Hoka Evo Jawz

I have no reason to believe that the rain is going to stop anytime time soon so either I have to accept slipping and sliding as part of my trail racing or find a good trail racing shoe.

Enter the Hoka Evo Jawz trail racing shoe. Weightwise, the shoes comes in a little over 7 ounces, and the bottom of the shoes has some nice large lugs to grab the mud.

Given the heavy rain leading up to the Weird Root 10 miler, it was the perfect conditions to test them out.

General impressions, it seems to be a decent trail shoe if the intent is to use it for racing. It is not going to stop anyone from totally slipping on a muddy trail but it doesn’t slip anywhere near what my other shoes do. With one possible exception, I was slipped coming off a wet wooden bridge. I never even thought about it until I started my cut. My foot just slipped right out from under me. Luckily, I was able to maintain my balance and keep going.  

One note on the sizing, these shoes seem to run about a ½ size big. I normally wear a size 12 but with these shoes, I had some extra toe room. If I order another pair, I would definitely consider going 11 1/2.

Stories from the trails,

The Cool Down Runner