Brooks Transcend Test Run and Easter Egg Hunt

My favorite local running store, Riverside Runners, had a Brooks fun run last night! They do them fairly often when different companies come out with different shoes, and for some reason I've never gone to one. I had such a blast last night that I'm going whenever I can now!

I'm that person who is awkwardly early for everything, so I wandered around the store for a while and talked to the employees and people. I'm trying to be more involved in my local running community (as involved as my work schedule will let me be) so it was nice to meet some new people.

When the Brooks tent was set up, I got to trade my shoes in for a test pair of the new Brooks Transcend. Currently I wear Asics GT-2000, which is a stability shoe. I have super narrow feet and high arches, and I need a lot of cushioning to keep my feet happy. Standing around for the hour before the fun run, my feet felt great in the Transcends. They are super cushiony and have guide rails along the sides that are supposed to keep you from turning your ankle. They also added about an inch to my height, so that wasn't too bad either. My first thoughts were that I would actually consider buying them the next time I needed shoes because they felt so good.

Before we set out to run in them, the rules of the Easter egg hunt were explained to us. All the eggs had Brooks prizes inside- reusable shopping bags, shoe bags, t-shirts, and the "luckiest egg" even had a free pair of Transcends! We were each allowed two, and they were hidden a half mile in either direction of the store, but we were free to run as far as we wanted.

I set out, and my first thought about the shoes was how much heavier they felt when running. They felt fine when I was standing and walking, but as soon as I picked up the pace, they seemed to make my feet heavy. They do move very nicely, and I kept up a pretty fast pace for my whole four miles. (Of course, it helped that the part of town we were in was pretty much flat.

At the end of my run, I decided that I still might would buy them for long long runs, but for anything else they were just too supportive. They actually made my arches hurt (not sure what was up with that), but my knees felt amazing and they almost always hurt after a road run. They're still on my list for consideration, but not at the top.

I went running today in my shoes, and when I took them off and put my TOMs back on, my arches felt really sore. I'm kind of hoping I didn't cause something by switching shoes for a night.

My two eggs had the papers for a t-shirt and a shoe bag in them. The shirt is super cool! It has the Transcend logo on it and is made of a wicking cotton so I can actually run in it. They also were handing out stickers, freeze-dried ice cream (to go with the space theme), lanyards, and collapsible water bottles. I made the comment to another guy that we were coming home with more free things than some races give, and we didn't have to pay anything!

Overall, I had a blast at the fun run, and met a few new people. I decided that Brooks shoes are something I will consider next time I need shoes, although maybe something less stable than the Transcends.

I'm already looking forward to the next test run at Riverside!