paddle section dealing with tides. It was good to catch up with Katherine, who was racing with Relentless. They are really cool group of people. Order of disciplines was as follows: Bike or Run (you could start with either), Paddle, Run, Paddle, Bike, Run, Bike. You could get the CP's in any order in each section.
Trek 1:

We chose to start with the run. This was a pretty simple section with 6 CP's approx. 6 miles in length. Aside from one small mistake we hit everything quickly. Highlight of this section was seeing a hog with three legs while running with Eco-choice. We were told we were the first team back from the run.

Bike 1:

The first bike section was mostly on roads in a newly developed area. Apart from turning off too early on a fire break we made it through this section with no issues. (Only thing that slowed us down was Dave checking out a GTO that drove by) We made it back to the TA and headed out on the water right behind Punch Junkies with a couple teams right behind us.

Paddle Out:

The paddle section was an out and back in the inter coastal and consisted of 7 CP's with a trek section at Stokes Landing in the middle. We decided the night before to hit 4 CP's on the way to Stokes and 3 Cp's on the way back that were up creeks in order to make the best use of the tides. Most of the navigation was very easy for this section. The toughest thing about this paddle was the wind and dealing with wake from the many large boats that were out there. On the way down, the boat consistently pulled left and on the way back it pulled right. I felt like I was doing nothing but corrective strokes the entire time. This was both physically and mentally exhausting. We spent this whole section chasing Punch Junkies but were able to work with them for most of the CP's.

Trek 2- Stokes Landing:

The second trek came as a welcome break from paddling. We didn't waste anytime and took off along the eastern shore of the park and quickly found the first CP. The next two CP's were easy enough and then came the first hurdle we would face with nav on this race. What appeared to be any easy CP located at the end of a firebreak off a due south trail gave us and many other teams trouble. What was on the map and what was actually there just didn't match up. We spent about 45 minutes on this point working with Punch Junkies and finally found it by trial and error. We hoofed it back to boat and took off on the long paddle home.

Paddle Back:

No real issues on the last paddle. The wind died down and the paddling became easier. The CP's up the creeks were accessible with the tide in. It was still slow going. We began the paddle out at 10:50 AM and did not arrive back to the TA until 7:30ish. That's a long time sitting on an aluminum seat. We came in about 20 minutes after Punch Junkies and right on the heels of Eco-choice. Shake-a-leg Miami had absolutely smoked the paddle and were way out ahead of all of us.

Bike 2:

After eating some "real food" we made a quick transition to the bike hoping not to let Punch Junkies get too far out. We left the TA with Eco-choice and caught up to Punch Junkies at the first bike CP. We stumbled upon this CP earlier during the first trek so I was able to take us right to it. For the next three hours we continued to knock off CP's bumping into Punch Junkies and Eco-choice on and off as we went. And then there was CP 30....the one that got away. We chose to attack this CP from a trail coming up from the south after getting CP 31. When we arrived to what we thought was Stokes Landing we saw about three team's worth of headlamps bouncing towards the shoreline. We dropped our bikes and soon caught up and joined in the search. After over an hour and a half of searching and seemingly exhausting all our options we, along with all the other teams with us, decided to bail on the point. This is where the wheels came off for us. We were demoralized from having to skip a point and being caught be several teams that we had a good lead on. This navigation seemed to get trickier at this point and we were getting tired. I felt like we basically fumbled around in the woods for 5 hours until the sun came up. We worked with Nature Calls for a couple CP's which was nice and kept us focused for while. They were as frustrated as we were with the maps at that point so working together seemed to help a little. Their were so many trails that were not on the map it was ridiculous. Staying oriented was a real challenge. We picked up momentum as the sun came up made it to the the last trek about 8 AM and found out that only three other teams had found CP 30. After briefly discussing gong back to get it we decided we didn't have enough time.

Trek 3:

The last trek was a very straightforward loop around 8-9 miles. We pushed hard for the first three miles or so and then settled into a solid pace for the rest of it. It took us 2:20:00. I remember yawning constantly the whole time and fighting the urge to close my eyes. We passed the time by talking about what we were going to eat after the race- my favorite part of adventure racing.

Bike 3:

The last bike leg was just a due north dirt road ride to the finish. A short ride that seemed to last forever...

Although we were frustrated with our results we had an awesome time. Dave and Katie are great teammates. The course was laid out nicely. We switched disciplines often enough and most of the CP's seemed to be plotted correctly. Guana WMA is a beautiful area and was a great place for a race. Congratulations to Shake-a-leg Miami on the win. The really owned this race. Can't wait for the next one...

BRMAR Slide Show

Blue Ridge Race Report

Last weekend we headed up to Blue Ridge for the Blue Ridge Mountain AR. This was my fifth time racing and seventh year being up there for this race. I absolutely love this race. The whole city seems to come out to help and watch and the course is always designed well. This year I raced with some good friends that I've been racing with the past year, Dave Collins and Katie Ferrington, as team Mims the Word.

This years race was really cool with tons of options that required a lot of strategy. We plotted 18 cps the night before. CP's 2-7 could be achieved in any order- but the team had to stay together. CP's 8-15 could be be acheived in any order and teams were allowed to split up. CP's 16-19 were gotten in order with the team staying together. 15 minutes before that start we were given the coordinates to plot CP 1 and 6 prologue CP's (ABCDEF) of which we had to obtain 3 of them (ABC or DEF). Total of 22 CP's. The race began with a shotgun blast at Shallowford Bridge at 8:00AM. We headed off to get CP's ABC since I knew the area they were in pretty well (up and over Freeknob on the Benton). After nailing the prologue with no issues we picked up our bikes at Tilly Bend Church on Old Dial Rd. and riad to Rocky Point picking up CP 1 on the way. After meeting our crew at Rocky Point we drooped the bikes and headed out on foot for a loop that contained CP's 2-6 and a ton of elevation. We made in through back to the transition area with no real issues and picked up the canoe. CP's 7-15 were obtained by paddling to points along the lake and portaging our canoe while we sent a runner to get the CP's. This strategy seemed to work well for us as we are stronger runners then bikers. After knocking off CP 15 we continued paddling on Lake Blue Ridge to the dam where we would portage across to the Toccoa River. We then followed the Toccoa to the last transition where we left our canoe with the crew and picked up out bikes for a short 5 mile ride into town. We finished in 8:47:00 with all 22 CP's in 13th place- my best result in Blue Ridge so far.

I was really pleased with our race and my great teammates. What an awesome weekend. It was Audrey's first trip to the mountain and her longest car ride so far and she did awesome. My wife is so cool for supporting me with this stuff. She had a lot to put up with dealing with Audrey and a stressed husband. I couldn't do this stuff with her. My brother Matt and his wife Kristin came up and ran support for us with Shelby. It was so good to have them there.

The Guana 50k

I know this is a little late, but here's my race report for the Guana 50k. This was my first ultra-marathon and it was quite the learning experience. Race day was a little warmer than I had hoped for but at least we had overcast skies. After a brief pre-race meeting from the RD the race started at 7 am. There were about 100 runners doing the event. Some doing the 50k, most doing the 25k relay. I settled in to a good rhythm and was running what I thought would be a sustainable pace for at least the first three laps. (The race consist of 4, 7.5 mile laps) I ended up having some stomach issues during the second lap and by the time I made to the third lap I was showing signs of being dehydrated. I had been feeling pretty sick that week before and had been on antibiotics. I should have done my research before the race because I learned the hard way the antibiotics can lead to dehydration. The last 15 miles were some of the hardest miles I've ever run (well, walked and shuffled mostly). Before heading out on the last lap I got to see Shelby, her mom, and Audrey. That came just at the right time as I was having to fight off the urge to call it. To give you an idea of how bad I was hurting my first lap was 1:20:00 and my last lap was right over 2 hours. I finished in 7:15:00. Good parts of the race were hanging out and talking to the other runners- I tried to glean as much wisdom as I could, seeing Shelby and Audrey, and just plain finishing. I was disappointed with my time but pleased that I didn't give up. I'll be back next year to give it another go- next time more prepared.

Commitment

I finally committed to the Guana 50k and put my money in the mail. No turning back now. I ran this event two years ago as a relay and loved it. This year I feel like I've got the miles in my legs to go for the whole thing. I'm hoping a couple of my buddies will be out there as well. It's a four lap event, each lap being a little over 7.5 miles. That fourth lap is gonna be a bear. I'm planning on starting really slow and trying to conserve as much as possible for the last lap. Honestly- I can't wait for the race. I love running trails and Guana is beautiful. This weekend Shelby and I are heading out to the ranch to hang out for my birthday. Should be a relaxing weekend. I'm gonna take the hiking backpack to put Audrey in and get out on the Florida Trail some. Should get in a good run a ride out there as well. I'll try and take some pictures.

Morning Peddle, Afternoon Paddle

Yesterday was awesome. I got a great ride in before work and went out in the kayak after work. Got in about an 1:40 of paddling which is pretty good for a weekday. Here are a few pics from the paddle.

River Run

This past weekend Shelby and I did the Gate River Run 15k. This was our 4th one and it's always a good time. Shelby and I decided to run together this year and had a blast. She did awesome, 1:37:47. The weather was perfect, cool and overcast. Only bad part was how foggy it was. Saw a lot of people we knew along the road which is always a great distraction. My buddy Daniel ran a great time this year, 1:12:00. On Sunday I took some friends out canoeing and gave them some pointers. They are training for the Blue Ridge AR coming up as well. I need to spend more time in the Sundowner before Blue Ridge. I'm still not completely comfortable in it. I'm hoping to take it out to the ranch this weekend and paddle it on the Suwannee. In all, we had a great weekend with beautiful weather. 

Good Weekend

Had another pretty good weekend for training. Saturday I rode an hour and a half on the road bike and Sunday I ran 19 miles, a little over three hours. The only time I had to run was right after church so the heat played a big factor- it was about 75-80 degrees. I filled up my water bottle twice during the run, had two gels, and five endurolytes. That seemed to keep me going and got me through it. The best part of the run was having no muscle cramping, even with the heat. I can definitely tell that I've gotten stronger since the marathon in January. Not necessarily faster, but my endurance has improved. This weekend is the River Run 15k, the largest road race in Jacksonville. Shelby and I will be doing it as well as her brother and a ton of our friends so it'll be a great time. The course has a montrous bridge at mile 8 that really kills you before the finish so maybe the treadmill and stairmaster work will pay off.

Feeling better

What started out as a pretty crappy weekend for training (I had been sick all last week), ended up being pretty good. Saturday was a absolutley beautiful day and despite feeling like crap in the morning I ended up getting in a solid 10 mile run (8 with Shelby and Audrey). Later that day we brought Audrey and Reese out to Julington Durbin Preserve for a short hike so that Reese could run around some. We tried out a hiking back pack with Audrey that my mom had gotten us before she was born. It worked really well and was reasonably comfortable. I think Audrey will like it better when she can see over the top instead of just out the sides. I woke up feeling crappy again on Sunday but again, things got better as the day went on. A buddy of mine called me a couple weeks ago about doing a relay off-road tri with him. They needed a kayak guy. The race was extremely short- one lap around a small lake. I came in first off the water and got us about a 20 sec. lead going into the bike. It was fun hanging out but sure would have been nicer if it had been a longer paddle. I'm really hoping to get out to Guana this week at night with Dave to do some more scouting and to experience the area at night.

train, train, train

I've been getting in some good training lately. Last weekend I headed back out to Guana on Saturday and got a couple hours of biking in while exploring more with the map. The map that Guana WMA offers is ridiculously simple. Their are miles and miles of well-used trails that are not mapped. I'd like to get out their with a GPS soon and get some of those trails on a topo map. Not exactly sure HOW to do it, I just know it can be done. I got about 10 miles of running in on Sunday- 7 of it pushing the jogging stroller(Audrey slept the whole time, which was awesome). Shelby ran the 7 with me as her long-run for River Run training. She's doing great. Working out at the gym in the morning is still going well- at least their is more variety in what I'm doing now. Also, it makes it easy not to skip a workout when I know I'm meeting Matt at the gym. I'm dealing with a head cold again- it's really getting old... I'm really itching to do a race soon- it's been since last October since I did an adventure race- that's way too long! Can't wait for Blue Ridge.

The Beginning

I was looking through a shoebox of old pics last week and came across these. This was my first adventure race, the Altamaha Wilderness Adventure Race (AWAR). I can't remember much about this race expect that I had a great time and we rode through some nasty red clay under a railroad trussle. Unfortunately, this race does not exist anymore. If I remember right, we got all the cp's but came in after the cutoff. Great memories...

Scouting at Guana

Headed out to Guana WMA today with Dave and Webner for a ride and to do some scouting for the ACC. I had never ridden from the north entrance so I was looking forward to getting familar with the trails at that end. Their are a ton of trails that are not marked on the main park map, mostly fire breaks. We ended up just riding most of the marked trails, about 22 miles. It was a great day to ride those sandy roads since it rained the day before. It was also nice to get a 2 hour ride in. Can't wait for the ACC- it'll be a fun race. Guana is really nice and has a ton of wildlife. Should be some good paddling out their as well on the intercoastal and Lake Ponte Vedre. Webner was riding really strong today- he's doing the 12 hours of Santos next weekend solo- crazy. Met a few guys out their today that ride every Tuesday night out there- might be cool to join them sometime. 

Long Runs

This past weekend was really busy but I did manage to get a good run in yesterday. Over the past three weekends I've been able to to run 10, 12, and 14 miles for my long runs. I'm feeling really good about that. It's been nice to keep up the mileage even though the marathon is over. Yesterday I ran 6 with Shelby from her parents house while they watched Audrey, then ran home from there stopping for a loop at Tomahawk park on the way. On my way to Tomahawk in ran into Daniel who was also out for his long run so we ran together for a few miles- I had to pick up the pace a little. It's always nice to have someone to run with on long runs- makes it go by much faster. This week I'm committed to being on the bike more. I spent some time on the stationary bikes this morning at the gym. I'm planning on doing that a couple more times this week and then doing a long ride this weekend- preferably off road if it works out. I would love to either get out to Guana and scout the ACC some or ride the bridges downtown. Riding the bridges is an anual ritual in getting ready for the Blue Ridge AR. It seems to help the climbing not to be such a shock to the system when I get up there. It looks like Dave and Katie will be racing with me this year which is awesome. I'm really hoping all the paddling will be on Lake Blue Ridge so we can use the Sundowner. Looking to get a cabin booked this week. Can't wait for Audrey to go the her first adventure race- maybe one day we'll be teammates...

Gym Rat?

Yesterday I signed up for a Gym membership at Bailey's. My brother Matt started working out there recently so I decided to give it a try for a while- especially since there membership is month to month right now- thanks economy! It was nice to be headed into a gym this morning when it was 38 degrees out rather than for a run in my neighborhood. One of my main incentives for doing this is the use of the treadmill and stair climber- hoping I'll be a little more prepared for races in the mountains this year, like Blue Ridge in April. I haven't been to a gym since college so it's a little weird being back in one. In college I would spend 3-4 hours at the gym, I certainly can't spend that kind of time now. Now it will be seeing how much we can squeeze into 45 minutes to an hour. I'm certainly not looking to become a gym rat, but this should help me vary what I do little more and focus more on specific goals, like becoming better at hill climbing.

Maiden Voyage

After eleven years of collecting dust on boat racks at Pier 17, the Sundowner set sail on Goodby's Creek last night. It had been raining all day but ended up being dry for most of the paddle. My brother Ben was not super excited about paddle in the cold and rain but knew I was dying to take it out. Initial impression- this boat is awesome. It was very fast and stable once we got it going. The initial stability will take some getting used to but I expected that. Turning the boat was more difficult than in the old dagger (shorter with a flater bottom) but that is typical of longer, faster, straighter tracking boats. I paddle it with both my wing paddle (SRS X-Wing) and my canoe paddle (Aquabounds something). I was able to paddle faster with the canoe paddle and felt like I had more control, however I fatigued faster that using the wing paddle. I'd love to paddle a racing specific canoe paddle and see how that works for me. Maybe one day.... In AR I'll probably be using the wing paddle due to my teammates using kayak paddles as well. Ben and I talked about doing the Suwanee River Challenge in the Sundowner. Looking to do the 52 miler this year. We did the marathon version in 2007 in our Necky Amaruk.

New Canoe!

This weekend I got an early birthday present, a new canoe. I've been wanting a faster canoe for a long time so I'm really pumped to finally find one. The canoe is a We-no-nah Sundowner 17' in Kevlar. The Sundowner is actually a retired model that you can only special order now. However, the shop I bought this from happened to still have two of them. This one is actually a '98! Pretty crazy that the shop had this in inventory for 11 years. The canoe is beautiful and in great shape. I bought it from Pier 17 Marina http://www.pier17jaxfl.com/index.htm. This place is really neat- the most canoes I have ever seen in one place. Tons of really high-end stuff and great people. Considering how long they had had this canoe- I got a really good deal on it. I can't wait to paddle this canoe- hopefully my brother and I will take it out this evening. I've never paddle a canoe this performance oriented so I'm really looking forward to it. I know a lot of AR people that have this model in Royalex and really like it. One of the niceest thing about this boat is that it's only about 50 lbs. That will make portaging a little more bearable.


Apart from getting the canoe, this weekend was pretty productive. My brother Matt and I built some outdoor storage for my canoe and kayaks- Matt is much more adept at anything construction related than I am. It's really nice to have the boats out of the garage- we really needed the space. I'll I have left to do is put shingles on the roof. Shelby and I did 5 miles yesterday with Audrey in the jogging stroller- getting ready for the River Run. I went on when we were done and ended up running about 2 hours total, 11-12 miles. Felt pretty good.

Back to normal

I'm starting to feel completely back to normal from the marathon and the cold I've been dealing with. This week I'm trying to get back into a good routine with training in the morning before work with a couple afternoon workouts as well. However, the weather is making this difficult. It's been it the 30's in the morning and it was 27 when I left for work today. Hard to get motivated to run or ride in that stuff. So.....I've been working out in the comfort of my living room. This morning I rode the trainer and got a pretty decent workout in 45 minutes. I'll be running tonight so today will be a solid day. I also have been using a new dvd workout for core strenth and felxibilty. From what I can tell, it should help with conditioning for paddling which is awesome because I just haven't had time to get on the water lately. This weekend I'm hoping to get out to Guana WMA to train with Dave and scout some of the area for the ACC. Have to check and see if hunting is open this weekend out there.

Next race will probably be the River Run 15k in March. Shelby and I are starting to more deliberatly train for that. I'm looking forward to running downtown on the bridges. Shelby and I used to go downtown to train every once in while before Audrey was born. I miss that. It's a nice change from neighborhood running.

There are two other great races in March that are on the same weekend this year...bummer. I'll be trying to figure out which one to do between the Guana 50k trail run (which I would probably do the relay, 25k ), and the Mandarin Biathlon (6 mile paddle, 4 mile run). I've done both races, both were really fun. I can't decide....

Bummer

I found out today that one of my favorite races, The Checkpoint Zero 30 hr,  is canceled. Man, I'm really bummed about that. I was working on getting my team registered this week. Oh well, hopefully it will be back for next year. Another bummer is I'm still feeling sick. I keep thinking I'm about to get over it and then it comes back. I can't wait to recovery from the marathon and whatever I've got and get back to training. I've been working on a wish list of races I want to do this year. Here's what I have so far through April. 

The River Run- 15k

Blue Ridge AR- 10 hr

Mandarin Biathlon

ACC AR- 30hr Nationals Qualifier

I'd love to start getting on the bike more now that the marathon is over. I'm planning on a long road ride this weekend if I'm feeling up to it. I've really missed paddling as well so maybe that will need to be a priority- especially with the biathlon coming up. 

26.2 miles later...

This past Sunday was the Disney Marathon in Orlando. After five months of training for this race it felt great to finally get it done. Last week, I came down with a pretty bad cold with come flu symptoms. I had a doctor friend of mine prescribe me a z pack to try and knock but it only got worse. Saturday morning, as we we're packing to leave for Orlando, I felt terrible- chills, coughing, etc. As we pulled out of the driveway I asked Shelby to please pray that I would feel good enough to be able to race- of course, she had been praying for me all morning. About an hour later the symptoms started to let up and by the time we got to Orlando I was feeling much better. Praise God for that! 

Registration went much faster than anticipated and soon we were checking in to the hotel. We stayed at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort so that we would have park transportation on race day. It was really nice not having to drive the morning of the race. Daniel and Kelly got there a little while later with their kids and we all went to dinner at the resort. Shelby and Kelly were amazing and offered to stay in one hotel room with the three kids while Daniel and I got some undisturbed sleep in the other. That was really nice to have and made thing much less stressful. Our wives are awesome.

Race day came too early Sunday morning as we had to catch to bus at 3:30 am. I heard there was something like 20,000 runners doing the marathon and they all had to be lined up for to 5:50 am start. Crazy. After over two hours of standing/sitting around waiting to go we were sent on our way with fireworks- pretty awesome. The race was a roller coaster as far as the scenery went. We would be running through a park for 20 minutes or so and than on a back road or highway for 30-40 minutes. Repeat that about 4 times and there's your race. The first 10 miles went by really fast and Daniel and I were feeling great. At the half-way mark, we were on pace to finish around 4:08:00. However, mile 15 is where things started getting tough for me. I began getting muscle spasms in my quads and had to deal with them for the rest of the race. This really slowed my pace down. I tried to eat as much as I could- some gels and a banana- and that seemed to help a little. Right before mile twenty Daniel started having pretty serious stomach pain and about a mile later we had lost contact with each other. The last 6 miles were some of the longest miles I have ever run. It felt great to cross the finish line and even better to see Shelby and Audrey. I finished is 4:32:01. Daniel followed up close behind but had really been hurting with stomach pain. It was great to get to race and train with Daniel these past few months. Always nice to have someone to push and encourage you. 

               Shelby made this shirt for Audrey to wear- very cool


                        Shelby and Audrey on the bus to Epcot

I had a great time that afternoon just relaxing, celebrating with friends, and eating my face off. After a quick shower we went to lunch with Laura and her family at Olive Garden. Laura had been training with a group of girls since last summer and she did great! It was really cool to share this memory with her. Now if I can only get her to do an adventure race....

Christmas

Well, I didn't get to ride any singletrack in Tallahassee....bummer. We got their later than we planned and then Audrey had a rough night so I decided it just wasn't going to work. I did get in some good running in over Christmas weekend. I took some pics on the run so I'll try and put those up when I get a chance. I also got to try out a new pair of trail running shoes I got for Christmas- Inov-8 Fylrocs. Supposedly, Inov-8 is the first show company to start out designing shoes specifically for trail running. So far, I love them. The best thing about them is the traction. Hopefully, they'll become a shoe I can really use. My current go-to shoes, Merell Overdrives, have quite being produced so feet are kind of looking for a new home right now.