Hoka: Kailua Trail Shoes

It's Christmas in August at the Smith's!  After a long tiring 12 hour shift at work, I came home to find that Bart bought me a pair of Hoka Kailua Trail Shoes.  I love running in the Stinson B Evo model but hate running in the Mafate (which have since been deemed -expensive work shoes now), so I've had a love/hate relationship with Hoka and have been leery to try a different model.  Bart assured me from what the staff at Foot Rx have told him, they are worth a try. Plus Foot Rx said if I wasn't happy with them, I could take them back.  I wore the shoes around the house all evening and liked them from the start.  By morning I was ready to put them to the real test...

We headed over to Bent Creek and put these to a tough 2 hour 45 minute trail run: single track, double track, rocks, roots, stream crossings, and mud sloshing! We covered it all!

The shoes were perfect right out of the box. I didn't have any tender or sore spots after the run.  I was impressed with the laces which never came untied (I usually swap out laces for Lock Laces)...

No slipping problems through the mud or stream crossing...

The soles are thick, soft and stable that I didn't have any trouble running over rocks and roots...

Plus the water drained great out of the shoes, and I didn't feel like I was running with big heavy moats around my feet...

What did we focus on today's run? number 1, having fun...

...number 2, fartlek running...

 Number 3, not forgetting to enjoy the beauty of our surroundings...

So, I'm back on the "love" side of my relationship with Hokas!