CAUTION This trail is Strenuous! Inov-8 Roclite 268 review

Summer of 2013 Mother/Daughter camping road trip

I spent the summer traveling & camping in a tent with my 13 year old daughter.  I feel pretty darn lucky she still likes to hang out with me so I took full advantage of it with a good old fashioned Mother/daughter road trip! We are both outdoorsy gals that love to spend the day hiking and running trails- then ending it around a campfire cooking a good burger and roasting marshmallows.

We left on our trip with no definite plan.  I handed my daughter the Garmin GPS and a few travel brochures and said "pick a State or National park, where every you want to go and we are on our way!" She would choose, type it in the Garmin, and then I drove where ever it told me to go. We traveled through Wisconsin, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois & more... We had tons of fun every where we went but my daughter had a clear favorite park. Petit Jean State Park in Arkansas. It has awesome trails with beautiful mountain overlooks! 

Inov-8 Roclite 268

This sign screams...I dare you...RUN THIS TRAIL!!!

Traveling to all these parks was exciting! I got to wear my Roclite 268's on many different kinds of terrain. 

This was a fun uphill- I suggest clicking on the picture to enlarge to see how rocky the course is

The picture above is on the Cedar Falls trail at Petit Jean Mountain. The trail head of this challenging trail has the bright read sign that says "CAUTION THIS TRAIL IS STRENUOUS- If you have health problems you are advised not to hike this trail". How can a runner read this and not think? Run me! Run me!!  It is a 2+ mile round trip. The trail goes on a steep downhill to the Cedar Fall waterfall. It's 3/4 of a mile downhill, then some flat trails that run along a river with anything from smooth dirt to big rocks. The trail ends at the waterfall. Then you get to turn around and run back up! The run back was my favorite part! Everyone was walking so they all thought I was a little crazy (can't deny it, I am), I had fun giving it my all !

I love these trails!

I wore my trusty Inov-8 Roclite 268's. These are the trail shoes that I wear for 100 mile races to 5 mile speed runs. On this day I would try them on a quick run across slick sandstone,  wet rocks, steep inclines, moss covered trail. Some pretty challenging stuff.  The Roclite's, gripped and held my feet in place perfect! They proved many times to be a great all around trail shoe.

My feet measure a 10 female, medium width. I always size up for running shoes since I am a long distance runner and my feet tend to swell. I buy the Roclite 268's in a women's size 11. They fit comfortably snug at my ankles, heels and at the top of my foot by my shoe laces. This is perfect for holding my feet and ankles in place. Then the shoe widens out in the toe box. This gives me enough room for the swelling of my feet, but they are not so loose my feet are moving around in the shoes. The toes have a flexible non bulky heavy duty piece of rubber on them that is great for protecting my toes when I inevitably catch a rock or root. The sole is lightweight, sticky, and easily bendable. They grip to everything and give me a solid "feel" of the trail while giving my feet a comfortable ride.  I run confidently knowing they are going to stick, hold my feet in place and breathe.

Inov-8 Roclite 268's are my perfect trail shoe! 

This is a smooth part of the trail 

I love this rock path!

If it ain't rainin' It ain't training!!!

I thought my Inov-8 shoes looked awesome all decorated up with  MUDD and sweat! Only 23 miles of trail running could get them looking this good!

Thanks Tim Kruse & Carl Galdine for getting me through a few really tough miles. 

I had a great training run on the famous Ice Age trail in Wisconsin this weekend with my friends Tim & Carl.  We started from Emma Carlin parking lot, which is the turn around area for the Ice Age 50 mile race. It's a great place to start running because one direction you get some challenging hills and nice single track then you can go the other directions for some beautiful meadows. We were happy to have a hot & humid day with scattered rain storms. The trails were wet and muddy and the temperature was super hot & muggy! It was NOT an easy run, perfect for training!  We hit the meadows for the last 11 miles. We watched the rain clouds as they moved towards us, eventually soaking us down. My drenched friend Tim simply said, "if it ain't rainin" it ain't trainin"! Suddenly we were all laughing and loving the storm. We all helped one another and rocked out an awesome 23 mile training run! I wore my Trailroc 246's and they worked great on all the trail conditions!!! 

Earth Day 50k- April 22nd

Me giving Trey Robinson his first overall male trophy (He also won a free pair of Inov-8 shoes)



Race director (Me) giving Shelley Cook her first overall female trophy and a certificate for a free pair of Inov-8 shoes from Running Depot in Crystal Lake IL.



Husband and wife Relay team "K2" winner of 3rd Overall -Brian and Andrea Korte



"K2" relay team with their kids, and me



The smiling Arthur Sundry

Daniel and Beiyi, finishing Earth Day 50k after running and finishing the Double Chubb 50k the day before. Nice job on back to back 50ks!!!



The bright and sunny Carrie Tomlinson on relay team "Over the Hills and through the Woods"



Blair Piotrowski 1st time ultra finisher. Blair made 50k stickers for all the first timers!!!



Chris Boyack, from Colorado. He won a Inov-8 back pack for traveling the farthest to the race.



These guys are showing us how to run hills



Daniel Wilson from Colorado



Luis Miral

Mark Francis leading the pack, Mark ran 38 mile the day before. I'm looking forward to seeing him run Kettle 100!



Damian Nathaniel 3rd overall in 4:15:13 with John Kiser 2nd overall



Earth Day 50k finish line



Jeffery Lung and Damian Nathaniel

The hardworking timing crew, Andrea and Nick Pate 



Start/Finish line aid station



Alfredo Pedro



Beiyi Zheng from Colorado (She is Coyote Springs 100k female champion)



Chuck Schultz blazing the downhill

Cory Feign- recent finisher of Umstead 100 miler

Damian Nathaniel (2011 winner of Mohican 100) and Kamil Suran (2011 winner of Virginia Triple Iron Triathlon, and course record holder)



Jen Birkner and Edna Esposito



Jeremy Eldridge



John Kiser smiling all day long to finish 2nd overall Male in 4:13:45. He passed two people in the last couple miles of the race. Awesome performance!!!!

Karyn Weber- 2nd overall Female



Melissa Mims- 1st time ultra finisher



Mike Gasche plays the star spangle banner as everyone gathers to the starting line



Mike Johnson helping on the trails. Last July, just for the heck of it, Mike, Mark Francis and Steve Conn ran 100 miles on these same trails in under 30 hours.



Smiling faces at packet pick up

Ric and Mark Perry



Ric Nienstedt



Runnerman Dan!!!



The beautiful "Ultra Virgins"



The Epic Eric Harold 1st place AG with a smoking fast time of 5:21:26



1st overall Male and Female Trey Robinson and Shelley Cook. Shelley is training for Western States 100. Trey is her crew captain. This is a picture of her whole WS team, Matt Condron and David Zeisler.

Team "Gone fishing" 50k relay



Gregory Smith 4th AG 40-49









Jen Birkner 1st place AG 40-49

The "Machine" brings it home!!!





I'm giving Jeffery Lung his 1st place AG award and 4th overall with a time of 4:17:25