Hoka One One Stinson

I am lucky to say that I have had the pleasure of running in the Hoka Stinsons. I love almost everything about them and only have a few complaints. When you first look at them you think heavy, and clumsy. But these are actually light and nimble. These weigh about 12.2 ounces at size 9.0 mens so they are heavier then most shoes I run in but they don't feel like they way that much. They have a 6mm drop which is the highest drop that I generally run in.

        The shoe's upper is a great upper but could use some work. The tongue and the area around the ankle are great. They are made of a soft material and just feel good on your feet. I can wear the shoe without socks without getting any blisters, that is something that I always look for in shoes. And the upper is super durable. I have put quite a few miles on these shoes and have had no problem with them wearing out. My one complaint is that I really have to cinched down the laces to get a good fit.                                                                                                                                                          

                                                                                                                                                                    

 The traction on this shoe is almost to good! It practically suction's itself to any surface. Its amazing that I can feel that safe on any terrain road to extremely technical mountain trails. The midsole is very responsive and very protective. For a while I was hesitant to to get Hoka's because I thought they would mess with my stride but I have yet to have any problem of the sort. But once again I have one problem. When I am going fast down very rocky technical trail I feel like I am going to roll in ankle. So on that type of terrain I generally will go with my Hoka One One Rapa Nui.

Stinson Compared to the Rapa Nui

Stinson Compared to Salomon S-lab Sense

 Overall this is a fantastic shoe and I look forward to some of Hoka's new models specifically the Huaka and the Clifton. I can't wait to get my hands on The Hoka Huaka due to come out in July.
Sage Canaday has a great review for them.

Shiprock Half Marathon 2014

I ran this race last year and had lots of fun, it kick-started my life as a distance runner. Last year I got 22nd overall and 3rd in my age group with a time of 1:34:45. This year I knew I could do much much better, and that's what I did. This year I got 11th overall out of 550 with a 1:26. I broke my age group course record from  last year but I still got fourth in my age group, the reason for this was that the Dine College team were racing and my age group is 12-19. So even though my time was 8 minutes faster and my overall place 11 places better I did worse in my age group. Just goes to show that competition is constantly getting better. This year my plan was to go out slower than last year but not burn out. And it worked really well. Although my mile splits did slow down it was not nearly as much as last year.
Here is my splits
Lap 1: 6:09
Lap 2: 6:14
Lap 3: 6:22
Lap 4: 6:25
Lap 5: 6:37
Lap 6: 6:28
Lap 7: 6:35
Lap 8: 6:18
Lap 9: 6:27
Lap 10: 6:36
Lap 11: 6:44
Lap 12: 6:43
Lap 13: 6:54
Lap .1: 0:27
Last year my first three miles were 6 minute miles flat and after mile 7 were all above 7 minutes.
This course is all flat so it is fast but it is painful because of the road. It is harder on my legs than any other race I have done so far.

I was very tired afterwards.
Over all I was very happy with my race it was an 8 minute PR and lots of fun.