i2runner

Nike Lunar Racer Review

In order to run a faster 5K someday, one of takbo.ph’s speed king Ritchie Alava advised me to buy racing flats. Shoes that first came to my mind were adizero rocket, RC, PRO, and mizuno ronin and musha. These racing flats look really hot and light, but they also look like I could only wear them for 5K’s as long as I run them really fast, I should be OK. Fair enough. Thinking these racing flats were all equally unstable with minimal support, cushioning, and weight, I would have to choose the lightest of them all. So I googled, and was surprised with what I’ve found. Below is the table of my compilation of racing flats weight comparison, in size9:

I initially wanted the hot-looking adizero rocket, but when I saw that the lightest racing flat was the Mizuno Wave Universe 3, I tried to contact Mizuno locally but got no response. Then the next lightest racing flat was the Lunar Racer! I got so excited and called Nike Bonifacio High Street and spoke to someone by the name of “Mutya”, and she told me they have all sizes available. I remembered about 6months ago that they didn’t have anymore stock of these, so I knew they were endangered. I quickly went to their store as soon as I could commute from work.

First Impressions
When I held the shoes in my hands, they felt like I was holding styrofoams! They were incredibly light. I got the size 9.5-US, and the forefoot were really snug-tight, my toes had no room to move at all. However, the tight toes seem to support my forefoot, I thought these are going to be great for forefoot sprinting, great for 5K finishing kicks. I read somewhere that tight narrow forefoot shoes are typical of racing flats. The heel is noticeably lower too, therefore the heel-to-toe difference seems minimal, hence the name “flats”. However, the shoes look so meek, unlike the agressive looking Mizuno Ronins and Musha.

Test Run
These ultra-light shoes seems to allow me to increase my leg-turnover rate therefore increasing my pace significantly with less effort. I feel I was about 30seconds/mile faster with these ultra-light flats. The cushioning is superior, they feel as soft and comfortable as the Lunar Trainers and Glides. Of course, they have the same Lunarlite foam. The ability to run fast with these shoes became so addicting that even during easy/recovery runs, I was running at 5K race pace. Days later, I got sick with coughs and colds because of not slower on easy days. (Actually I even ran hard on Christmas morning with these shoes when I was already sick, just because they were temptingly good. Please don’t tell anyone.)

I didn’t like the flywire, because I had high bony arches that gets hurt with too much pressure on the flywire. I bypass these flywires with my lacing technique.

But after 3 days with these racers, I developed blisters on my forefoot and little toe due to rubbing. I guess these shoes does need to get proper breaking-in.

42K racing flats?
The cushioning’s so soft, they’re unlike most minimalist racing flats that have intimidatingly thin cushioning that seems to break your legs if you run the marathon. After all, even Haile Gebrselassie’s adizero adios isn’t a racing flat but a lightweight performance trainer. I wonder how well he’ll race with the lunar racers. When I thought racing flats, I thought of only 5K’s and 10K’s. Now after trying these shoes, I’m convinced I’ll wear them on 42K races. After all, these are the shoes Duncan Kibet wore in the Rotterdam Marathon (3rd fastest Marathon of all time), Dathan Ritzenhein in the Beijing 2008 Marathon, Kara Goucher in NY and Boston Marathons, and BaldRunner in Milo 42K finals.

Lunar Racers in 42K races

Duncan Kibet - 2nd fastest Marathoner of all time

Racers vs Trainers
There have been reports of some runners preferring the racers over the racers even during their training workouts including long runs. There are even reports in the forums of the racers even reaching 1,000miles! I don’t know if they’re true, but the racers does seem to threaten the trainers in my daily run. The following are the comparisons:

Weight (my weighing scale can’t detect the racers!)

There are more BRS1000 Outsole Black Rubber. This makes the racer more durable for longer mileage, and better traction for greater acceleration. There are also smaller lugs or “waffles” that makes the racer better for wet running.

The Racer has a more narrow forefoot, unlike the roomier trainer.

The racer has a lower heel, but not significantly, so its mileage is probably going to be the same, if not better than the trainer.

PROs:
Ultra-Lightweight – Lightest Running Shoe available in Metro Manila as of this writing (unless Mizuno releases the Wave Universe 3). I hope I could run a sub-20minute 5K someday with these racers.
Great Cushioning – Just like the Lunar Trainers. Will not kill you for races longer than 10K, unlike other intimidating racing flats out there.
Excellent Forefoot Support – What a racing flat should be.
Marathon Racing Flats – Bald Runner has run a 3:48 marathon with these flats.

CONs:
Not for everyone – it doesn’t have the arch support or motion control needed by over-pronators. You can try inserting orthotics though.
Narrow forefoot – wide footed runners may need to choose 1/2 to 1.0 size higher to accomodate wider forefoot, but this may add additional weight, defeating the purpose of weigh reduction. Lunar Trainers are a good alternative.
Cushioning too soft?- May be undesirable for heavier runners. Lightweight runners can enjoy this.
Boring design – it doesn’t look like a kick-ass racing shoe like adizero rocket or mizuno ronin2.
Endangered Specie- These are becoming rare, I only found this in Nike Bonifacio High Street after waiting for months, with an expensive price tag of P5,500.00.

Conclusion and Recommendation:
Recommended for narrow-footed lightweight runners who want to run faster with no over-pronation problems. The shoes also needs some time for proper breaking-in, or else suffer some blisters during the race. You may also want to wait next for year, there is a coming Lunar Racer2 rumored to be available in 2010, slightly heavier though. Probably a strand of hair heavier.

Other Lunar Racer reviews:
http://baldrunner.com/2008/10/31/shoe-review-nike-lunaracer/
http://www.shaunchng.com/blogs/2008/11/04/nike-lunarlite-flywire-racer-review-first-impressions
http://roadtonycm.blogspot.com/2008/10/nike-lunaracer-review.html