Test drive of my first pair of trail runners

The Montrail Hurricane

For this evening's Climbathon training, I decided to bring my new pair of Montrail Hurricane for a trial. Even though the Montrail was more suitable for rugged and trail type of terrain, I needed to run it in to allow my feet to grow into it, as well as get a feel of its performance on road surfaces. Met up with the team at Bishan Stadium. Carmen and a new staff member Jolene arrived at 7pm, and we tried on the new dri-fit polo T-Shirts...hmm, looks quite nice...I decided to go for a M size.

We started the run at about 7.15pm, and ran through to Bishan Stadium towards Lower Pierce Reservoir (LPR). I could feel the weight of the shoes (13.9ounces, according to DO) bearing on my legs. DO also thought that the shoes were a tad too heavy for running...it would be more suitable for trekking up mountains. The weather was warm and humid as we ran along LPR onto Old Upper Thomson Road (OUTR). The group of Timonthy, Yee Shen, DO and myself chatted and laughed as we discussed about some funny incidents of our training. The shoes were really quite heavy as I went on, and it felt still too. The cushioning was really insufficient for a fore-foot neutral-arched runner like myself. I had to adjust my stride a little, and I was careful not to run too hard. DO and I made a U-turn at the main gate leading to UPR...13km was sufficient for me as I merely wanted to run-in the shoes, and have to save some for tomorrow's 16km run, and Wednesday's time trial. Tim and the rest wanted to do an extra 3km, so they ran to the end of OUTR.

On the return leg, I slowed down slightly but continued to lift my legs. I found that I cannot increase my cadence as the shoes were still stiff and quite heavy. I could feel the heat generating within the shoes, and maybe because of the warm weather, and the gore-tex encapsulation, the heat remained for a while more in the shoes. As we ran back, I was discussing with DO about a lighter pair of Montrail which could be more suitable, and that we hope we get the chance to test it for performance. We also thought we should suggest to the NTUC team managers about organizing a seminar/talk by experienced trekkers and runners up the MK route to share their experience and advise on the varying terrain of the mountains, preparations in terms of gear and training we should do, as well as strategy and tactics we can apply during the climb/run. We can take some of these to the ground for verification in mid July during our recce trip. DO and I completed our 13km run at about 8.30pm We waited till about 8.45pm for some of the other runners to be back, before making an early move back home for dinner.

My initial view of the Montrail Hurricane is that it is more of a trekking shoe that is more suitable to be used in mountain races/climbs, and I need it to be at least 2ounces lighter with more forefoot flex. I will try it next in the more rugged terrain of MacRitchie and Bukit Timah Reserves, after I return from Phuket Marathon in June20.