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“Kenyan runners race in low-support shoes, but they mostly train in big, chunky, cushioned sneakers, just like your average, plodding Western jogger. Oddly, though, and contrary to Lee’s (Saxby) theories, these big shoes don’t force the Kenyans to run heel first. They virtually all run in a lovely, smooth forefoot-first style – what Lee would term “barefoot style.” The shoes, it seems, make no difference.Several months ago I was contacted by a rep from Adidas inquiring if I’d be interested in reviewing a few pairs of shoes from their Adizero line. At the time, I suggested that the adidas Hagio seemed to Nike Air Max Classic BW Hombre be my kind of shoe (and it has turned out to be just that – see adidas Hagio review here), but Nike Air Max 98 Femme they offered to send along a pair of the Adios 2 as well (disclosure: this shoe was a review sample provided free of charge by the manufacturer). I was really hesitant to agree to trying the Adios as it has a higher heel-forefoot differential than I typically run in (9mm drop – 24mm heel, 15mm forefoot according to Running Warehouse), but I was persuaded by the folks at adidas to give it a go. After all, it is the racing shoe worn by many of the elite African marathoners, so it couldn’t hurt to at least try the shoe worn by major marathon winners and World Record setters.I really didn’t anticipate putting a lot of miles on the Adios. I suspected I’d wear it a few times, decide that I didn’t like it, and write a review saying as much. www.ronbell.co.ukHowever, I’ve wound up running in the shoe quite a bit more than I expected(probably around 50Nike Air Max 90 Womens miles now), and am rather surprised by how it has performed.I opened this review with a quote from the soon-to-be-released book Running With the Kenyans by Anharanand Finn. I’m only about 100 pages into the book (it’s fantastic so far – you can pre-order it from Amazon if you are interested), and he writes a bit about running form and footwear (Finn made a transition to barefoot-style form just prior to moving to Iten, Kenya for six months with his family). One of the things that surprised him is that despite stories of Kenyans running barefoot, most of the high level adult runners train in big, cushy footwear. Yet, he observes, they retain barefoot-style form (presumably learned through significant barefoot running in childhood).How the heck Adidas Superstar Femme does this anecdote about Kenyan runners and their shoes relate to a review of the adidas Nike Epic React Flyknit Donne Adios? Well, I’m now about 1.5 years into my own transition to barefoot-style running form, and at this point I’ve come to find that I can run in just about anything and retain this style. I may heel strike a bit from time to time, more-so with some shoes than others, but my cadence stays high and I don’t tend to overstride regardless of the shoes on my feet. I can’t even force myself to do the heel mashing, 45 degree angle between the sole and ground that is so common in recreational runners wearing big shoes. Running in zero drop shoes now rarely causes me calf soreness. My new form seems to be ingrained, and it now just feels normal. The wear pattern on the Adios seems to support this – there is zero wear on the most posterolateral heel (Nike Air Max 97 Donne see photo below), and the wear along the lateral edge extends from the anterior heel Nike Air Max 2017 Femme to the posterior forefoot. This suggests to me a midfoot strike to a mild heel strike in the Nike Air Presto MujerAdios. Nothing like the days when I was running in heavy stability shoes with a 12mm lift – I used to trash the heels of shoes like that.