Ever since Adidas began moving their more premium products towards their “Boost” technology, I’ve pretty much stuck with their Supernova Sequence (for durability) and Ultraboost (for comfort and pace). With the former of those no longer existing, and the latter turning into a “sock” design of dubious benefit, today I tried out these Adidas Adizero RC.

For me, these are the closest I’ve been to a minimalist shoe. To those who run barefoot, it’d probably be the opposite.

These don’t have “boost” technology, instead I believe they use the firmer “bounce” foam. This is noticeable in how little comfort the sole provides. I felt much closer to the ground, with less flex in the sole than I’m used to. Where the ground is nice smooth firm concrete, it all seems to work. In the shoddy streets maintained by our lazy council, it’s almost like you can feel every flaw in the pavement (you can’t, but it feels like it).

These shoes are much lighter than those that I’m used to and I don’t think the current dodgy nature of my leg did it justice today. The lack of weight, I think, helped my leg oddly enough in that my leg felt less like a pendulum (not something that’s a trouble on healthy legs but, right now, it doesn’t help running).

In the end, I think this shoe will prove to be a speedy short-distance runner but, as I neared the end of my 10-mile street run today I concluded that I wouldn’t want to wear it for anything over a half-marathon. For most regular runners, I think a half-marathon would be too much on them due to lack of cushioning in the sole.

The rest of the shoe is quite comfortable, but far from waterproof. At one point today I had a minor puddle-splash and my foot was immediately soaked through to the bone. I don’t like wet feet, but the light nature of the mesh upper meant that my foot dried off after a couple of miles. Often I’ll get a wet foot and it’ll stay wet for the duration, so this could be considered a bonus.

This shoe isn’t going to replace my others but, at £50, I think it’ll prove to be a capable ~10km event shoe.