Welcome back to My Sunday Shoe, the musings of a 46-year-old running store owner. I started the blog a few weeks back to highlight the shoe I was wearing on that Sunday’s effort. With 30 years of Sunday runs and hundreds of shoes at my disposal, the Sunday Shoe has become a snapshot into my life and the choices that went into my run.
Here in Maryland, we are getting hammered with rain. Hurricane Isaias is dropping tons of rain all up the east coast and locally, we are expecting several inches today. I was able to get some runs in this week as my calf has been behaving. Despite the weather, I really wanted to get an actual run in. I had made a tentative plan to hit the gym and get in a treadmill run while hiding from the rain. However, when I woke up, I heard the distant sounds of my Amish neighbors making their way by my house. Even in the pounding rain, they were out in their one-horse-powered buggy. It’s kind of hard to wimp out on an outdoor run when you see that go by.
As you might be able to deduce, I live in a pretty rural area. I am only ten miles from my shop but there is a massive change in the topography and people where I live. Having moved to Westminster from Baltimore City a few years back, seeing frequent horses meander by the house is a pretty cool sight. Even though my dog hates them.
While living in the country has many benefits, running is not one of them. Especially in poopy weather. The speed limit is 45, which means people drive 60. There is also little to no shoulder and a lot of the pickup trucks that whiz by are not the type to give much room. So, when I do head out in unfavorable conditions, I am decked out in my brightest and most obnoxious getup.
Equally important, though, are the shoes. Seeing the amount of water pooling on the shoulder, I opted for a trail shoe. I think it’s one of the sneaky great applications for a shoe that doesn’t get as much feet time as road models. Today, I opted for the Mizuno Neo Accera. The Neo Accera was pitched to us as a Trail Neo Zen, a nod to their wildly successful road model. A trail shoe with all the bounce of the Neo Zen, wrapped in the body of a colorful trail shoe. Its upper design makes it one of our most picked-up shoes in the store.
The problem I have with the Accera, is it’s a tad squirrely. The Neo Zen is not meant to be a shoe you make a lot of cuts in. It’s tall, super responsive and lively. Those are great attributes on the road, but when you put that in a trail shoe, it can feel like an ankle breaker. So, while the Accera can make you want to rip it through the woods, it can also feel wildly unstable at times. Especially in the mud or anywhere with lots of turns. It’s a regular in my trail rotation, but unlike some of my other trail shoes, it must be the right conditions and distance to make the cut. On shorter, dry runs when I want to pick it up some, it’s at the top of my list.
However, on a day like today, they’re perfect. You can get the fun you’d want from the Zen while keeping your feet dry and gripping the road. Since I am still in the testing phase of my calf injury, I only needed a few miles. For this type of short run, when the only goal was uneventful miles, they did the trick. I never felt like my feet were wet or ever really noticed all the water I was running through. I also had two stretches where I had to run in the grass as cars and trucks passed both directions. If I was in road shoes, they’d have become soggy and sloppy but in the Accera, I never broke stride.
My only beef today was I was kicking myself. It’s so hard to know if it was the shoes, my form, the injury or just being absentminded. But the nicks on my upper ankle tell the tale of the repeated contact. Still, any Sunday I can get out and get a run in is a win. Especially after missing time with an injury and the weather.
Thanks for reading and hope you got some Sunday miles in too.
