Gear Review: Saucony Kinvara 3

Originally written in 2012

2012 Kinvara 3

This is a great shoe. I feel like this is the love child of my Pure Cadence & MV2's. My Pure Cadence were approaching the replace point and I thought I was going to go buy another pair. My brother had mentioned his love for the Kinvara line a few times and I recently fell in love with the Saucony Xodus trail shoe. So I decided to do a comparison at the local Road Runner Sports Store between the Brooks & the Saucony's. It was close but the Kinvara is just a touch better and I don't know what it is that makes the difference. The Kinvara is a 4 mm drop shoe that connects to the road as well if not better than any of the other shoes I've tried. Its definitely a light weight shoe at 7.7oz. The upper doesn't have the traditional sewn in overlays strategically placed to pull the shoe into your foot. Instead it has a "Flexfilm" that can be described as a plastic, filmy sort of nylonish material that locks the shoe upper onto your foot. This is a really great shoe at one of the lowest price points ($100) for a shoe of this quality. I ran hundreds of training miles in this shoe and even used in the Napa Valley Marathon in early 2013 where I set my PR. This shoe is not to be missed. I really feel confident in telling you to go out and try this shoe. Buy it at a store where they have a good return policy so you feel safe in making the purchase and then go do 3 or 4 days in the shoe and I am certain you will love it. You will not return it and you will come back to this post and leave a comment telling me I was not full of hype but rather spot on with my analysis that this is as close to a perfect shoe as any could be.

Western States 100 Mile Run 2012 & 2013, Champion Timothy Olson

2 X Western States Champ Timothy Olson is an amazing runner with an amazing back story. I could post videos all day long selling you on how "cool" this dude is but watch these two videos and pay attention to the finish line. He loves his wife and his family and for that alone he earns big credibility as not only a great runner but a great role model for us all! Enjoy the videos.

 

2012 was Timothy's first win. It was a bit of a surprise but the fact that he broke the course record was a major surprise. This sent shock waves through the ultra running community and launched his career into the stratosphere.

 

 

2013 was the 2nd hottest year ever recorded on the Western States Trail Run and the 2nd time Timothy crushed the competition. The ultra running community wondered if he could win it again and prove that 2012 was no fluke. He did and in an amazingly fast time given the 100+ degree  temps that day.

 

Rocky Ridge ultra half trail race review

My race stats according to Suunto.

A view from North Eagle Peak

Brazen Racing really shows you what they are all about with this race, STEEP hills! I had never run in the Las Trampas Regional Wilderness before but I looked at the elevation profile of this 13.75 mile "ultra" half marathon and knew it was going to be very difficult. Just shy of 4000' of elevation gain. To put that in perspective you would have to run to the top of the Empire State building over 2 1/2 times to cover this much elevation gain. I've run much longer races with the same elevation gain so this shorter race is going to be very vertical.