Well, to finish off my part of the thread, I ended up going for some Inov-8's again, given the both general appreciation shown for the 233's on here and lack of time to get to a running shop in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the 233's are becoming rarer than hens teeth in some sizes, so I've gone for the Road-X-Treme 198's. I suspect they will be a very similar shoe all told, but will make comment after a few runs if anyone's interested.