First runs in a shoe can be a lot of things, today’s first runs in the Salomon Predict RAs was a mixed bag, some things that I really loved, other things made me go mmmmm and the shoe laces, well they had to go.

I wasn’t going to get these out until my birthday in a couple of weeks, but I am not all that happy with any of the shoes that planned on using as my daily trainers until then. Yeah, I could have sucked it up and used my Beacon v1s, but while I love those as a rotation shoe, they are not my daily mileage hogs.

It was one of those hot, miserable days for a run, so it was a perfect day to introduce a new pair of shoes to the body. Yes, I could immediately feel a difference underfoot, almost similar to the Nike Free, but not as loosey goosey under the foot. That was a good thing. It took about a mile to get a comfortable stride going in them. It is almost as though the Predict RA asks you to play around a little with it to see what seems to work well with it.

Going down the steep part of Philbrick Hill was not an issue, but I did have to stop and adjust the right laces a little, I hadn’t tightened them up enough to give a locked in feel to the heel cup (or else the laces stretched slightly). Once I got down to the stop sign I had to stop again to loosen up the left forefoot lacing, it was just a little too snug. Once I did that things seems to settle down pretty good until I was past the 2.0 mile mark.

At that point the bottom of my feet started to bother and by the time I got back to the Philbrick stop sign the right foot was bothering pretty good. I stopped and played with the loosening up the lacing at the forefoot and that seemed to help going up the hill.

Going up the hill felt okay, but the bottom of both feet were bothering more than I wanted. I finished the run and like I said my first impressions of the Predict RA was a mixed bag.

The good

I love how the cushioning feels, firmish, but comfortable, which is what I am looking for.

Quality workmanship and I could probably go sockless in these shoes and might try it a few times to see.

They seem wide enough not to bother my Tailor’s Bunionette.

Quiet, I love a shoe that runs quiet, I hate shoes that make me sound like an old clod horse.

At 8.8 ounce, they are exactly where I want my daily trainers to weigh. Just enough protection to keep me fit, but not so heavy that they get in the way of my running.

The Bad

The bottom of my feet after 2.0 miles never felt right. I have to think about which socks I have been wearing when this occurs, because it also happened to with my Inspire 15s and is one of the reasons I am not wearing them. Socks do make a difference.

Laces – the color just blends into the shoe, which make a boring colorway even more boring. I also have a feeling that they are going to be finicky about how they lace up for me as far as the snugness/looseness goes. If I do not have them pretty close then I will have to stop or deal with to snug or too loose shoes.

The reality is that

Not all first runs are great in a pair of shoes. I would not have wanted to run a 10 miler out of the box in them, it would have been miserable and in this kind of weather. I did that a few years ago in a pair of Saucony Zealots and it ruined any chance of those shoes working for me. I don’t do longer run as a first run anymore 3-4 miles is far enough to figure out how the shoe does and what needs work if anything.

There are a lot of things that I really liked about the Predict RA and am hopeful that I can get the bottom of my feet issue figured out (a good pair of socks will probably help a great deal). I did change out the laces, so hopefully that resolves a couple things as well.

No raving about how great the Salomon Predict RA is at this point, but I can see a lot of potential good in these shoes for me. I seem to remember a pair of Nike Frees that I had pretty much the same experience with their first run and they went on to become a pair of my favorite trainers.

Hopefully, that will be the case for the Predict RAs, time will tell.

Oh yeah, the run itself was one of those slow painful ones where the temps were 80*F, humidity at 55% and a real feel of almost 90*, so even if I had wanted to this was not going to have been a faster run. I didn’t get to survival shuffle, but a few times I thought about walking it home.

Split	Time
1.0	9:07
2.0	9:18
3.0	10:13
4.0	9:14

Like I said it was just a slow run where I learned a bit about the Salomon Predict RA.