New trail/fell shoes

I started running more than 15 years ago, but I'm still only on my second pair of trail/fell shoes. I suppose there are two reasons for that. One is that you just don't wear them out so quickly; mud and grass are hardly as abrasive as asphalt. The other one is that I am predominantly a road runner. I have worn out so many road shoes over the years!

I bought my first pair of off-road shoes in a shop. I just bought the ones with the biggest lugs they had. But later I developed a habit of buying my shoes secondhand, and my second pair (bought just before a trail 10k) was a bit less luggy. But I really like grip. So when these shoes were showing signs of old age, I decided my next pair should be more grippy.

I am in the position to try several of them out. On a fairly regular basis, there is a demo event where we can borrow a particular (new) model of trail shoes and try it out on the hill. I had really liked the Inov8 mud claws. I hadn't bought a pair at the end of the event, as I wanted to try both the regular model and the wide one. Maybe they could have provided me with that, but among the shoes I could see these options are not available. I probably should have been a bit more proactive! 

With spring well on its way, I figured we would soon go back off the road on the Thursday nights. I should be ready for that, with new shoes. I intended to they just get to Llanberis early enough one Thursday to get there before the shop close, and sort out my mud claws. But then there suddenly was a demo event of Altra. The shoes were fine, but not quite what I wanted to buy. But after the run but before the prize draw, I had a mooch in the rest of the shop. And I noticed that there was a sale going on with running shoes. And there were some seriously grippy models! And they had my size. I suppose everybody in the world has bigger feet than me.

I tried the two grippiest shoes. The pretty one didn't have a good fit. The ugly one did! And prettiness doesn't matter. And the people in the shop were totally fine with selling me a pair of shoes that were not Altras. So now I am sorted! Sorry Inov8. Maybe next time. And wish me luck in the new off-road season!