Well…I bought a pair of Kukini shoes from RoadRunner this a.m. I’ll wear them on the treadmill with some socks next week and report back. If they don’t work out maybe one of their fans will want mine. :),
The concept of the shoe is quite good. I.e., especially the notion that water drainage is a benefit. In Nike’s testing they found that shoes could hold as much as 12 oz of water. So, if you start out with a 12 oz pair of size 12s you actually could be running part of the IM marathon in a pair of 24 oz size 12s!! My Escali scale registered a 7 oz difference before and after, but that is still quite a bit of weight when your legs are already toast.
If these don’t work out I’ll give the NB 920 a shot.
I’m 6’3" 185 and totally love them. I am a neutral runner. I finally broke the 40 minute barrier in an Oly race wearing these. Like someone else wrote, my previous running shoes had 7-8 oz added by the end or a race. I forget what the saying is about an oz on your foot equates to…
At any rate I like the ride on these shoes. It is pretty amazing how much cushion they actually have and can remain that light.
I used Kukini’s at an Oly and at a 1/2 IM. I found that I liked them but I’m not sure I’d consider a full marathon in them. Great at the Oly - no problems. And I really liked them for the 1/2 - it was in Kona, so hot and I was dumping buckets of water over me and they drained well. Could feel the heat a bit through the soles (the Alai asphalt kicks heat right back up). But, as mentioned above, not sure they offer enough for a full IM run. I am about 165lbs and found that around 12 miles, I did seem to feel like some extra cushioning would be nice. It wasn’t painful, but I felt that another 5 miles might have been pushing it…let alone another 14. Also, I recall that IM Florida has dirt paths for a good chunk of the run…if there is loose sand, pebbles or acorns these can actually get in between the vent holes in the bottom of the sole. So, try it on similar conditions.
If its any indication, as said above I like dthem for the Oly and the 1/2 IM…but I choose to wear other running shoes for each of my full Ironmans this year.
That’s good to hear since you are bigger than me and had no problems up to 10K. I guess I could always switch shoes at the turnaround. :), My wife will be there so I could throw them to her after I get my cushiony shoes out of my special needs bag. I wonder if that might work as a backup plan…
Good points. I’ll test them on the treadmill. If they pass that test then I’ll take them out into the Venusian Florida summer environment and do an 18-20 miler in them. One thing I do know is that one’s feet are very tender after 112 miles of biking, so a lot may depend on how hot it is in Florida’s sphincter muscle on the day of the race. :), (I can’t imagine living in that place. Even the Gulf isn’t very nice there.)
Thanks for the help guys. Sheezh, this is such a phenomenal resource…
Not sure if you are serious - but be very careful with that plan. That would be seen as outside assistance and under USAT rules either DQ you or hit you with a time penalty.
…come to think about it, the turn-around at IMF is the starting line and also the special needs area. So, if you wanted to switch shoes 1/2 way through a run (not something I would consider, but you should try it in a few long distance practice runs first if you are seriously thinking about this) you could always put pair #2 in the special needs bag and change at the special needs station (putting pair #1 in the bag). Just make sure you will be able to retrieve the s.n. bags after the race.
You hit the problem. I believe IM Florida is one of those races that throw out the special needs bags. I’ll double check that. But, if my wife is right there and I throw her a pair of shoes you think some ref will think that’s outside assistance? Sheezh… Well, I’ve got fish to fry before I get to that point anyway. I may not even like them…
I believe that when I did IMF, unlike other IMNA events, they did dump special needs bags…at least the bike ones, can’t recall about the run ones. I certainly wouldn’t risk a pair of shoes until I found out for sure (its probably in the triathlete handbook).
Can a ref cite/dq you? Sure - its definitely within their role and within the roles. Technically, the tossing of your shoes at your wife “may” violate the rule prohibiting triathletes from disposing of anything during the race except at specified areas (generally aid stations)…but if she is at special needs where you are allowed to leave stuff anyway - that may be OK (I can’t give you a definite yes or no). But its the taking of the second pair of shoes from your wife that would be seen as the outside assistance. The only aid of any kind must come from official race support - not family or friends. I know that it may seem relatively minor…but if those new shoes saved your feet enough to let you grab that last Kona spot…that triathlete who did the whole race without getting fresh shoes and missed that same spot by a minute might be upset. Triathlon is intended to be an individual event - thus the 'no outside assistance" rule.
At the pre-race meetings, I’d check with Charlie Crawford (head official). He’s really good with answering one-on-one questions after the general rules presentation. - or you may even be able to e-mail him directly now and get a response. I believe that his e-mail is: crawfcj@gte.net.