As usual, I was waaaaay overdue for new shoes. I’m so bad. Most experts say that shoes are ripe for replacement after 300-400 miles. I usually push my to at least 500 miles. I try to justify that with my mostly road miles routine and the fact that good shoes are crazy expensive these days.
I figured it was time to switching things up. After a half dozen Saucony’s and a nice but over priced pair of Asics, I wanted to try some Hoka One Ones. I eventually settled on the Arahis (affiliate link). Shopping around I found the a reasonable deal at a discount seller. After checking out, I disappointed that shipping was Ontrac and super slow. Flash forward the 5 days or so, and I check order tracking. Cool, they were just delivered them 10 minutes ago. Strange, I didn’t hear the truck and nobody rang the bell.
Waited another day to see if tracking was just wrong and still nothing. Got in touch with Ontrac, and they said, “yeah we delivered it. If you didn’t get it talk to your seller.” We do have a problem with package theft in my area, but I have the feeling that Ontrack never even delivered it. I happened to use PayPal to pay for the purchase, so I had some buyer protection with them. Other than having to wait a couple of weeks, the refund process was pretty painless.
While waiting for through the refund process. I found another seller for the shoes (for an additional $10, sigh.) Again, shipping was slooow. But, these shoes actually made it to me.
Initial impressions on the Arahis:
- They’re super chunky. They look chunky in pictures, but in real life, they’re even more so. Feel like I’m strapping on Frankenstein’s boots.
- They’ve got lots of padding. The first run or two, they take some getting used to because you hit the ground a lot differently.
- They have an odd angle on the heel. Don’t notice it when I’m running in them, but when walking have weird feeling that I’m gonna tip over backward. Probably a feature for me in the long run, because I tend to drag my heels anyway.
- Loads of room in the toe box.
- A little light on the padding on the tongue. I don’t tie my shoes super tight, but after the first few times out I had sore spot on top of my left foot. Not sure if just me getting used to them or what, but seems to have cleared up.
Will follow up on them as I continue to beat them up.
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