Cloudsurfer - Day One

On my long run last Sunday, I decided that my Brooks Pure Cadence had reached the end of their lives. Being the gear geek that I am, I decided to try something different. I ordered a pair of On Cloudsurfers from www.runoutlet.com.

If you follow triathlons, you probably have already guessed why I wanted to try these shoes ;-) If you don't follow triathlons, I'll fill you in...Frederik Van Lierde just won the Ironman World Championships in Kona wearing a pair of On Cloudracers.

There aren't many shoe stores that carry On. The closest store to me was sold out of all of the women's On. My only option was to order a pair without knowing how they fit or what the sizing was like. I read several reviews online and everyone said the shoe fit to size so you didn't need worry about sizing up or down. I usually wear a 9 or 9-1/2 in street shoes and a 10 in running shoes. I ordered a 9-1/2 in the On and they fit perfectly.

After deciding what size to order, my next challenge was deciding which shoe I wanted. There are currently four shoe styles. The On website shows the shoes along with a corresponding pace. I was a bit perplexed because the "performance" shoe had a 4-5 min/mile pace which was faster than the Cloudracer (the "competition" shoe). As it turns out, when my package arrived, the Cloudsurfer's 4-5 minute pace was actually kilometers, not miles. Someone needs to tell On to fix their website :-)

Who's running this fast?

First Impressions

The shoes have an interesting look. They aren't flashy like my hot pink Brooks Pure Cadence or cool like my Mizuno Wave Sayornara. They have a weird sort of Euro look to them...sort of like some of the stuff from Ikea (Don't bother emailing me, I know On is from Switerzland and Ikea is Swedish...I'm just saying).

Fresh out of the box

Ok, the thing with the laces is pretty cool, but that's just for show...in case you want to pick a different color. These babies will be getting a pair of bungee laces as soon as I can get by Fleet Feet.

I took the shoes out for a quick 3 mile run before swim practice. You would think that the lugs on the bottom would feel weird but they didn't. The shoes were cushy without being overly soft.  Another thing I noticed was how quiet these shoes are. Normally, I hear my feet slapping the ground...smack, smack, smack, smack. These shoes were silent...like I was running on clouds :-)

My one concern with these shoes is the color. All white! How long will they look like this? My last pair of Brooks Pure Cadence were black. Oh the horrors that those poor shoes saw but they kept my secrets hidden well. Even when my Brooks were dirty, they still looked pretty good. The Cloudsurfers probably won't handle the dirt as well, but only time will tell. 

I'm hoping to take the Cloudsurfers out for another short run on Friday before deciding if I want to use them for my next long run. I'm also not convinced they would be the right shoe for CIM. They are a bit on the heavy side so I might be racing in the Sayonara.