24 September 2012

Mezamashii Review

Wow, totally did not write this review when I planned to. The last month has been crazy. That can wait for another post (hopefully sometime this week). This post is all about showing Mizuno some love.

Earlier this year I was invited to be a founding member of the Mezamashii Project (#89 of 600). For me, this is a huge honor. I feel that it means Mizuno believes in my running. Mezamashii is the Japanese word for "eye opening" or "brilliant". Mizuno is trying to open the door so that more runners can experience a brilliant run. To do this, they are sending members a pair of shoes and in return they are getting the support of the members via personal promotion to fellow runners.

This post is mostly a review of my Mezamashii Project shoes: Mizuno Wave Ronin 4. I absolutely love these shoes!

(Photo Credit: runningshoesguru.com)

They are lightweight, responsive and well cushioned. Initially I wanted the Ronin to be my marathon shoe. My current marathon shoe is the Nike Lunaracer. Not the original, the 3rd version. After Green River in June, I decided I needed a little more cushion in the forefoot. Any shoe I am going to race a marathon in needs to pass two tests: speed and long run comfort.

My current speedwork shoe is the Nike Lunaracer 2. I chose this shoe since it is lightweight and made me feel fast (it still does). Another aspect of the Nike I like is the level of firmness in the forefoot. The Ronin surpassed it with flying colors. It is a bit heavier but not noticeably. And I felt just as fast in it. A few weeks ago, on one of my own brilliant runs, I was able to crank out 10 miles at 6:30 pace without much effort. The combination of the wave plate and and forefoot construction gives the perfect level of cushion and firmness. It felt like the shoe was just an extension of my foot. Speed test: Passed!

My current long run shoe is the Brooks Pure Flow2 (I am a weartester for Brooks). Since this shoe has not been released, I can not give any details as to how it fits and feels on the run. I can say if you've ran in the Pure Flow, you will absolutely love the Flow2. This past Saturday, I left the Brooks at home threw on my Ronin's for a 20 miler with some friends. The Ronin's felt great the entire run. I had plenty of room in the toebox and enough forefoot cushion to make me favor this shoe over the Lunaracer. For me, that forefoot cushion is a huge factor. In every shoe I've ran long in, I get noticeably sore right on the ball of my foot around mile 18. Did not happen at all in the Ronin. Long run comfort test: Passed!

Looks like I found my new marathon shoe. Here's to hoping the Ronin's carry me to a sub-3 race in November!