New Balance 730

I went down to the Expo with the family on Sunday. The main mission was to collect the Sundown Marathon race pack for Ryo and my own. I was a bit worried as there was already a queue forming up at the entrance of the collection point at 10.45am but it was very fast and efficient when the doors swung open at 11am. Kudos for that. 25000 participants this year.....crazy.

The RunBikeSwim was also on that weekend and it was nice to see a lot of minimalist shoes there. I guess the popularity is really surging with these shoes. I bought myself a pair of NB 730 at SGD80 which I think is a pretty good price for this shoe! Saw it at Sportslink going for SGD115 with possible discount of 10% and KL did tell me that at Queensway, 25% discount was possible on the spot. I was not going to buy another shoe although I liked it but when I heard my wife saying "buy la"....that was it and pulled the trigger instantly. Also got myself a SGD15 race belt that could hold a phone, gels and the race tag as well.

It was good expo...I texted a few people to go check it out and I think JvM went as well to refill his speed arsenal.

 Nice uppers, this is the only scheme available. Refreshing but it'll get yellow pretty soon! The uppers are suspiciously 80% like the newly launched MR00....weigh slightly more but its still darn light!

The sole is not the pricey Vibram stuff, so no bling here...

"<=>" = "Less Equals More"

I am hoping that this could be my Marathon shoe....so far the feeling is good. The uppers feel more fabric than plastic, which I prefer...and the sole really feels flat and firm although its supposed to have a 3mm heel to toe. The toe box is a bit too roomy though and maybe I could have done better half a size down but I guess I'll have to live with this. I suspect this has to do with the fact that I go sockless on my runs. 

It does feel a lot like the Merrell Road Glove but only more comfortable due to the fabric insides and ever so slightly more padding. In addition, its also lacking the slight arch that I could feel in the Merrell that I never really got used to.

Did a 10km run this morning to test out the ride. It was a relatively quick run, in between hard effort and hard conversational effort....did not check the timing until the very end.

So the initial thoughts: I like the lower profile and firmer feel compared to the Kinvaras. The 730 promote forefoot landing more so than the Kinvara. I'm feeling positive about this shoe but probably still need to tweak the tightness of the laces as I could feel some possible abrasion (minimal).