I do a lot of hiking in the summer months, with my most recent escapade being the Hohe Munde in Austria – 2,662m of pure blood, sweat and tears. And as somebody who ‘wings it’ in most aspects of their life, I don’t tend to train too much for these climbs in the way of hills and scrambling, more just long walks through the countryside and cities. I’ve also recently taken up running. I say ‘taken up’, I’ve been forced to participate in a few 10k runs and ended up getting a taste for it. So not long ago I decided that I needed to invest in some new gear to begin training with a little more heart for these events. I swiftly invested in the fancy phone holder that lives on my arm, the running shorts and one of those tshirts that stops you looking like you’ve just laid down in a puddle of your own sweat – all I was lacking was a decent pair of shoes that could double as gear for both hiking and running training.
I have a bit of a problem in that I am very much flat footed. Imagine the awkward way a pigeon walks and then times that by ten – that’s me. Not only am I flat footed and pigeon toed, but I seem to have some weird thing where I don’t really bend my legs properly when I run and subsequently end up putting what is basically my entire body weight on the arches of my feet. I’ve always struggled to find shoes that a) don’t wear out super quickly due to my flat footedness and b) could deal with my oddly high arches.
Up until now I’ve rocked a pair of the Adidas Duramos which have been comfortable enough, but I have now destroyed the cushion in them one too many times. Enter the Adidas Revenge Boost 2s.
As a bit of a tomboy, I am usually incredibly wary of buying trainers that appear to be so luminous in colour and I’m left wondering “oh gosh, what will I wear with them?” and “are they too girly?” – these are actually a really cracking shade of pink that I’m happy to walk round a city in for the day, which is exactly what I did to try them out.
I parked up my car on the edge of Cambridge last weekend and went for one almighty stroll around what is a spectacularly beautiful city to take them on the first of a few trial runs. I was on my feet for a good six hours of the day walking around taking in the sights, and I can safely say that by the end of the day, a) I had not one blister and b) that they were ridiculously comfortable throughout. Most importantly, it turned out to be the hottest day do the year, so the fact they are engineered with breathable TECHFIT overlays really paid dividends for me.
One of the selling points of these shoes is that they mould to the natural contours of your feet, which is important for me and my abnormally high arches as it provides a personalised level of support and comfort – although a downside for my mum and sister who have the same size feet as me and like sharing shoes! Of course when you buy a new pair of shoes, they will often mould to your feet over time, but this was almost instant! One thing I also noticed with these shoes is that the laces are the perfect length. As somebody who doesn’t always tie their laces properly and is forever re-tying them, if these were to come undone, they wouldn’t be dangerous – yet when tied up, you don’t have lots of excess lace flapping around. As for the name of the shoes, it comes from the ‘energy-returning boost™ technology’ that appears in forefront and the heels, supposedly providing ‘endless, fast energy’. And whilst I can’t say it provided me with extra energy (that was the burrito), I could feel a increased spring in my step from the incredibly bouncy soles, which is exactly what you need when you are trekking the length of a city with minimal breaks!
I can definitely recommend these if, like me, you are an amateur runner, doing up to 10k at a time or you plan on being on your feet for long periods of time on your travels. As far as shoes to wear when in training for hiking go – what could be better than a breathable shoe that lets you train without the need for clunky hiking boots in the summer? Amazing all rounders! You can pick up a pair here at DW Sports.