Review on Saucony Kinvara

I finally get to test run my Kinvara after bought from Choi few days back as add on to my MR759. The base is narrower and the heel is lower compared to MR759. The color is striking, I got lots of attention in the park this morning, :D

This minimalist is really light and even after 10KM I still hardly feel its weight, unlike my 759, after 10KM, I will start feeling its weight dragging me, my on air time will become shorter and my steps become smaller. Kinvara is smaller size than many shoes at the same size number, as u can see from the pictures, my 759 is also US7, but Kinvara is relatively smaller and I actually feel tight at the fore foot.

759 has a wider base and Kinvara has a narrow base, for underpronation runner like me who land on outer part of my foot and launch my step with my smaller toes, I had a hard time in getting my steps right. I knew it was tight but I never thought it will affect my run so much that my 3 smaller toes feel like hanging outside the shoes, with 759 I can land anyway and still be able to launch my step on the wide base.

But, this may not be a bad news, after few KM with Kinvara, I realise I do not have to conciously remind myself to land on the ball of the foot anymore, the shoes actually guided me to land more on the ball and launch my step with bigger toes, in others words, it corrected my running pattern somehow. I can feel that I am using more core muscles involved in walking and jumping as opposed to previously I will feel some muscle soreness for using muscles that I don't normally use in walking.

It was supposed to be a warm up run for the shoes but I managed to clock 58 mins for 10KM, and I ended the run at 11.4KM , 1hr 6mins. Good news is, I was running faster and faster after 7KM adapting to the shoes, which means sub 55mins is possible for 10KM. And I stilll feel like I can go further, but I won't want to do that with new shoes.

Post run feeling is that the shoes is tight that my baby toes got compressed and squeezed during run and felt some numbness, now it feel abit painful, I probably need to plaster it the next time I run. No muscles soreness so far, probably I can only tell tomorrow. This shoes is now proven to improve running for short distance (10-12KM), I will try it out again for 15KM before the KOTR, not too sure it a shoes this tight is good for 21KM. But it is officially my race shoes now.

Recommendation : Any runner plan to buy this shoes probably want to consider buying a 1/2-1 size bigger, my foot is wider at toes area not at phalanges area ( which means toes will bend inward ), I feel that my ring and baby toes are compressed and do not have much space to move. It has some cushion at the arc area (see picture compared with 759), thus can guide runner to land more on the ball and help to absord the impact which normally underpronator use outer feet to do the work which may result in injury in long run.

P/S : if any runner has the about same size as me (UK6-6.5) may contact me to try run with this shoes ( not just test wear ). :D