ASICS Gel Venture 8

 We had a snow storm about a week ago, and after the trail had been well-trodden by hikers, I went running on it. I wore generic Yak-Traps rubber grippers on my old running shoes. At about mile eight of my nine mile run, I found I only had a gripper on my left foot, and the right one was lost somewhere on the trail. 

First I ordered a ASICS Gecko, and it was far too small. I usually order 11 in athletic shoes and 10 in street shoes. The 11 was long enough and even wide enough, but the shoe pressed down on my hallux MTP joint enough that it hurt. (Hallus is a latinate word for big toe, and MTP is what people say when they really mean metatarsophalangeal.)

Ugly Nike Pegasus Trail shoe

I poked on running websites, and I found most people just run in their trail running shoes with no metal spikes -- they just take it easy on the ice.  

I ventured to Dick's Sporting Goods which in my community has the undersized shoe department. (Some large Dick's have supersized shoe department depending on the market.) They only had one men's trail runner shoe which was a Nike Pegasus adapted for trail running with an aqua blue rubber sole. While I have had Nike Pegasus shoes, they are not really my favorite Nike. And it was at full price at $159, but worst of all it was ugly. 

The shoe I ended up buying was a ASICS Gel Venture 8, which had plenty of space for my hallus MTP, and pretty good cleats on the bottom as you see below. 

The yellow outsole seems to be a rubber. Clearly the middle sole is a low density foam probably EVA (ethylene vinyl acetate) and is marked "GEL", and the innersole seems to good quality - perhaps polyurethane. 

In size 11, the shoe weighed 340 grams. This is close to the 338 of my current shoes, Adidas Solar Boost.