I have been sitting on the cusp of Boston Qualifying. I can qualify but still need more of a buffer to make the time stick. So, I have been doing some research on racing shoes but a few questions…
I typically run with stability shoes (have run with Brooks Adrenaline for over a decade). Do I need to look for racing shoes that also have stability features?
Most of the stores around me don’t carry racing shoes (even my running store has none and only carries 4 varieties when they are in stock). So how do you choose if you cannot try them on first?
Finally, I typically need wider toe base for my Adrenaline, do racing shoes come with a wider toe base?
New Balance SuperComp’s come in wide which might work for you. I don’t have any idea what stability shoes are, but carbon plated racers aren’t exactly known to be stable.
order in some options and return some / all based on how they feel
Stability shoes normally refer to shoes designed to address over-pronation, I.e the foot turning in. So a stability shoe has more support on the arch to prevent this (vs a neutral shoe without this support). You’ll find plenty of carbon plated racing shoes with support on the arch, Nike Alphaflys being the classic example. If someone who wears neutral shoes (such as myself) puts on a pair of Alphaflys it feels like it is stabbing the arch.
Sometimes stability is used more literally to mean how stable the shoe feels. Some people claim the higher stack height (ie the height of the shoe beneath your foot) and “squidgyness” of the foam makes carbon plated shoes less stable and more risky. In my view, this is complete and utter nonsense. I’ve never put on a pair or of Nike, Hoka, Sauncony high stack height shoe and thought I’d roll my ankle, they aren’t exactly stilettos.
I have worn stability shoes for decades for training and racing. I didn’t know what a stability shoe was. I just tried on 8-10 pairs of shoes at the store and left with the one that fit best (which was usually a stability shoe). Being a competitive runner for 30+ years I had trained and raced in lots of different brands, models, styles of shoes. None of them made much of a difference in my race times. I could wear a racing flat, a lightweight trainer, my stability training shoes, another style training shoes that I owned and I would always cross the finish line for a 5K within 15 seconds of the finish time of all my other 5K races for the past decade or at a half marathon be with in a minute of all my other half marathons for the past decade. When I started to hear people talking about the super running shoes I thought it was all hype. I didn’t get excited about them and when I saw the price it was a hard pass for me. Then I moved and there was a great running club in the new town that I joined and the guys in that group convinced me that I would not regret getting super shoes. Ya, I went to 6-7 different running stores looking for a pair to try on and no one had a pair so I read all the independent testing reports on energy savings, etc. and narrowed my list to three super shoes that I thought would give me the best chances of a good response. I bought the one that I was able to find the best discount price on and ordered it. I didn’t have any problems going from a stability training shoe to a super shoe for racing and the time savings were huge. I dropped those 5K time from the 15 second range that I was consistently in for a decade to cut about 40 seconds off my race times. I saw similar gains in the half marathons and full marathons. So…it is a big gamble with no guarantees. Do your research to narrow down the models to the ones with the best potential for your success than roll the dice and hope for the best. I got lucky and had a better response to the super shoes that the average person. I don’t know if I would have got a good a response with the other two shoes on my list but I did buy a second pair of the first shoe I got two years later. I eventually will try another shoe and see it does.
Try New Balance Fuel Cell Rebel in wide based on what you provided (stability need with wide forefoot) and SWAG;)
Not to counter other posters, but if you need a wide toe box and not knowing your exact foot shape/dynamic needs, many of the racing/plated shoes, e.g. Nike may cause more harm than good over the marathon.