To be fair, the Spring 2012 shoe models from many companies are not yet widely available and I have not yet tried them all. Reviews are starting to appear on the web and some of the forthcoming shoes do look interesting. However, they would have to be really completely awesomely perfect to knock the Soft Star Shoes Moc3 off the top of my best minimalist shoes list.

The Moc3 provides only minimal protection, no cushion. I have a tendency to increase my leg pounding as the level of cushion in a shoe increases (and my ability to feel the ground decreases). The Moc3 keeps me true to barefoot form but at the same time provides a fiction barrier to allow me to run more miles. The sole is made by Vibram and is the "street sole" used by Soft Star in their RunAmocs. The Moc3 sole has interesting cutouts that increase the flexibility of the shoe and reduce weight. The gaps in the outsole material are still protected with a thin flexible sole material that Soft Star uses in some of their other shoes. I have not yet been poked by anthing that snuck past the vibram.

The soles looked fine after the first 200 miles of mostly road/sidewalk miles and it is even still possible to make out the word "Vibram" at the ball of the foot:



I have owned the shoes for about 7 months and I am glad to see they will be usable for many more miles.

I spent time over the holidays in Austin, Texas. Austin has some wonderful trails and greenways. I entered the Barton Springs Greenbelt at its Zilker Park trailhead, parking the car near the Barton Springs Pool facility.

I have to digress and mention that Zilker Park is just great. Children and adults alike can entertain themselves for hours. Besides the wide open spaces and nature trails, there is an awesome playground, ball fields, a train, and even climbing rocks. Notable events that happen there include the Zilker Park Kite Festival and the Austin City Limits Music Festival.

So back to the running... I had not traveled very far along the trail before finding rocks sticking out of the path. At this point I was already glad that I had opted to wear my Altra Lone Peak trail shoes. It turns out that these scattered rocks were only a small taste of what was to come.



And then the trail became rockier...

The other day I snapped a photo of the awesome wall of shoes at Lloyd Clarke Sports:





This really deserves a wide angle lens rather than my little smart phone camera.

The shoe choices are amazing and include many minimalist shoes. I continue to hope that they will start carrying Altra Zero Drop shoes.

A few people have asked how many shoes I have. Ever since running became one of my primary recreational activities, shoes have become a significant hobby of mine. I used to spend money on things like video games and computer gadgets. Now I spend money on shoes.

Here is a picture of all of the shoes that I originally bought for the purpose of running (Oops! Missing from the photo are Nike Free Run+ which I gave away. Also missing are my bare feet!):



Pictured Top Row (from Left to Right): Mizuno Wave Universe 3 (MWU3), Vibram FiveFingers (VFF) Bikila, New Balance Minimus Road MR10, Adidas Kanadia 3, Invisible Shoes huarache sandals

Pictured Bottom Row (from Left to Right): Soft Star Shoes RunAmoc DASH Smooth, Soft Star RunAmoc LITE, Soft Star Moc3, Inov-8 Bare-X 150, Altra Instinct, Altra Instinct black, Altra Adam, Altra Lone Peak

And here is the mileage that I have on each shoe:

On Thanksgiving I ran the local Gainesville Turkey Trot 10k, sponsored by Lloyd Clarke Sports.

I chose to race in my Soft Star RunAmoc DASH shoes, pictured here with the race t-shirt:



A significant portion of the course was beautiful grass or trail. It very much reminded me of a High School Cross Country course. There were nice arrows painted every few meters and some sections were marked with tape:



My RunAmocs (with the 5mm trail sole) really enjoyed the grass. Out of all my shoes, these RunAmocs with the Vibram trail sole get the best traction on surfaces that look like this: