After reading some blogs of runners using this kind of running shoes, I ordered a pair of the Distance-Neutral Racer model from their website at www.newtonrunning.com as there were no available shoes for sale in any sports/running specialty store in Los Angeles or website stores in the Internet last year. Finally, I got my order when it was delivered right on my door steps on the last week of August last year.

I immediately used it in my short runs around the neighborhood and along the jogging lanes of Echo Park and Silverlake Water Reservoir. I also used it during my “walkabout” activities while I was in Los Angeles last year. I guess, I only used it for about 3-4 times after it was delivered to me while I was in the United States.

After I arrived back to the Philippines last year, I think I had used it for a half-marathon race and a couple of 10K races and I finally stopped using it.

The following were my observations about the shoes:

1. The shoes will force the user to use the midfoot strike while running. If a heel-strike runner would use this shoes and goes back to his/her usual running gait and footstrike, there is a tendency that the heel portion of the shoes would easily worn-out. The heel portion is the softest part of the shoes. Although I am a mid-foot striker, I still have the tendency to go back to heel-strike when I am already tired in my long runs and marathon races.

2. The shoes is very light in weight as compared to other racing shoes available in the market last year. But lately, there are more racing shoes which are lighter than the Newton Shoes. ASICS and New Balance Racing Shoes are lighter than the Newton Shoes. My new ASICS Hyper-Speed Racer 3 weighs only 6.3 ounces.

3. If you are not an elite runner, don’t buy one. If you are a competitive runner, you must use this shoes during your tempo runs, speed runs, and long steady runs at a race pace. You should adjust with the midfoot strike which the shoes was made for and if you have a hard time adjusting to it, then it would take time for you to adjust with the shoes.

4. The price is too expensive. You can buy at least two pairs of shoes with its price—one as your training shoes and the other as your racing flat shoes. Before, you can buy this shoes by ordering direct to the company but it is already available in one of the latest running specialty stores in Metro Manila.

5. Experience Calves Tightness/Injury. If you are a newbie or intermediate runner who is planning to run his/her first half-marathon, using this kind of shoes will cause tightness in your calves and eventually cause muscle cramps on your calves. I experienced this when I used it during the 2009 Condura Half-Marathon Race where I experienced muscle cramps on my last kilometer of the race. Since then, I never used the shoes in road races.

6. Not because the shoes is being used by a Lady Senator who is a runner & triathlete and advertised as the shoes used by the 2008 Kona IRONMAN Men’s Champion, it does not mean that you would look like a “politician” and a triathlete champion. I am sure that this shoes will not make you faster in road races.