good thread, was wondering this myself.

I also run in the Guide on roads.  Did a trail race this weekend in them, and aside from 1) they're very well air conditioned, and 2) their owner doesn't know how to make sharp turns in mud, they held up just fine.   Think I'll pick up a pair of trail shoes though, and like the reviews / style of the montrail mtn masochist 2.  

A couple questions for WrigleyGirl and anyone else who has used them both:

-  hows the fit relative to the Guide (5)?  do you wear same size in both? 

-  do they handle some road?  not essential, but I got a decent trail ~3 mi from home, would love to wear them up and back on some longer days

thanks in advance

So I am in the apparent minority who haaaaates the montrail mountain masochist.  With strong passion.  I ran a few races and training runs in my pair... probably put 200ish miles in them... I have never EVER had such hurty feet and "I think I broke it" toes and black toenails and weird blisters in places I've never had blisters.  I *can* say that the toebox of these shoes is just plain ol' wrong for my feet.

 

I tell people that I burned them publicly after one too many toe stubs ("I had to stop for a few minutes. I wanted to cry") in territory that I NEVER stub my toes.  But really I just tossed them.

 

That's me.  Everyone else loves loves loves them.

I was thinking of getting a pair (I have to order them because no one ever has my size in stock). Was the toe box too small? I had pretty much heard good things about them universally, but I hate returning shoes so I thought I'd ask before I made the (for me!) large cash outlay.

I just had a pair arrive not more then 10 minutes ago, was told to buy a pair 1/2 size larger...could that have been your problem?

 

Anyways I'll give them a shot, can't be any worse then the Wave Rider 14's that I had

No, I buy 8s in all my running shoes and bought 8 in that shoe as well.  Perhaps I should have tried half a size smaller.  Honestly, my issue seemed to be that my foot was sliding around funny and the toe box was big, not small.  It was just a weirdly shaped shoe for me.

I didn't work too hard to fix the issue because I have several pairs of shoes I like mo bettah.

I wore my Mountain Masochist that were a 1/2 size larger this morning on 1/2 road and 1/2 trails for a 7.2 mile run and they were surprisingly nice on the road! I prefer soft road shoes aka Brooks Ghost and was very surpirsed a the medium soft ride in these shoes, on dirt they were great.

My toes slide a little but I wasen't wearing very good socks

For longer than a 50K, I like having more stability and will wear my Montrail Mountain Masochists.  (Jason also wore those shoes for his 100, I believe.  They're very popular.)

That's right!  

I wear Brooks Adrenaline shoes for pavement runs and pavement races, because I am a low-arch overpronator.   For trails, I wear the Montrail Mountain Masochists.  

Trail shoes are generally neutral, because the same stability aspects of a road shoe that protect you from overpronating on pavement can work against you on a trail if you step sideways on a tree root, or do something else similar on the uneven surface.  Some trail shoes, however, are better than other ones when it comes to being conducive to stability while not losing any of the protection from the trail elements.  

Montrail Mountain Masochists are quite perfect for me on the trails, since they have a wide toe box, they're low-profile enough to give me a feel for the trail, and because I can run in a stable manner in them for long periods of time.  My feet do feel pointed rocks and such after 20 miles or so, but that's probably true in any shoe.  

I tried a pair of Brooks Cascadia shoes one time and, while they were incredibly comfortable in the store, they proved impractical for me after a mere two-mile trail run, after which my knees and ankles were beaten up pretty badly.  MMMs for the win, in my book.

Now, I made a strategic mistake at Pinhoti 100 by switching from a pair of Mountrail Mountain Masochists to a pair of Brooks Adrenalines at Mile 85.  My Montrails still felt pretty good, but I figured that I'd be running on dirt roads the rest of the race.  The last 15 miles, though, took place mostly on "large gravel" surface forest roads, though, and the gravel had torn up my feet pretty badly by the end of the race.  I should have stayed in the Montrails for the entire 100 miles and not tried to fix something that wasn't broken.

Thanks to everyone who answered my questions above on the montrail mtn masochist...I decided not to order them because I was leaning towards a hybrid shoe (more road friendly).

Then I went for a wet muddy trail run yesterday, I was slipping all over the place and got a plantar bruise from a pointy rock.  It somehow reminded me of what I heard about car tires when I lived in Switzerland..."all season" tires are a poor compromise.  You wont regret the small effort to do it right.

So I went home and found the mmm's on sale (-20% @ amazn) and pulled the trigger.  We'll see where it goes from here.  Hopefully uphill.