Running through a winter wonderland

THE New Forest offers an ever-changing landscape whatever the seasons, but it remains as breath-taking and spectacular as ever.

This morning winter had arrived. The ground was hard and icy, small lakes of ice littered the forest enclosure's as traces of sleet swept across the countryside. A couple of deer scampered for cover and a couple of ponies huddled together to warm against the freezing temperatures.

Given the choice of running in winter or summer, this time of year is perfect. Wrapped up to the nines, crunching your way across rutted, icy paths, with a slight chill on your face, it's just perfect.

Mind you, on an eight-mile circuit from Fritham, our gang of four found ourselves caught up in the Heartache Half and Marathon which was being staged at the same time. Most sensible runners were well wrapped up, but one nutter from the Serpentine Running Club ran in sub-zero temperatures dressed in just the familiar red and yellow singlet and running shorts.

This was an important run-out for the new Evos which have so far been confined to the sanctuary of roads. Now it was the turn of forest tracks and some grassland. And they fared brilliantly. We skirted any seriously muddy parts which would have been treacherous and like a skating rink to my fancy dan orange Cursoris. The forest tracks provided a decent test of the durability of the Evos.

I was concerned that with the changing terrain and also the distance that my feet would suffer. But thanks to the lightness of shoe and now I have adapted my running style to push off from the soles, this made the effort pretty easy. I flew up the hills and my calves, which have taken a right pounding, are holding up well.

Next up is the Eastbourne Half Marathon in a week's time and a chance to see how the shoe will step up to the extra five miles. This year, for the first time, organisers are putting together pacing groups and I'll be taking round the eight minute mile group for a 1hour 45 minute finish time.

I've never run the Eastbourne Half before and so I don't know the course too well which includes one nasty hill up towards Beachy Head at the four-mile mark. So I'm going to need to push the pace a little bit early on to make sure we allow for the climb, before the gentle run along the prom towards Sovereign Harbour.

But I'm really looking forward to the race which will be another step towards the Mizuno Reading Half which takes place two weeks' later when all the Evo testers will gather and put the shoes through their paces.

I was very circumspect about the minimalist shoes but I am quickly becoming a convert because of their lightness and smoothness of running, and they're pretty comfortable too.

The Usual Suspects line up at the end of our wintry run across
 the New Forest