Brooks Ravena 4 vs Newton Motion (vs an old pair of Saucony Omni 11)

I work at a running shoe store so I am constantly asked "What shoe do you run in?" and I have to start to explain that I have 15 pairs of running shoes. I regularly run in pairs of Brooks, Newtons, Sauconys, Asics, Mizuno and Adidas.

However, if I'm not trying to sell a particular brand that day (or just say something to get the customer to just buy something so I can go drink coffee) I explain how each of my shoes are for different distances. And my most important shoe (the one's I won't wear to work) are my distance and race shoes.

And I have 3 of those. Brooks Ravena 4, Newton Motion (2012) and a soon-to-be retired Saucony Omni 11s. And I've run on those for different reasons.

I ran my first ever half marathon in a pair of Asics Gel-Noosa Tri 7s and my feet were killing me by the last 3 miles. So a few months later I did another half and I upgraded to the Gel-Noosa 8. Same problem. (For the record Gel-Noosa's glow in the dark and I am easily distracted by shiny things)

Luckily the week before the 2nd half I won a pair of Newton Motions and had picked up a pair of Ravena 4s from our used shoe bin at a discount.

The Motions are shoe designed for a forefoot strike so I haven't had any problems on longer (10+ miles) runs since I got them. They are also the lightest weight of my distance shoes.

Using the Ravenas for a distance shoe surprised me because I originally picked them up to wear at work because I liked how they look. I went for a 4 mile run one afternoon with a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly surprised by how soft the forefoot cushioning was. It was, for lack of a better term, squishy. Brook's DNA cushioning is suppose to respond to how hard you land on it (Brooks compares it to what happens when you mix corn starch and water...youtube it). So at the start of my runs when I've got perfect form and running lightly on my feet the shoes are bouncy. Towards the end when I get tired and my foot lands harder the DNA softens to help absorb that shock..

The downside to the Ravenas being, compared to the Motions, they are heavier.

The 3rd shoe I run in is an older pair (approx 400 miles on them) of Saucony Omni 11s which have the most cushioning, the biggest heel and the most weight.

So to review

1. Brooks Ravena

• Mid-weight
• Lots of forefoot cushioning
• enough heel cushioning to walk in some
• cheepest (MSRP and my price paid) of the 3 shoes

1. Newton Motion

• Light weight (with a lighter weight option)
• forefoot landing pods
• almost no heel cushioning. not a shoe to wear unless you're running
• Expensive. This shoe runs ~$150 new

1. Saucony Omni 11

• Heavy
• OMG TONS OF CUSHIONING
• Like running on clouds of fluffiness
• Unfortunatly they are now out of production :( I'm looking forward to trying a pair of Omni 12s.