First Fell Running Shoes

[markmc]

Having seen the picture of Stolly's running shoes on the Equipment thread it got me thinking of the first pair of fell running shoes that i got which was in 1980 and were a second hand pair of red and white Walsh fell spikes, the one's with the spikes in the heels of the shoe, as well as the front of the shoe which were made in leather, and were mainly used for short fell races. Does any body else remember the first pair of fell running shoes that they bought and if they were still made would they buy a pair today. I know it may sound sad but i've still got this pair of shoes stored away in the attic.

[CL]

Having seen the picture of Stolly's running shoes on the Equipment thread it got me thinking of the first pair of fell running shoes that i got which was in 1980 and were a second hand pair of red and white Walsh fell spikes, the one's with the spikes in the heels of the shoe, as well as the front of the shoe which were made in leather, and were mainly used for short fell races. Does any body else remember the first pair of fell running shoes that they bought and if they were still made would they buy a pair today. I know it may sound sad but i've still got this pair of shoes stored away in the attic.

First pair I ever wore was 'Ron Hills Rivington Pikes'(appropriate with the race coming up).They were green with small studs in if I remember rightly.That was around 1985,I was 14

[Wheeze]

ermm ....a pair of Puma trail shoes that I had resoled with reebok studs Soon saw the light and invested in Normans Finest!

[wheezing donkey]

Spring 1983, a pair of Power Caboc cross country shoes - leather uppers and a deep, curved V ripple sole, reversed on the heels for downhill braking. Like "mark mc", another saddo - the remnants are still in the original box, up in the loft! I think that they cost around £15 from the old Riley & Braithwaite sports shop in Lancaster.
For 1984, I got myself down to Run-Inn Sports on Lee Lane, Horwich ( a guy called David Jones, I think ) and paid £23 for a pair of his made to measure "Kentmere" fell-shoes - black leather and red nylon uppers with the old "hedgehog" sole that preceded pyramid studs. The soles came away from the uppers at the finish of 3 Shires 1985 - but many happy memories of some good and arduous runs in the 18 months that they provided stirling service. Again the remnants are still in the original box, up in the loft.

[dominion]

Walsh PB Trainers. A rare(ish) breed in Blue and Silver. Circa 1996. Still one of the most comfortable running shoes I've worn straight out of the box.

[Stolly]

Well until last November I had all of my fell shoes ever in the garage. A pair of completely fcuked swoops, two pairs of shredded New Balance RX Terrains, a pair of inov8 flyroc 310's and a pair of wrecked inov8 mudclaw 330's. Unfortunately my 'silly' wife threw most of them out when we moved house.

My plan had been to line them all up and take some sort of fell shoe evolution through the ages photo but, hey ho, never mind. To be fair it would have been one boring photo

I started wearing fell shoes late in life you understand. Oh and the New Balance RX Terrains were awful on my feet and the inov8 flyrocs too big, giving me all sorts of problems running down hill. The Adidas Swoops were okay but my best fell shoes by a country mile are my current Walsh PB Trainers.

[markmc]

Spring 1983, a pair of Power Caboc cross country shoes - leather uppers and a deep, curved V ripple sole, reversed on the heels for downhill braking. Like "mark mc", another saddo - the remnants are still in the original box, up in the loft! I think that they cost around £15 from the old Riley & Braithwaite sports shop in Lancaster.
For 1984, I got myself down to Run-Inn Sports on Lee Lane, Horwich ( a guy called David Jones, I think ) and paid £23 for a pair of his made to measure "Kentmere" fell-shoes - black leather and red nylon uppers with the old "hedgehog" sole that preceded pyramid studs. The soles came away from the uppers at the finish of 3 Shires 1985 - but many happy memories of some good and arduous runs in the 18 months that they provided stirling service. Again the remnants are still in the original box, up in the loft.

That brings back memories Wd the days when you could have running shoes made to measure, i also remember having shoes made to measure the walsh "hedgehog". Another shoe that walsh made (that i still have) was the walsh "Decender" which had a green and yellow nylon upper and a rubber football studded sole. Other pairs which i had made were in 1985 when the new walsh pyramid sole came in was a pair off PB fell running boots with a silver and orange nylon upper, plus a pair of fell running boots with spikes in the front and back of sole which were in green and silver.

[Epocian]

My first pair of shoes which I used for fell running was a pair of leather Puma with a sole with moulded studs like football studs. In the 1958 Ben Race my mates and I decided to go up the Ben on the Friday prior to the race and we did this in Army boots but the run down rubbed my heels to shreds. Tried patching them with plasters
and started the race. But we were warned just before the start that if we thought we couldn’t make the summit we should abandon the race (this was the year after John Rix had fatefully died in the race). By the time I got to the Red Burn my socks were covered in blood and I was in agony so I turned back on on reaching the road at Achintee was photographed by a Scottish newspaper and on the Monday edition
was featured as ‘Ben claims its first victim in this year’s race’
See thumbnail

[jodg]

That's a cracking picture!

So how long did the whole race end up taking you?

[Stolly]

was featured as ‘Ben claims its first victim in this year’s race’
See thumbnail

I don't think Puma ever recovered from the awful publicity. Even though it was the army boots the day before!