100 Miles in Moccasins, Part 2: Soft Star RunAmoc Performance Review

Now that I’ve reported (in excessive detail, as usual) the play-by-play from my 100-miler at Lake Tahoe, it’s time to drill a little deeper on the subject of the Soft Star moccasins I wore. More specifically, were they up to the task? Were there any major problems I encountered? And perhaps most tellingly, would I do the same thing if I had to do it over again?

Heading into the Tahoe evening in RunAmocs

The short answers are: yes, no, and probably … but you know I’ve never been content with the short answers. And nothing about running 100 miles is ever that simple. With that in mind, let’s get to the breakdown.


1. Moccasin style

Perhaps the first point to explain here is why I went with the original RunAmoc rather than either of the two new Soft Star models that were introduced this spring. I mentioned the reasons for this in my RunAmoc Dash review and my Moc3 review; basically, with the Dash it was a matter of fit, and with the Moc3 it was a matter of protection.

Although its traditional lacing system gives the Dash a super-secure fit through the midfoot, I still experience a bit of instability in the rearfoot, most likely due to my own irregularities in heel structure and alignment. The instability of the heel collar around my ankle is especially apparent when I do stream crossings or run through sticky mud, both of which I knew I’d encounter at Tahoe. On the original RunAmoc, the ankle strap decreases ankle movement significantly, although the tradeoff is a slightly looser midfoot fit.

Mud pit on the Red House loop

As for the Moc3, I indicated in my review that they’re only available with a 2mm street outsole, and that my feet felt somewhat beat up after running 50K on the trails in them. So it may cost me some of my “barefoot cred” to say this, but I definitely wanted the extra protection (and traction) of the 5mm trail outsole for going 100 miles – which meant that the Moc3 wasn’t a realistic option.

Also, one other point I’ve explained before bears repeating again: the original RunAmoc just feels more “moccasin-y” than either of the others, which is a big part of their appeal for me. If I was going to channel my inner Tarahumara, I figured my footwear should look as native as possible. Yes, aesthetics count for something.


2. Ventilation / moisture management

Another personal preference of mine is choosing perforated leather over solid leather or suede on all of my RunAmocs. I like how they keep my foot ventilated on hot days, and how they dry relatively quickly after water immersion. A key part of this strategy is that I combine my RunAmocs with Drymax socks, which is important for a couple of reasons: 1) Drymax move moisture off your foot incredibly fast, and 2) the tight fabric construction helps keep grit off of your feet. You’ll definitely get sand and dust infiltrating the toebox with perforated leather, but with the Drymax socks, it isn’t a big deal.

Lots of practice in wet conditions this spring: two separate, rainy 50-milers in mocs (Dash pictured) and Drymax socks

The result of all this is that after every water immersion, my feet would be completely dry within 20-30 minutes. I didn’t change shoes or socks at any point during the 28 hours I was on the course, and with very minor exceptions (discussed shortly), I didn’t have any foot discomfort at all.


3. Scree resistance

Notice, however, that I said I didn’t change shoes – which is completely different than “I never took my shoes off”. One of the few downsides of the RunAmoc design is that the forefoot upper (called the “vamp”) isn’t physically connected to the rearfoot portion. Under normal conditions, this isn’t an issue – but anytime I do a stream crossing, there’s the potential for small pebbles to spill in between that gap, which is sometimes pried open by the current.

Forefoot vamp loosely overlaps rearfoot upper

During routine training runs, it happens fairly often that I’ll feel a small rock or two bouncing around inside my mocs after a stream crossing; 95% of the time, the rock ends up settling someplace off to the side (a hidden benefit of a roomy forefoot) where it doesn’t bother me. At Tahoe, I was a little bit paranoid of anything going wrong, so after I had accumulated a fair amount of debris inside my mocs, I pulled over to the side of the trail and shook them out.

Shin-deep stream crossings on Red House loop

4. Traction / Snow

I typically pride myself on testing shoes in all sorts of trail conditions, but I have to confess that running on snow and ice didn’t come up at any point during my testing of the RunAmoc. Despite that, I was fairly confident that they’d do well at Tahoe, and I honestly wasn’t disappointed.

 

In general terms, I think of the traction on the trail outsole as being the equivalent of a decent road shoe; it’s got more than enough grip to hold the trail in most conditions, but isn’t nearly as hardcore as the super-cleated outsoles that models from inov-8 or Salomon have sported in recent years. On the dirt, the only time I felt any loss of traction was climbing through loose sand on the 35% grade ski slope – but for what it’s worth, my pacer was slipping a bit in her traditional shoes as well.

Climbing the "snow staircase" - the same one I slid down several hours earlier

The same thing happened with our snow crossings: on my first and third passes through the largest snow fields, the snow was lightly packed, and my outsoles gave me all the traction I needed. On the other two passes, I slipped and lost my footing fairly often; one time was during the hottest part of the day when everything was super loose and slushy, and the other was right at sunrise after a sub-freezing night had turned everything to solid ice. Just as with the loose dirt, though, I didn’t lose my balance any more or less than other people around me – which I’ll gladly take as an acceptable level of performance.


5. Durability

For all of the people who argue about the need for “rugged” trail shoes, a scene I witnessed at mile 90 will hopefully be somewhat instructive: inside the aid station, I saw a runner (a guy I happen to know personally) taping his “hardcore” trail shoes – I won’t say what brand, but you’ve definitely heard of them - together with duct tape, after the uppers had torn apart when he tripped across a branch.

With leather uppers, I certainly wasn’t worried about my RunAmocs tearing off my feet. Rather, the limitation I was most concerned about was how quickly the outsole traction would wear down. On my everyday training pairs, I start to notice a difference in the grippiness of the trail outsole after about 200 miles, and they usually need to be replaced somewhere between 300 and 400 miles. If I could make one improvement in the RunAmocs, it would be for the outsole to last for several hundred miles, just as the Vibram outsoles on the Merrell Barefoot line or the New Balance Minimus do.

5mm trail outsole after 100 miles (and a good rinsing)

Fortunately, this was a concern I could do something about, in that I ordered a new pair of mocs just a couple of weeks before the race, so I knew I was running at “full grip” throughout the race. With that peace of mind, I honestly didn’t have any worries about whether my mocs were tough enough to last 100 miles.


6. Foot problems?

Remember when I said that I was talking about the benefits of minimalist running with some volunteers while sitting in a chair at the finish line? One of the statements I heard in response was, “I’ll believe it when I see your feet.”

Well, she asked for it …

Swollen, slightly cut up ... but actually not too bad

I figured it was better to show a foot picture from the day after the race, when the red areas would be a bit more pronounced than they were immediately after the run. What you see here is a pencil-eraser-sized abrasion on my R third toe, and one about half that size on my L second toe. I only felt the one on the right during the race, and only then during the last 30 miles or so.

There was also a dime-sized blister on the tip of my R big toe, which was the exact same area that was a hot spot during the Miwok 100K, but never materialized into a blister at that race. I felt this area during the latter stages at Tahoe, but it wasn’t severe enough to make me pull over and address it. You can also see some discoloration of my R big toenail, but it’s not loose at all, and I’m fairly certain it’s going to stay in place.

It’s tempting to say that these look bad, but keep in mind that during my other 100-mile races in traditional footwear, I had pretty significant blister problems, and I ended up losing several toenails each time. Therefore, the RunAmoc result is actually a nice improvement. I attribute the abrasions to the fact that I started with a virtually new pair of mocs, and therefore didn’t give the leather uppers enough time to stretch like they normally do after I’ve worn them for several training runs.

What you can’t see here is the bottom of my feet, which also became fairly sore during the race. I have significant calluses across the base of my toes on both feet, and beginning at around mile 70 or so, those calloused areas began to feel tender and hot. They never progressed to the point of blistering, but the pain was significant enough to slow my stride down somewhat. The next day, they remained fairly tender, but by two days later they had hardened up again just fine.

Another noteworthy observation from the picture above is how swollen my feet and ankles became after the race; normally, you can see the bones and veins in my foot pretty prominently. Obviously this is a sign that there was some cumulative trauma to the area, but again, this is comparable with what I experienced after my 100-milers in regular footwear as well. The lesson? 100 miles is hard on your feet, no matter what you do (or don’t do) to try and protect them.


7. Would I do it again?

There’s an old saying – or maybe there isn’t, and I’m just making this up – that just because you got away with doing something once, that doesn’t mean you should try to do it again. Now that the 100-mile thing is all said and done, it’s a fair question to wonder whether I’d do the same thing again, or whether I’d recommend moccasins for someone else for their own 100-mile effort. In my opinion, the answer is double-faceted: there’s a comfort and performance issue, as well as the more intangible consideration of how your footwear contributes to your overall enjoyment of running.

I mentioned in my race preview post that RunAmocs probably wouldn’t be at the top of my list when it comes to high-performance minimalist footwear. If I were racing shorter distances and focused on specific time goals or age group awards, I’d probably go with another shoe. However, the mocs lend themselves very easily to cautious, gentle, relaxed running – which is exactly the mental approach you need to get through 100 miles. So if your goal is just to make it through the distance – which, for 99% of us, it should be – the RunAmocs are more than adequate to get the job done.

I find their comfort to be outstanding, with one important caveat: it takes a very long time to build up to these distances without feeling a bit thrashed at times. Even after doing this barefoot/minimalist thing for a couple of years, the edge of my comfort zone seems to be about 50M; the handful of times I’ve ventured beyond that threshold, I started having some minor foot/ankle comfort issues. I suspect that something with a little more cushioning would be advantageous in that regard, but for the time being it’s a tradeoff I’m willing to make.

Job done!

In the end, it comes down to doing what feels right – and for me, there’s simply no other minimalist shoe that makes me feel more connected, both physically and mentally, to the trail beneath my feet. My RunAmocs greatly enhance the pleasure I take from running, which is why I wouldn’t hesitate to use them for another 100-miler someday*.

(*I’m not saying there will be; I’m planning to just savor this one for a while. But you never know.)

8. Audience participation

I’ve spelled out what I thought were the primary issues with my moccasins, but there are probably a few aspects I’m overlooking. I’d be happy to answer any other questions about my RunAmoc adventure in the comments section below, so feel free to ask me anything and I’ll double back to answer as soon as I’m available.



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