Round MK Relay race report

This is a very quick report on yesterdays Round MK Relay. In short this was a 31 mile course around Milton Keynes which consisted of four separate legs. The first two (10m and 5m) were mainly on hard surfaces - roads, riverside and canal path, whilst legs 3 and 4 were on muddy trails and water logged fields. Shoe choice was made tricky for this reason but in the end it was made for me. My trail shoes which I was gonna wear simply werent comfortable and rubbed my heel so I had no alternative but to wear my post-race shoes for the actual run... my Brooks racing flats! They certainly wouldn't have been my choice but they actually worked out well.

I ran the first two legs comfortably in 8 minute miling up to 15 miles and then hit the trails. This obviously slowed me down especially in the brooks but still comfortable. I was enjoying every second and the race was going well. 18 teams were running and all were chasing me down as I (the only soloist) started first. Others started based on their predicted finish time. The idea being all to finish at 13:30. I was fuelling well on nuun and gels and feeling good for the finish. After lots more mud, water and cow poo I made it first over the finish line in 4h37. A great training run and thoroughly enjoyable. Happy to get 30 miles (31.37m) under the belt and feeling ok today with no injuries.
The real suprise was the Brooks Green Silence. The longest I had run in them was a half marathon so this was quite a bit further. My feet felt like though and I definitely think my running style is improving thanks to all the miles I'm putting in in minimlist shoes. In fact the last 71 miles I've run were in the Merrells or Brooks. So is this the death for the conventional shoe... Its too early to say but I'm certainly enjoying my running in them. That said I have also just acquired some Salomon Crossmax which are a hybrid road/trail shoe with a chunky heel. Gonna wear them in two weeks time on the GUCR and will report back on how they are....