Trail race in road shoes

Ultra Runner Chick wrote:

HLq wrote:

This. Road shoes are fine for trails as long as it's dry. Trail shoes are only really needed if things are wet.

Not true. If the trails are technical then trail shoes will provide much better traction and grip. There is a reason why serious trail runners wear trail shoes and not road shoes.

Except for the part where he said the trail isn't that technical...

Half marathon or less I nearly ALWAYS race in road shoes (Kinvaras) - lighter and snappier than any trail shoes I have found.

Ultras are a different story of course.

Just Another Run of the Mill ex-D1 er wrote:

Ultra Runner Chick wrote:

Not true. If the trails are technical then trail shoes will provide much better traction and grip. There is a reason why serious trail runners wear trail shoes and not road shoes.

Except for the part where he said the trail isn't that technical...

Half marathon or less I nearly ALWAYS race in road shoes (Kinvaras) - lighter and snappier than any trail shoes I have found.

Ultras are a different story of course.

find me a competitive short trail race where the winners wear road shoes more often than trail shoes. I'm not saying it doesn't happen...but at the top of the sport you need the traction of a trail shoe even on easy trails.

maybe the race to check out would be the USATF Mountain Champs, or World Mountain champs. there honestly aren't enough competitive short trail races to make this analysis outside of the mountain running championship series, and those obviously aren't easy trails.

Outside of wet conditions and true mountain terrain, trail shoes are often overrated. I'm pretty sure Rob Krar won Western States at least once in Lunaracers. I'm also pretty sure Walmsley was wearing Adidas Bostons during his infamous first attempt at Western State. And I believe Hal Koerner won the Angeles Crest 100 in Adidas marathon flats. Probably Western States, too. I'm no elite, but back in the day I put in some good results on technical terrain wearing Mizuno Ronins.

Even on mountain terrain, I know two skimo racers who both placed top 10 at Speedgoat in past years wearing road shoes (Hoka Claytons and New Balance 890s). And Sage Canaday won one year in Hoka Huakas, which hardly qualify as trail shoes.

The fact is, many super light trail racing shoes (e.g., S-Labs) aren't too different from road shoes.

I know you said "short" trail races, but again, unless we're talking about highly technical terrain, there's just no need for trail shoes most of the time.

Also, wearing road shoes is a flex, similar to elite XC MTB racers choosing road shoes :)

Also, Tim Freriks won Transvulcania in Adidas Bostons.

https://www.irunfar.com/2017/05/tim-freriks-2017-transvulcania-champion-interview.html

See the comments of that article for additional discussion regarding road shoes for trail racing.

I had some big wins in Asics DS-Trainers back in the day... Jono Wyatt and Matt Carpenter raced solely in road shoes when competing. Kilian Jornet raced all last year in a road/trail hybrid proto that is more road than trail when he set his CR at Sierre-Zinal and other races.

Sapel wrote:

I had some big wins in Asics DS-Trainers back in the day... Jono Wyatt and Matt Carpenter raced solely in road shoes when competing. Kilian Jornet raced all last year in a road/trail hybrid proto that is more road than trail when he set his CR at Sierre-Zinal and other races.

Salomon S/LAB Pulsar - 170g trail racer.

Feb 2021

King Tiger wrote:

Sapel wrote:

I had some big wins in Asics DS-Trainers back in the day... Jono Wyatt and Matt Carpenter raced solely in road shoes when competing. Kilian Jornet raced all last year in a road/trail hybrid proto that is more road than trail when he set his CR at Sierre-Zinal and other races.

Salomon S/LAB Pulsar - 170g trail racer.

Those pulsars look ?. Great to know as I have been wondering what salomons Killian was wearing at SZ last year as they looked pretty darn cool.

Ultra Runner Chick wrote:

HLq wrote:

This. Road shoes are fine for trails as long as it's dry. Trail shoes are only really needed if things are wet.

Not true. If the trails are technical then trail shoes will provide much better traction and grip. There is a reason why serious trail runners wear trail shoes and not road shoes.

I ran a dry trail race in the NB 1400v5. Awesome.