The Bladerunners

THE BLADERUNNERS
About half a year back when I was due to replace my Adizero Tempo, I was scouring the market to see what’s new with running shoes and one brand caught my eye – K-Swiss. I actually first saw it some time ago while in the LRT when a young chap walked in with a nice dynamic looking shoe. It had 4-bands so it couldn’t be Adidas. It was not until some of my runner frens started using K-Swiss that I finally found out which brand it was.

Note: I did end up replacing my old Adizero Tempo with another Tempo back in Oct last year (during the Adidas Refresh Your Gear promo) coz Frank told me the yellow model of BLR won’t be available in Msia until March this year, and my old Adizero Tempo has had more mileage than it should be.

The Blade Light Run (BLR) caught my eye – in particular the yellow model (below) – probably due to it’s bold colors, dynamic shape and it’s close proximity to the weight of Adizero (which is a very light trainer). I don’t run longer-than-10K races but still, I do not want to lug around a brick on my feet everytime I run. 😛

In the early days, it was difficult buying a K-Swiss here since there’s no one retailing the shoes locally. Everyone I knew who had this shoe bought them from overseas; usually S’pore or HK. You won’t have that problem now since Runnerz Circle (run by Frank Chong) carries (almost) the full range of K-Swiss running shoes.

I didn’t get around to asking Frank what’s the story behind the Mashimaro but it was displayed rather prominently at the front of his shop. 😛

Frank’s store is in Kota Damansara which is kinda far from where I stay… so I’ve been dilly dallying about getting to his shop to look-see at the K-Swiss shoes. The Race Pack collection for the Energizer Night Run (ENR) on the 10th April at Tropicana Mall gave us an opportunity to swing around to his store. The ENR event itself is another big fubar story altogether (will save it for another blog entry).

It was not hard finding our way to Runnerz Circle in Kota Damansara – well, a Garmin nuvi sure helped made things easier. His store was opened a couple months back and I can see that Frank has now keep his shop well-stocked with all types of clothing & accessories for runners – and also triathletes. 😀

But we are here for the shoes and it’s close to closing time (5pm). 😛 So we promptly get down to business. He took out a few sizes of the Yellow BLR for me to try out, and I finally found one size that fits me.

The array of K-Swiss shoes available from Runnerz Circle. As you can from the above picture, Frank has one pair of the latest Kwicky Blade Light shoes in his store but we were told that was a trial pair from K-swiss and this shoe won’t be available here until later.

Anyway I’ve already made up my mind long ago to get the Yellow Blade (even though I already have bought a replacement for my Adizero Tempo). No harm having another pair of good running shoes. This shoe looks like I could use it on race day which would then mean it can replace my aging Adizero Ace.

Waiyan also found the Blade Light Run to her liking and decided to get the red colored lady version of the BLR. Haha.. Good for Frank then, a quick double sales!

I took the BLR for a short run at KLCC Park the following Sunday to see how it would go with my feet before using it for the actual race day on the 16th (Energizer Night Run). The shoe fitted snugly and was very good to run in. Can feel the support when my foot hits the ground.

Another aspect of the Blade Light Run is their “drainage” technology – you see those pores in the shoes? – where supposedly even if you stepped into a pool of water, the heavy water would drain itself out from the shoes and avoid turning the shoes into a heavy wet lump.

I did not manage to test this out – and not that I’m keen to do so (hehe) – but Jamie Pang has written a very good review that explained this “drainage” part of the shoe. You might want to read Jamie’s review if you are keen to find out more.

I’ve since used this shoe for two race days – hehe.. the only two races I ever did for 2011 so far (been real busy la!) – which were the Energizer Night Run and the recently concluded Borneo International Marathon. I did the 10K in both races and maintained a consistent (and slow! hah) 6-min pace in both races and I felt the shoes gave me tremendous support.

Waiyan has the same positive remarks for her red BLR. So yes if anyone asks us, this Blade Light Run comes highly recommended by us. But now the Kwicky is slowly turning our heads… hehe.

Btw if you fancy some t-shirts – maybe as souvenir – from past local races, do drop by Runnerz Circle as they have a Frank and Jamie’s corners (see below) of past races’ t-shirts available for sale. 🙂

Till next time.