Two years ago, I donated my New Balance 902 thinking that it was the cause of my Achilles tendon pains not knowing that I was already attacked with gout. Since then, I never bought New Balance as my running shoes. Instead, I used ASICS for my training and competitive road races. 

In almost two years, I’ve started reading the blogs of famous trail ultra runners and I shifted slowly to trail running. I started to buy trail shoes and apparel from The North Face/Patagonia and I was satisfied with their performance. I have two Arnuvas; one Hedgehog; one Single Track; and one new Sentinel (courtesy of July Oconer). However, in almost all my trail runs to the “Brown Mountain”, I’ve been using the lightweight Adidas Osweego and Adizeros (Mana & Adios) and I did not have any problems with them on their traction and thin soles. Using these lightweight Adidas Adizeros for the past months gave me the confidence to try more “minimalist” trail shoes.

I had the chance to buy the popular New Balance MT 100 from Zombie Runner when I ran the Headlands 50 last July 2010 but I hesitated due to the fact that I suspected that a newer version is coming out soon. Reading from the blog of Anton Krupicka, he mentioned that he was invited and made a trip to the Corporate Office of New Balance for a meeting with their Research & Development Division and I suspected that there must be a significant importance to such meeting. 

 I personally guess that this new version or improvement of the New Balance MT 100 (trail shoes used by Anton Krupicka in his Miwok 100 and WS 100 this year) is the product of such meeting or for a more “minimalist” shoes to be released soon.

Well, I could not compare between the NB MT 100 from the latest NB MT 101 as I have not seen intently and used the MT 100. But I am sure that this is the improved version of the “minimalist” trail shoes that is available from New Balance. This could also be the answer of New Balance to the popularity of shoes that mimics barefoot running which is becoming popular for the past two years.

 Anyway, I am still trying to find a place where I could “break-in” this new toy. Definitely, it will be a choice between the Bataan/Mariveles or the Sierra Madre Mountain Ranges. We will see how these shoes will perform in our mountain trails.

For those who are interested to purchase this trail shoes, you can visit the website of Zombie Runner or wait for early next year for its availability in our local New Balance Stores. At www.zombierunner.com, all the things you need to “play” and run in mountain trails are called “toys”.