Nike 4% beneficial on packed stone/dirt road?

Good question. I'd wear them because they're light and extremely cushioned. I find the 4% does not work well on uphills or in cold conditions. It excels on flat and downhill.

Check out IG and watch the track workouts in Kenya as well as the Thursday Iten fartlek and Saturday long runs.

You’ll find the answer is yes.

Part of a half I did had like 2k of loose gravel (redoing a highway). Was nice to have this thrown out in a race with no warning but 4% were great. Might take a bit of damage though.

and by loose i mean packed gravel

I ran a 15k and did not know that 1.8 miles of it was on gravel rail trails. WOre the VF. They are terrible on any gravel hills. Could feel them sliding back Zero grip if any type of grade on gravel.

Thanks -- I mentally recall the Seattle downhill trail course to feel more "lumpy" than it really is. For the same reason it is sometimes daunting to step up onto a curb after many miles, the occasional rock and uneven surface on packed grave can be fatiguing and might be more fatiguing with a high stack height shoe. My inclination is to go with the 4%. They are not designed to last all that long in the first place and there are no uphills in that particular race to worry about.

3 percent? wrote:

Thanks -- I mentally recall the Seattle downhill trail course to feel more "lumpy" than it really is. For the same reason it is sometimes daunting to step up onto a curb after many miles, the occasional rock and uneven surface on packed grave can be fatiguing and might be more fatiguing with a high stack height shoe.

Or the sponginess of the vaporfly is perfect for those occasional rocks. What did cicirunner use for his PR last year on this very course?

What time are you going for?

The first quarter/third of a mile is super rocky, technical and slow. A little uncomfortable to traverse but it's over rather quickly. I remember the course having some uneven parts in the first half you have to pay attention to and the second half of the course was smoother. I've never run in the 4% but they might be nice since they have a lot of padding.

Definitely wear the Vaporflys. They are especially beneficial for heel striking so even if you don't heel strike much on flat ground, you probably do on downhills

Hardloper wrote:

Definitely wear the Vaporflys. They are especially beneficial for heel striking so even if you don't heel strike much on flat ground, you probably do on downhills

rail trails (tunnel marathon for example) aren't really steep enough that a midfoot striker would be heel striking.

the carbon rocket supposedly is better than the vaporfly on packed gravel or those types of terrains. according to youtube

reed wrote:

Hardloper wrote:

Definitely wear the Vaporflys. They are especially beneficial for heel striking so even if you don't heel strike much on flat ground, you probably do on downhills

rail trails (tunnel marathon for example) aren't really steep enough that a midfoot striker would be heel striking.

the carbon rocket supposedly is better than the vaporfly on packed gravel or those types of terrains. according to youtube

Any reason? The winner of September's race ran 2:30:26. I checked the photos. He was wearing the VaporFly.

Also, why does findmymarathon have St George marathon so slow compared to Tunnel? St George seems like it'd be faster.

Correction. The 2:30 guys looks to be wearing some kind of Brooks. The winner in June wore VaporFly's, but he was a bit slower 2:36.

downhiller marathons wrote:

3 percent? wrote:

Thanks -- I mentally recall the Seattle downhill trail course to feel more "lumpy" than it really is. For the same reason it is sometimes daunting to step up onto a curb after many miles, the occasional rock and uneven surface on packed grave can be fatiguing and might be more fatiguing with a high stack height shoe.

Or the sponginess of the vaporfly is perfect for those occasional rocks. What did cicirunner use for his PR last year on this very course?

What time are you going for?

I think he wore asics dynaflytes

3 percent? wrote:

Thanks -- I mentally recall the Seattle downhill trail course to feel more "lumpy" than it really is. For the same reason it is sometimes daunting to step up onto a curb after many miles, the occasional rock and uneven surface on packed grave can be fatiguing and might be more fatiguing with a high stack height shoe. My inclination is to go with the 4%. They are not designed to last all that long in the first place and there are no uphills in that particular race to worry about.

You going with the VF?

runrincerepeat wrote:

I ran a 15k and did not know that 1.8 miles of it was on gravel rail trails. WOre the VF. They are terrible on any gravel hills. Could feel them sliding back Zero grip if any type of grade on gravel.

Unless you wore some trail shoe with super aggressive lugs, you probably would have felt the same thing in any other racing flat.

Pegasus 36 trail could be perfect for this.