After a 9 week forced hiatus due to injury, I decided that I would return to running whilst on my Summer Holiday. 1 week before my injury, I had received a pair of Saucony Kinvara 2 running shoes… I was desperate to try them out but my abstention from running meant that I could only admire them from afar… occasionally taking them out of the box to feel how light they were (incredibly light, by the way. 218 grams according to the Saucony website. So light that, when they first arrived, I thought I had received an empty shoe box in the post)
As you can see, the pair I was sent were a fetching yellow – I have mentioned before about my dislike of white running shoes, so the bright yellow / green trim combination was perfect for me. They even look fast.
I’d decided to start my rehabilitation slowly, sticking to relatively short distances, walking if there was any sign of a twinge and sticking to level, solid surfaces until I felt confident. Initially, I planned to stick to the roads and paths that hug the coast of Fuerteventura. It makes for great running as the pathway is mostly traffic free and gives you the chance to view surroundings like this.
Owing to the heat, I had to get out and run early in the day – I would try to be out by 7.45 and even then the temperature was in the 20′s, leave it any later and it starts nudging 30 degrees. My first few runs were tentative – a 2.5km the first day and a 3.5km the second. From then on, I was doing 5km each morning and trying to mix up my routes and running surfaces as my confidence grew.
So, how did the shoes perform? I wasn’t sure how easy I’d find the transition back from VFF’s (which I had been running in exclusively for Juneathon) into a more traditional running shoe. The Kinvara 2 is from Saucony’s Minimalist range so aims to give a less cushioned, more responsive feel than a regular running shoe. I was surprised at how much I could feel through the soles of the shoes – the surface is felt beneath the sole but all the extremes are smoothed out. This was perfect for me as I was wary of jarring my foot. The shoe is very light and flexible and makes running feel smooth and easy. The heel to toe ratio is only 4mm which meant that the “barefoot” runing style that I had been working on worked perfectly, allowing for a fore/mid foot strike. I find traditional running shoes, with their built up heel actually encourage heel striking as the heel is so large that it is very difficult to run without the heel being the first thing that strikes the floor. Over the course of the 2 weeks, I ran in the Kinvara’s 11 times, over a variety of surfaces (pavement, tarmac, sand, gravel, volcanic rock) and found them to be great – light and responsive enough to feel the ground beneath but cushioned enough to confidently be able to run over more testing surfaces.
Once I arrived home, I was keen to get out onto my regular 10km route and see how the shoes fared and they did not disappoint – pavement, grass, towpath, gravel were all tried and tested. And another thing, these are the first pair of running shoes that I have used that have not given me any blisters in the first few outings.
And now the dilemma… What could be improved? Surely the whole point of a review is to give you both sides of the story. A balanced account detailing the pros and cons. I wracked my brains on the flight home trying to think of things that needed improvement, design tweaks that would make the shoe better… and the only criticism I could come up with was that there appears to be an extra lace hole at the top of the shoe that seems needless – unless you have the worlds skinniest ankles I can see no need for it. And that’s the only thing I could find. Without wishing to slip into embarrassing hyperbole, these are probably the best running shoes I have ever tried – immediately comfortable, light and well designed incorporating everything that makes a good running shoe with no gimmicks or unnecessary flourishes. Simply great.
