Continental Divides or Streak= red wine or a cold beer?

Streaks are grey and blue, CD's are green/neon...notice the traction and "cut outs" on the bottom that contribute to the strength of each!


During the last few weekends I have run some fabulously varied terrain: 9+ hour jaunt through and around the wet, technical and remote Linville Gorge, a marathon on the packed dirt of the VA Creeper Trail, and yesterday a 6+ hour adventure run through the rain and wet leaves and rocks of the Iron Mountain trails of Jefferson National Forest. I have the perfect 2 pair of shoes for both of these endeavors!

Yesterday while running up the wet, seepy, Beech Grove trail wearing the Streaks I pondered my shoe choice. (Not much else to think about sometimes when plodding uphill in the drizzle, trying to avoid echoes of another rendition of the “Star Wars” theme in my head.)…(I am not a fan of ipod/earphones during trail running-but more on that another time!)

I can’t not say which shoe I prefer-just, as I cannot say if I prefer red wine to dark cold beer because each one is perfect depending on the situation!

I found the Streaks perfect for the 12 miles of rail trail, couple miles of rocky/rooty technical climbing and many additional miles of wet leaves-but not too technical single track. The week before they were also perfect for the rainy, muddy VA Creeper Trail marathon. They are light, have good traction and drain exceptionally well. Also, the week before when doing a long training run/route finding-river crossing adventure in the rugged Linville Gorge, I tried the Streaks. I wished for my Continental Divides-not quite beefy enough for such a technical long day…(my ankles and arches were more tired than anticipated-yet this makes sense due to the more flexible nature of the shoe’s sole…I thought this would be the case, but I had to find out for myself!)

If ever I am in doubt over which shoe to pick, I will prob’ly go for the CD’s (just like I drink more red wine than cold beer)…as I am very comfortable and experienced in them…in all types of terrain…yet I am psyched for the option of the Streaks…if I had them earlier this year, I would have most certainly worn them at Way Too Cool and the Black Mountain Marathon…yet as I think ahead to Zane Grey 50 later this month, I’ll plan in the CD’s because of the epic reputation of the technicality of this event! For WS 100-this far out, I think for sure the CD’s until after Rucky Chucky…and put my Streaks in my after Rucky Chucky drop bag…Yet time will tell and I am happy to have these options! Bottoms up!