Runs With Mascara: Girls Love Shoes!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Girls Love Shoes!

Like other girls, Runs With Mascara loves shoes: the material, the craftsmanship, the color, the trending factor. Okay, maybe not because they're the new trend but because we've seen them or read so much about them and - like many of you - tried to tell ourselves we don't need them until we do, we absolutely do, and we lock our sights on them.

Funny thing is our sights here at RWM sent us veering off in two different directions.

Samantha took the easy way out with her shopping and ordered a pair of Inov-8 Flite 230's from Zappos. She'd first seen them on a friend at Crossfit a month or so ago and loved the look. Was it the guy or the shoes? Hard to say - Samantha has always been a fan of men's styles. What sealed the deal was seeing a dozen or so frontrunners at last weekend's Dipsea Run wearing them - shades of red and royal blue and green on runners flying down the trail at speeds some can only dream of. They are light. Light, light, light. Minimalist light. Like slippers with a little running sole for traction. And sweet colors. The order went through Monday, the shoes arrived Tuesday, she debuted them at Crossfit on Wednesday. First impression? "I feel like I could be fast." The result: lots of compliments on the color. More thorough testing and analysis to come.

Dana went the glamorous route - to France, home of Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent; but more important to trail runners, home of the Hoka One One designers; makers of the shoes Dana has been oogling on the likes of Karl Metzer; obsessing on all she could track down on the Web. She is now the proud owner of a pair of Mafate Women's. Look at the pillowy rise on those things. You don't know whether to tuck them under your head and take a nap or spring out the door bounding with energy. These will be head-turners back in the states. At press time, Dana had yet to take a maiden spin on these cloud-like beauties beyond a quickie around the block. Initial impression? A little strange. But she's stoked to test them out further on the flatlands of the Netherlands and then back home, on the hills of Mt. Tam.

Will either shoe make it to Trans-Rockies? Stay tuned for more thorough investigative coverage.

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About Runs with Mascara

Who is Team Runs with Mascara?

Runs with Mascara is Dana Katz and Samantha Pinney - training partners and friends for the past 3 years; adventurers with a flair for musicals and running skirts, and a generous respect for looking good when sweating hard. While they’ve had many adventures across the West, one of their more epic spans was a week they spent racing from the Bizz Johnson trail marathon in northern California to rappeling in Arches National Park, to biking the White Rim Trail in southern Utah to running the Moab Half Marathon. This is their first race endeavor as a team under the name RWM.

Samantha Pinney overcame the malls of her New Jersey youth for an obsession with the outdoors that carries her from skiing to ultra running to outrigger canoeing and whatever adventures she can find. She can’t imagine life without running skirts, flip flops or beanies and wields a kettle ball as deftly as she does a mascara wand. She competed in the 2010 Crossfit Team Games, has multiple top 10 finishes to her name but can’t throw a softball to save her life. She’d like to be a better surfer.

Dana Katz is a recovering triathlete and cyclocross racer turned ultrarunner. She eats hills for breakfast that she doctors with homemade concoctions of flaxseed and ginger granola in her ongoing quest to create ridiculously healthy and delicious meals. Dana is a globetrotter who in a recent span ran a ½ marathon in Brazil, a trail run in Sweden, a marathon in northern California and a harried loop amongst the monuments of Washington D.C. before boarding a plane. She doesn’t leave home without her running skirt and snacks. Don’t let Dana’s easy-going, amicable personality fool you: she trains like a warrior and competes with a vengeance.