Shoe Review: New Balance Minimus Roads (MR10)

STATS

Weight: 8.0 oz (size 9)
List Price: $110
Drop: 4 mm (18mm heal, 14mm forefoot)
Released: March 2011

Pros: Light weight, durable, undercut heal helps correct form, enough padding to protect feet on higher mileage concrete runs.

Cons: First 100 miles of arch pain – long break in period, loose some traction on wet ground. 

SIZE & FIT

Length seemed to be pretty standard and the toe box was nice and wide, allowing for plenty of toe splay. I ended up wearing 10’s – same size as my typical ASIC running shoes.

New Balance Minimus Roads and Karhu Racer Fulcrum Rides

NEW SHOES!

The gear junkie in me strikes again.  Before I've even finished my Merrel Trail Glove review (Coming Soon!) I've picked up 2 new shoes to test and review...

Karhu Racer Fulcrum Ride

I had a free pair of Karhu's from beating the bear at the Karhu 5K earlier in the month.  Karhu is a Finnish Brand, apparently around since 1916, though I've never heard of them before.  It looks like they're just starting to try to make the move to the States, explaining the "Beat the Bear" promo events.  Their shoes look to be designed for heal strikers and I would never have considered them if I was shelling out money, but it's hard to turn down a free pair of shoes...  Most of their shoes have ridiculous looking soles, reminding me of Sketcher Shape Ups, though the color schemes are pretty cool.  The Karhu racing flats seemed to have the thinnest soles and lowest drop, but even then the drop is about 15.5 mm.  I want to stay at less than 8 mm drops (with the idea that anything more starts to make proper running form difficult) so these shoes will be working at a disadvantage already...  That said, free shoes can't be passed up, and thus these shoes will get a fair review despite not matching my typical requirements.  Plus the color is kinda cool...

Karhu Racer Fulcrum Ride

New Balance Minimus Roads

Since I had made the trip up to Runner Depot anyway I felt I needed to check out some of the other shoes in my search for the perfect marathon shoes.  I had seen the Minimus Roads and they looked just like what I was looking for.  Low (4 mm) drop, light (8.2 oz), designed for a forefoot strike, but with enough padding to protect against a return to heal striking late in runs.  The rear of the shoe is slightly under cut, making it more difficult to heal strike - a neat feature I thought.  I tried them on and the sock like feel was amazing - I decided I couldn't pass them up, a 15% off coupon helped that matter as well.  The first 15 miles in them have been questionable, the slight arch support is noticeable and they're perhaps not as comfortable running in as they were standing in at the store...  I also have questions on how long the soft soles will last.  We shall see as I put on some miles over the next couple months and write a review!

New Balance Minimus Roads

New Balance Minimus Line – Available March 1

New Balance is releasing it’s own line of “minimalist” running shoes on March 1.  The lineup consists of the Minimus Trail, Minimus Road and the Minimus Life.  Both the Trail and the Road have gotten pretty good reviews from testers (the Life is geared to be an “everyday shoe” so I haven’t paid attention to it…)  All 3 feature a 4mm drop and the awesome <=> logo (the Enginerd in me loves it.)

The 2 running shoes have thicker soles than would be found on most “minimalist” shoes, testament to the fact that shoe definitions have become very watered down and geared towards whatever is trendy at the moment.  Barefooters will gripe about the lack of ground feel such thick soles will cause and of course the 4mm drop.  But for those of us looking for a “tweener” (the dreaded transitional shoe) this might be an interesting option.

I’ve been rotating between my Asic Hyperspeeds (a size too small) and the Merrells and have been looking for another shoe to do some long runs in.  I’m interested in a little padding and enough heal to protect against the chance of returning to heal strike as my form breaks down or I start to push hard at the end of a race, while still being minimal enough to maintain proper forefoot strike with ease.  I’ve been planning on picking up a pair of Asic Piranhas (mainly because of my Asic loyalty) but after reading some of the New Balance reviews, I may have to figure them into the equation…

Check out these reviews of the Trails from those lucky enough to get the test pairs:

Barefoot Running University: http://barefootrunninguniversity.com/2010/11/17/new-balance-minimus-trail-review/

Running and Rambling: http://www.runningandrambling.com/2011/02/new-balance-minimus-trail-review-and.html