With the change that Nike had made to their Pegasus model for version 31, I find the shoes aren’t as comfortable for a long run for a big guy like me. I gone through multiple pairs of various versions of Pegasus over the years and have always loved the cushioning the shoes provided. For version 31 though the shoes feel like they have less cushioning and I really notice that in my legs over longer runs. With that in mind I started hunting around online to see if I could find any deals on version 30 since I absolutely love that version. But I was finding anyone that had them either didn’t have them for any kind of deal or didn’t ship to Canada.
While I was doing the hunting around I found that MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) had a style of Hoka’s for basically the same price as what Pegasus 31s are going for in Canada. I had looked at Hoka’s before because of their cushioning but the price was a bit steep for me. But these Cliftons appear to be the least expensive shoes they have in their range.
Since today was a day off for me I headed down to MEC and checked them out – I was stunned at how light they were. I tried them on and they felt good on my feet if a bit weird when standing still – it was like I would get rocked back onto my heels. I like them enough that I picked them up and decided to try them this afternoon (while I was making up for some missed mileage from yesterday).
Definitely lots of cushion – I really enjoyed the run – my legs and feet felt great. I am impressed – I suspect I will be using these shoes for any training run now over the 15 mile mark at least and probably some shorter runs as well. I will keep my Pegasus 31s as speed training shoes and probably race shoes. I also have a pair of unused 30s in reserve that I am conserving until I get closer to the Dopey Challenge in January – I will want to take those shoes as my main shoes for that event.
The only thing I am worried about for these is the touch of extra height – I am wondering on long runs when I am getting fatigued if I will find I am not lifting my feet enough and end up tripping myself.
I also had the tongue on one of the shoes bunch up a bit funny on the run today that was a mild irritant (which would be a major irritant over a really long run) but I’m not sure if it bunched up on it’s own or if it had to do with how I tied the shoes. I will have to watch that over any upcoming runs.
There – I now feel better knowing I have enough shoes in reserve and on the go to make it through the Dopey Challenge!
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