Quick Brooks gear review

Life has been rolling along nicely, but with nothing exciting to report...yet!

In lieu of that, here are some honest, uncensored reviews of my first shipment items from Brooks. By the way, I was NOT asked/required to do any reviews as part of my Brooks sponsorships; probably this is why I am CHOOSING to do reviews here.

1. Brooks Pureflow; 7.5 ounces; $90. First, these shoes are beautiful. The color is amazing. They feel like a sturdier version of the Nike Frees. They have a 4mm heel drop and a really good heel to toe transition for those slower runs when you are not on your toes. I think this is a great shoe for heel strikers who want to transition to forefoot or mid foot running. The shoe does not allow you to land on the heel as they have sightly convex soles (I am not a heel striker, but tried as an experiment to run that way for a bit).

The shoe offers a lot of cushion. Even though the shoe fits in the minimalist category, you do not feel the ground in these shoes like you do in the Kinvaras or Nike Frees (though the shoe weighs as much as the Kinvaras). For me, this is a great thing in a longer race like the marathon as they offer protection against the pounding. The shoes are narrower than the typical Brooks shoe, so you may want to order them half a size bigger. I really like this shoe and it is a good replacement for the Kinvaras, which will most likely last longer.

Epiphany bra; $30

This is a great bra, but there is nothing really special about it. I think generally I am a poor bra reviewer mostly because I can wear any type of bra and will be fine. So the $8-10 TJMax bras work just fine for me. But, if you have issues, you may want to try this bra. It is light weight, not padded (which I prefer although I could certainly use some padding) and comfortable. They have some pretty awesome colors on the site.

Brooks Ravenna 3; $100; 9.2 ounces.

These are shoes for mild pronators to neutral runners. They are heavier than what I typically wear (but much lighter than the shoes I used to wear during my first few years of running), so I was surprised that I did not notice the weight. They have great cushioning, and flexibility. They are also marketed as having more durability than the more minimalist shoes. These will be great shoes for my recovery runs where I want to run slower than usual. These shoes are similar to the Asics GT series and Mizuno Inspire, and are lighter than these other models. They also look pretty good, something that Brooks "got" very well with all of their products.