Shoes glorious shoes !updated!

I have used Adrenaline for all my long races since model 13 or 14

Generally I find them to be great shoes hence using them for so long.

I have walked 8 Comrades and a 100 miler in them. I tried a pair of Saucony Glide which were not so great in 2022, caused some knee pain but not like yesterday

I started walking in 2008 with Asics Nimbus.I was analysed on video on a treadmill which confirmed no pronation. As a test I was sent to the Asics importer at the time looked at my shoe and moved me to Kayano. Which I used for 2 or so years and moved to Adrenaline .

I was pretty happy with them up till 24 , which I did Comrades 2025 in.

On average I get 1600km per shoe, I do need to add a bit of shoe goo on the heels as a heal striking walker that is acceptable.

The picture below is after 160km 1 x 10km 1 x 21 2x 42 and 1 x 48

 

 

Add in a 55km and I am already through the sole.

 

But this is not actually my biggest problem, my knee tends to bend in when landing , the stability I need is to prevent this from happening.  I tend to get pain in my Sartorius as it passes the knee joint.

I use a patella knee strap to apply pressure to the Sartorius which massages it and eases the pain. All my Adrenalines to date  have supported me sufficiently ( the Saucony Glide did not)

These 25’s are sooo soft that they collapse in way too much. I had to cut my Midrand 60 long walk short yesterday . I ended up walking really slowly and trying to work out what the cause.

Looking down while walking I could actually see how my foot was landing and moving way past where it should then bouncing back to the correct position. How on earth can you call these shoes stability shoes when they feel like you are walking on balloons..  

I am now in dire straights, not knowing what to do for Comrades this year which will be my 13^th

Liz is still happy with her Ghosts after I converted her about 10 years ago.

 UPDATE:

I may just use last years shoes, they have better support and  have "only" done 950km. 

I am trying to put a picture here but Google says that this site cannot be accessed by DaveAWalker as it belongs to DaveAWalker.... I can add text...

NMC Fast 3 in 1

 

Liz and I really enjoy this race, we stay at the same place every time and it is just so peaceful and quiet.

Martine from Midrand Striders joined us again and did the 21. We drove down on Friday, collected our numbers and off to out Accom for a relaxing evening, good braai, with a little rain and  some wine... It is really difficult getting up and 2:45, but once up the adrenaline takes over. 

Caught the bus to the start which was further along the road to Sabie as the finish was now at Riverside Mall and not the stadium so no more heartbreak hill. Met up with the Dollenbergs ( ex Midrand) on the start line and had a bit of catchup, they ran together and did comfortable sub 4's, must be amazing to actually be an athlete. 

I asked Liz to stay with me to halfway but after 10km I realised that the 2:15 goal was not going to happen, I offered Liz the option to go ahead but she stayed with me. In the past I have done more running training but felt that  it affected me too much so did not run much this year. I felt this lack of training and needed to take it easy.  I only ever run the downs, knowing the route helps as I tend to start walking at very similar spots very time.

Liz got me to half way in 2:21 then took off like a rocket, eventually completing her first ever negative split which was really awesome.. I carried at sub 7 feeling mostly good but I could feel the camber quite a bit and on along stretch down to 30km I suddenly felt a twinge in my knee, so moved closer to the edge  of the road which was  more level. I walked quite a but down teh hill, knowing we had some climbing ahead , I felt I was walking well so kept on keeping on. 

Nearer the end I was able to jog again , Race screen    (https://apps.garmin.com/apps/6a30651b-ca67-41a5-96dc-60634983fc93) is awesome as you can correct the pace, in my case I clicked a lap at 20 to go, which corrected the watch to be 20km at 20.2 which gave me a slight buffer. The only issue I have is that some times from the 42km mark it can be 400+ m to the finish line but it was not in  this case , even though my watch ended on 42.5km I was still safely home in time. Qualifier done. 

Liz was 2nd in age category for the marathon, Martine was 2nd in age category in the 21 and I qualified,  very successful day all round!

We will be back...           

Mielie Marathon 17 Jan 2026

Heard of this race in 2008 from Tony Green while doing my first Marathon in Delmas, eish took a long time to get there....

I convinced Liz that this was a good, booked a guest house and we decided to visits friends in Orkney afterwards.. 

We set off on Friday , found our Guest house and decided to do our pre Comrades snacky meal in the garden. Off to collect our numbers and Margit hijacked Liz while I waited in the queue. Got our numbers, set off to find a Woolies.. got a great selection of snacks and headed back to the our GH. 

Had a beer at the pool, snacks in the Garden and early to bed. Three rooms were taken by Marathoners.. A lot of activity at 4 am and off to the start, parked under a tree. Saw Roto interviewing a few Legends, Julian "1001" Karp, The Running Mann, The Running/Walking Keith etc.

It was so awesome to be in the second row of athletes, Liz was in front of me.. I secretly knew that I needed a perfect event to qualify but also still know its only January. I went through my first park run in 34:30 and begun to feel like it was my day, Julian had warned me about the climb into Odendaalrus , slow poison which I thought carried on till the 42km mark. Flat is hard and you work all the way. This is the flattest marathon I have ever done, it just seemed like there was no respite. 

I think my "fame" has preceded me in some quarters as Maggs who was  the 5hr bus driver greeted me by name, also promising not to block my path ... subsequently I realised she was the 11:30 Comrades bus driver who I had a few interactions with.. This was a small well run bus...   Run with Maggs

Small municipalities rally battle with Sewers etc, so we had a few sections where pace increased in spurts, we passed the legendary Louis Massyns house which was special.. 

Using my usual equal effort, I just kept going, my AHR was  pretty much  138 the whole way, from memory I am normally in the low 150's on a marathon so I guess either I am a bit fitter or just unfit... I really enjoyed doing this marathon, not often I can do a 42 with hardly any pressure, I had hoped for a 4:58 but by halfway on my watch it was on 2:28 and the actual halfway by road markings was 2:31 ish so I knew qualifying was out so I decided to just enjoy the day out. 

I cannot say it was very scenic route but it was really enjoyable to spend so much time in the countryside, mostly on a lonely path with hardly anyone around. I really prefer these out of town races, all the 47th Mielie races had a total of about 1000, 298 official finishers in the marathon, also helped Liz get a podium for fist 60 up lady... 

After the prize  giving we went back to our GH where we showered and headed to Orkney to see Eve and her Niece Eurika. We were treated  like royalty and managed to restore all the weight we had "lost" , what an awesome recovery and catch up...

Roto did his usual race review and I have included the link here.