I've been looking for the perfect superlight racing shoes that offer 100% cushion and positively no support.  I am an underpronator, which means I need the most flexible running shoes on the market.  For training and races longer than 10k, I use the Nike Pegasus.  While Nike offers a Pegasus Racer, it’s not significantly lighter than the regular shoe.  Just about every lightweight-racing shoe, though, includes a medial post of some sort that usually irritates my Achilles or does not have enough forefoot cushion to protect me from stone bruising.  Nevertheless, I've used an assortment of racers over the last few years for races that are 10k or less.

I’ve never owned or even tried a pair of Brooks shoes and, frankly, did not think they were of sufficient quality to satisfy me.  Then I read a review of the Brooks T2 Racer on TgR (see here) that changed my mind.  After studying the available models, I decided on the T4 Racer.

The T4 Racer is a narrow shoe with a high arch that is sized about a half size smaller than Nike.  It is incredibly lightweight at 5.8 oz. yet it offers almost as much cushion as the Pegasus.  This shoe, though, offers absolutely zero support and you should not use them unless you’re feet are like mine and are as stiff as a board when you bend your knees.

At first, I didn’t think I could wear the shoes because of how narrow the forefoot area is and high the arch felt.  After doing two short break-in runs, I decided to use them in a sprint triathlon which included a 3 mile run.  After a good bike leg on my new ’05 Guru TriLite, I put on the T4 Racers and they simply felt awesome.  Their incredible lightness in combination with surprising cush really put a big smile on my face. 

This is the feeling I’ve been looking for to overcome the dead legs I usually have the first half-mile or so on the run.  While I ran a negative split like I usually do, I ran it a little faster while feeling much fresher.  At the end of the run, I still had so much juice left in my legs I began second thinking how hard I went on the bike and run.  Next race I’ll go a little harder on both knowing that my legs will feel so good riding in these kicks.

KDG