Shoe Review: Saucony Ride 10

Today I want to give an in-depth look at my current training shoe (the Saucony Ride 10), but before I can do that, I think I should provide some history on my progression through running shoes. It probably all started in high school when my mom would take me to the Lincoln Running Company in Lincoln, NE where I would be fitted for shoes. During those years, I would go through the steps that many of you are accustomed to at the 605 Running Company. I would bring in my old pair of shoes for them to look at wear patterns, try on a bunch of different pairs to see which one felt the best and walk around the store just to make sure. Sometimes I would even take them for a run down the street to test them out (since they didn’t have a treadmill). In the end, I would narrow it down to a pair or two and pick the “coolest” looking pair (it stretches my brain, but I think it was usually Nike).  Of course, cost was no issue when mom was paying for them.

Fast forward to college, and my Nike’s weren’t really cutting it anymore. I made a move to the Mizuno Wave Inspire, which felt light as a feather when compared to my prior pair.  For the next ten years, I was a die-hard Mizuno fan. I would buy pair-after-pair of Inspires, not even needing to try them on. The conversation would go like this “Do you have a pair of Mizuno Wave Inspires in 9.5?”, they would say “Yes, would you like to try them on?”, and I would say “No, I’m good”.  Every now and then, when I was in my hay-day of heavy mileage, I would have to get multiple pairs of the same style. I knew I was running a lot when I had to buy the exact same color of the exact same style because new colors/styles had not yet been released.

In fact, if you stopped by our store in Sioux Falls any time within the past few years, I may have even told you “I’ve been in Mizuno Wave Inspires for ten years and they have worked well for me.” It had become a point of pride for me that I had been so loyal to a brand for a long period of time. When my college teammates were switching between Asics, Brooks and Saucony, I stayed true to Mizuno.  Unfortunately, that changed for me about a year ago when an update was made to my shoe, and suddenly, it wasn’t the same shoe anymore. I ran a half marathon in a pair last spring, and came out of the race with a hurt foot. LET ME BE CLEAR, this was not because the shoe was defective; it had just become the wrong shoe for my foot.

From there, I tried a bunch of different shoes for running and learned that while I thought I needed a support shoe all these years (10+), a neutral fitting shoe was actually a more ideal match.  With that, a whole new world of shoes opened up to me, and I jumped around different brands and different styles to see what I might like. In just under 12 months, I have been in the Saucony Zealot (multiple pairs), the Brooks Ghost, the New Balance 1080 and the Asics GT-2000.  Just this weekend, I started up with a pair of Saucony Ride 10’s, which I’m happy to give first impressions on here:

---

Saucony Ride 10
Shoe Type:  Neutral
Sizing:  True to Size
Weight:  9.5oz
Drop:  8mm
Price:  $120.00

Comments:  I had been in a couple pairs of the Saucony Zealot that I have really enjoyed.  The Ride has a little bit more of a drop than the Zealot (8mm vs 4mm), but the weight is surprisingly similar.  I have been a huge fit of the isoFit in the past and was a little disappointed that was not a feature incorporated into the Ride. The heel and tongue are heavily padded, which I liked from a comfort point of view, but it gave it an “old school” type of feeling; almost like 100% cotton socks.   It seems like a very dependable/durable shoe in its own right, and while I own the Gray/Black/Slime color (a solid option in my opinion), the Orange/Red/Navy looks sharp as well.

Overall Grade:  B+. I like this shoe more than I thought I would, and I think it’s a very good standard training shoe. Nothing like having an “old reliable” like this in the arsenal for a training cycle.


Happy Running!

Logan

I ran the Lincoln Half Marathon on 5/7/17 in 1:21:21. It was my first race since Isla was born, and since the Good Life Halfsy in November 2016. Overall, I was happy with what I ran given my training. Looking forward to Sioux Falls Half this fall!