Postby NMG » Thu Feb 20, 2014 4:51 pm
I ordered some Mafate 3's and they arrived in the mail yesterday. My first impression was laughter, LOL. They really do look as strange as they do online.
Anyway, when I first slipped them on I found them too tight in the fore foot area and that was with the speed laces as loose as they would go. I got out the knife, chopped the laces out and replaced them with the standard laces they came with. I quickly realized that they were too short for me and that I wasn't able to get the toe box area loose enough for my liking. The next step was to replace the regular laces with a pair of laces from a pair of Mizuno's I had laying around and these were WAY better. It helped that they were probably a foot longer. I tried conventional lacing and they were okay but still a little snug. I then tried a method that is described on Altra's website where you basically eliminate the cross lacing in the 2nd and 3rd eyelets and they felt WAY better. I was now happy with the fit on my somewhat wide foot. I should add that it was simply the comfort of the upper that was the issue, the sole never felt too narrow. It seems quite stable side to side.
I haven't run in them yet (waiting for trails to open up), but I did walk around the house with them and I can't believe how soft they are. The biggest thing I noticed was in the fore foot. They honestly feel quite a bit softer than the heels in my Mizuno's, LOL. It's definitely a bit of a weird sensation and it's going to take some time to get used to. After walking around in them a bit I put on my normal trail shoes (Ecco Biom's) and they felt like slabs of concrete in comparison. Talk about going from one extreme to another.
I'm really interested in seeing how I enjoy running in them. I suspect I'm going to lose quite a bit of ground feel, but on the flip side, I can't imagine having any serious leg fatigue. They just seem so protective and so absorptive that longer runs should feel great. I also expect that I'll be able to run over terrain on trails that I would have to be more careful with in my normal shoes. Stuff that would cause me to shift and tilt ever so slightly, I suspect will just get eaten up by the extra thickness of the soles on the Hoka's.
Can't wait to try them out. My only "concern" now is how different they feel from my road shoes, the Mizuno's. I'm running the Ottawa half in May and I'm a little concerned that I'll get so accustomed to the Mafate's while running trails in the spring that the Mizuno's are going to beat me up when I run in them. I think I'll just have to alternate runs and be cognizant of it. On the flip side, perhaps running in the Hoka's will keep my legs fresher for those days when I do thrown on the Miznuo's. I'm hoping that is the case and it seems it would be the more logical result.
Time will tell!