First Run New Balance Beacon 2 – 7/21/19

Sometimes it is just better to stick with what works for you when you are a runnah. However, most of us usually want to try the newest and greatest – next big thing, especially when it comes to running shoes.

I know that is how I am…well 90% of the time, the other 10% I actually think about what I am doing, well sort of, kind of, maybe. 🙂

Bennie was nice to me and ordered a pair of New Balance Beacon 2 for my birthday which is in a few weeks. I had been whining as usual about how none of my daily trainers were working with or is that against my Tailor’s Bunionette. So in his infinite wisdom (he can be smarter than I am at times), he remembered how well I ran in the Beacon v1 and figured that I would run well in the Beacon v2 also.

Well, I went back to the Beacon v1 last week as my primary trainer and miraculously the discomfort in my right foot went away. I was able to run comfortably all week, without having to go into suck it up running mode – always a great thing.

Unfortunately, my Beacon v1 are also rather long in the tooth with almost 350 miles and had been retired to lawn duty before I started running in them again. Which means they don’t look too purty and don’t have a lot of grip left on the outsole. However, they didn’t hurt my feet when I ran in them, but I did notice they felt just a bit tired.

This morning, I decided to get the Beacon v2 out of the box and see how they felt compared to the V1. I kind of like the wider feel of the V1, but have a feeling that after I break in the v2 that won’t be an issue. However, the big difference was that the B2s felt lively and were begging me to run in them.

The temp was above 90*F and when you add in the high humidity…well I headed for the Planet Fitness treadmill. Which is probably just as well, since I ran in the v1 yesterday on one, so I would have a recent similar run to compare the B2 too.

I did 4.0 miles a 6.7 mph and everything felt great, the fit was excellent, after the first half mile I forgot about the shoes and just ran – which is all I want from my shoes. At 4.0 miles I decided to do some strides at faster than my hoped for race pace to see how the shoes felt at the faster paces.

This is where the Beacon v1 really showed their mileage and felt pretty much dead underfoot. With the Beacon v2 there was no deadness, they felt lively and didn’t have that bottoming out feeling that I seemed to remember even when the v1 were new. The B2s felt light underfoot and the body enjoyed being able to run at the faster pace without the shoes getting in the way.

I guess that is the biggest thing that I can say about the Beacon v2, is that they don’t get in my way when I am running. They are a pretty straight forward, not too many bells and whistles kind of shoe that just gets the job done for me.

Although I would have preferred a bit more color, the Beacon line-up seems to be lacking the bright colors that I prefer and instead has boring colorways. Oh well as long as they run great, I can’t complain that much about the boring colorway.

The reality is that

Yeah, sometimes the newest and greatest is cool, but I am learning ever so slowly that maybe it is time to just use what works most of the time and experiment a lot less. Maybe I will get to enjoy my runs more and who knows not spend quite as much money on running shoes that end up being given away.