Borderlands Trail & Ultra Running

What are the best and worst running shoes? Inky Steve has bought more than 40 pairs of running shoes and ran almost 6,000 miles in them. He gives an honest running shoe review from someone who has paid full price for his shoes. He's an ultra runner, 5k runner, park runner, and everything in between. If you love running shoes or are curious about what to buy next, Inky Steve is a great resource.
(If you haven't already, will you give us a rating and review?)
He opens his closet for a no-holds-barred deep dive into his massive running shoes rotation spotlighting the best trail running shoes and road running shoes he's actually logged serious miles in, plus the absolute worst offenders that disappointed, fell apart, got binned early, or converted to lifestyle.
With 43 pairs detailed (mileage tracked obsessively), Inky dishes honest, no-filter verdicts on grip, bounce, durability, style, longevity, and real-world performance in Manchester mud, long ultras, and everything in between.
Top 10 (Most Miles):
1. Nike | Vaporfly Next % | 535 miles
2. HOKA | Tecton X2 | 404 miles
3. Nike | Vaporfly Next% 2 | 382 miles
4. HOKA | Rocket X2 | 335 miles
5. ASICS | Superblast | 260 miles
6. Adidas | Adizero Adios Pro 3 (2) | 247 miles
7. Adidas | Adizero Prime X Strung | 228 miles
8. Nike | Alphafly | 231 miles
9. Adidas | Prime X Strung 2 | 204 miles
10. HOKA | Tecton X2 (2) | 204 miles

Bottom 10 (least miles):
35. Altra | FWD | 27 miles
36. HOKA | Carbon X2 | 25 miles
37. Nike | Rival XC Spikes | 18 miles
38. Norda | 002 RX:CCD | 13 miles
39. SATISFY | Rocker | 12 miles
40. Saucony | Elite 2 sample | 11 miles
41. Nike | Pegasus 41 | 9 miles
42. Speedland | GS:PGH | 9 miles
43. Norda | 001:TAM | 7 miles
44. HOKA | Rocket x2 limes | 5 miles

By Brand:
1. Nike | 1,774 miles
2. HOKA | 1,318 miles
3. Adidas | 1,071 miles
4. ASICS | 390 miles
5. New Balance | 311 miles
6. Speedland | 287 miles
7. Norda | 163 miles
8. Under Armour (Speedland Collab) | 136 miles
9. Brooks | 124 miles
10. Mount to Coast | 45 miles
11. Altra | 27 miles
12. SATISFY | 12 miles
13. Saucony | 11 miles

Presented by Kiprun.
Chapters
02:06 Inky Steve's Top Five Running Shoes
06:09 The Importance of Shoe Longevity and Functionality
08:56 Brand Preferences and Shoe Mileage
14:06 Lifestyle Shoes vs. Performance Shoes
20:00 Honest Shoe Reviews
24:15 Number One Trail Shoe Recommendation
28:09 Hoka Mafate X Shoe for 50 Milers
30:50 The Importance of Running Shoe Drainage
34:09 The Ultra Running Experience
38:50 The Impact of Shoe Design on Performance
44:20 Shoe Iterations: What to Keep and What to Scrap

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Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races | 30 May 2026

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It's easy to love trail running this time of year because in the northern hemisphere we're leaving winter for spring and all the good feelings of hope that come with it.
I want to add to that good will and sentiment by naming the 10 things the I love about trail running right now not the least of which is ACTUAL trail and ultra running.
01:23 ACTUAL trail running
10:48 Ultratrail Race Season
13:39 Running to "Overcome"
16:23 Ciele Athletics
18:39 Trail Shoe Design
24:05 Scrappy Trail Running Brands
30:37 Meme Culture
35:08 Tommie Runz
36:21 Taylor Bodin (dirt division) + Josh Bouton (meta endurance)
38:27 Inky Steve, Stan Van Kemmel, Bryce Carlson, Sam Lohse

Presented by Kiprun.
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Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races | 30 May 2026

If you enjoy this content, please follow, rate, and review. It's free for you and incredibly valuable for our goals.

The story of Ciele Athletics is equal parts right place and right time plus a keen eye for what's happening and need in the running market. Ciele became one of the brands worn by all types of runners from road to trail to ultra runners to park runners. It was a running brand that made all other running brands elevate their branding efforts.
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Jeremy Bresnen founded Ciele Athletics Inc./Ciele Athlétique Inc. with Mike Giles in 2014 in the now-great running city of Montreal. I started running around 2012 and clearly remember seeing Ciele on the shelf at Salt Lake Running Company circa 2015.
I bought a hat almost instinctively and no doubt irresistibly.
I wasn't sure I wanted to even run in it yet becuase I loved it so much and didn't want to ruin it from the 100 degree July days. Eventually I bought a second Ciele hat - one for running and one for around town.
It was the first brand I wore while not running to signal to everyone that I was a runner. Ciele transcended any single type of running and permeated anywhere runners cared about performance and style - road, trail, and track from 5k to ultra distances.
They emerged with a cohort of brands still going today like Tracksmith, Oiselle, Janji, and SATISFY. This co-hort of early 2010s brands were all seeing something similar - people were not simply running - they were runners.
Jeremy Bresnen tells the story of Ciele while on a long walk with me from founding to today with thoughts on the future. From the days of hats-only to today where they create all sorts of running apparel and different styles of hats all built around performance first then style.
Presented by Kiprun.
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High Tones Substack by Sam Lohse
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Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races | 30 May 2026

Camille Herron has built an incredible resume in ultrarunning filled with trophies and world records. She is an endurance and ultra running [world] Record Collector on the road, trail, and track.
She's committed to pushing back the boundaries and guardrails put on women's sports with a list of accomplishments that should make anyone listen.
Enjoy this conversation about Camille's great accomplishments with emphasis on Lululemon's 6 Day event, Spartathalon, Comrades, IAU Championships, and more.
Some takeaways:
Camille switched from road to trail + felt at home
She sets mini goals during races to make it feel attainable
Pain perception [or lack thereof] is her superpower
She caps long runs at two hours during training
Training should be tailored to individual needs
[especially for neurodivergent athletes]
The camaraderie in ultra running welcomes everyone.
Spartathlon and Comrades connect runners to a rich history + heritage

She believes she has many record breaking years ahead of her - what are her goals?
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Josh brings back the classic Borderlands [DFL Before DNF - iykyk] question for Camille - "how do you keep going when you want to quit?" No doubt in Camille's intense and rigorous endurance records she has wanted to quit but hasn't. So how does she keep going?
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A few years ago she noticed that she could incredible race output from decreasing her long runs down to 2 hours max. She later found a French author and researcher who wrote a book as he chased the idea.
After adopting it, Camille has enjoyed less injuries and an overall increase in performance.
[Hosts note: Candidly, we set out to talk about the not-so-recent 'Wikipedia situtation' but as the conversation was going I decided to stay in the moment of celebrating an unbelievable career. I hope to have Camille on multiple times in the coming years where we can talk about this and so many other things important to her and ultra running.]
Presented by Kiprun.
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Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races | 30 May 2026

When we run short distances, it makes sense to think of what we eat and drink and nutrition, but when we run really long distances we need to consider nourishment. Jesse Rich, nutritionist to elite ultra runners, reframes endurance nutrition to thinking about endurance nourishment.
In efforts under 24 hours, its reasonable to thinkg about it in simple terms of 'nutrition' but in these big multi-day ultra running efforts where you're sleep-deprived and putting enormous pressure on your system you have to think about nourishment. At some point you have to go beyond considering electorlytes and begin considering all the nutrients - fat, protien, etc.
How many calories do we burn in a 100 miler?
How many calories are our body burning in days following without effort?
How efficiently are we absorbing calories after one day of consecutive endurance effort?
Is there a connection between sleep and absorbing nutrition?
When you are at a nutritional deficiency in a race, can you catch back up?
Post-multi day run recover requires immense calories.
Caffeine is useful only if strategically timed.

This episode offer good advice for anyone running The Speed Project or any multi-day endurance race or run.
Presented by Kiprun.
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Salt Lake Foothills Trail Races | 30 May 2026