Well, to be honest my trails are really dirt roads, so they are pretty quick running. What slows me down is i have to get down to and back up out of the canyon (where the good road is) on a steep, sandy switchback trail which is unrunnable, so I power walk back up. It's mainly my running 100 mile trail runs that have slowed me down. I ran 27 marathons before I switched to trails and ultras due to knees beat up from racing roads for 20+ years. I ran NYC in '78, '79 and 82 and still have the cool trays they gave you as a finishing award. Ran Montreal once and many local Boston area marathons. Foxboro, Boston Peace Marathon, Silver Lake Dodge marathon, Cape Cod Marathon and the one that was the toughest was the City of Presidents marathon in Quincy, Ma. in I think 1980. It was in the 80's, 2 loops, hilly and I think i ran about a 2:52 and STILL don't think I finished in the top ten in a small field. Those were the days....back when it seemed everyone ran fast! Now that my knees are doing better thanks mostly to better shoes available these days, I want to run marathons again...we'll see what comes of it. Your mother might "wog" but that is still very good mileage...good for her!

I don't wish injury on ANYONE in the 2000 mile race On the minimalist note, my first pair fo running shoes were Brooks Villianova's (mid 70's) which had hardly any cushioning. I think the heel lift was 1/8 of an inch...you learned to run softly. My next pair were Asics Montreal II's, which were very similar. Low heel, minimalist...then they started to cushion shoes and put posts in them and my knees messed up bad (patella tendinitis). In ultrarunning there's a big minimalist movement. People are starting to run in Inov-8 shoes, which are low, harder and no motion control devices. If the shoes are lower, as in your flats, they don't need motion control because you're not a mile off the ground! Some are even starting to run barefoot and injuries that were there for years are beginning to disappear. Shoes help, but they are also the cause of injuries. When i ran my fast marathons, they were all run in Nike Mariah's which were a minimalist shoe. Incredible that you ran 100+ mile week in flats.

On a weird note unrelated to shoes: A coworker of mine developed a hp injury from running on the track. Since she was doing like 6 miles at a shot, all in the same direction, every time, she developed an issue. That was a new one to me.

In the timed races (24, 48, 72 hour) that are held on tracks, they reverse direction every hour or so to avoid just that! Constantly turning the same direction puts more pressure on one side than the other...feels good to go the other way! Lynn B

Are those really an old running shoe model, or are they based off of a wrestling shoe? Any of you old-timers run in something like those Pumas?

Are those really an old running shoe model, or are they based off of a wrestling shoe? Any of you old-timers run in something like those Pumas?

I'm one of the old timers and I've never had a pair of Puma's on my feet. For years wore Onitsuka Tiger running shoes, which then became Asics. I now wear Asics on the roads and Brooks on the trails. Probably the most minimalist shoe I've ever worn training were the old Tiger Montreal's in the late 70's. Not much cushion under the heel at all. They were blue nylon with a green Tiger stripe logo on the sides. They were the hot shoes to wear then because those are what Bill Rodgers trained in.