You've been Tangoed with the new Mizuno Evo - which weigh as light as one cup of rice!

Get the glare off those tracksters! Another of Eastbourne's homeless
 found resting on the prom wall with a natty pair of orange carpet slippers!

IT'S 6am and my feet are hurting. Outside, Eastbourne Pier is bathed in darkness and I can hear the waves crashing against the stoney shore. It's also pretty cold out.

Twelve hours ago, I was down by the pier running along the prom with my friends David and Helen trying out my new pair of running shoes which had arrived that morning in the office.

I was like an excited kid at Christmas as I opened not one but two Mizuno boxes containing pristine shoes, wrapped in paper and smelling lush.

Call the fashion police straight away. I don't know if Mizuno designed the shoes believing runners might encounter foggy pea-soupers on their morning runs, but you certainly can't hide with the brash orange and purple designs which stand out like Belisha beacons.

I've always thought of sporty-types who wear flash coloured footwear as prissy and total yankers. You could be sure in a football match anyone not wearing regulation black boots would be taken out with a fair, but meaty follow-through tackle within the first five minutes of a game.

As far as running is concerned, I'm not sure if the orange and purple shoes conform to my Colour Me Beautiful profile - I've always thought I was autumn colours!

So, for those of you joining this blog for the first time wondering what is the guy waffling on about?

The story is that the footwear company Mizuno has invited a dozen experienced runners from a variety of backgrounds to try out their new minimalist running shoes: the Wave Evo Cursosis, latin name MegaOrangeus and the Wave Evo Levitas, latin name Hecknocushioninusque.

For years, runners have been pampered with these snug-fitting, super cushioned, mega shock absorbant shoes, but the science is asking why are we still getting repetitive injuries and why are our bodies not running naturally. In fact, isn't the best way of running injury-free and running naturally is to run barefoot, just as we did as young children.

So, the footwear companies have come up with the minimalist concept - one step away from running in the total pink and crinkly and protecting your feet from dog poo, fast food wrappers and broken bottles as you pound the pavements.

Over the next five weeks, this daring dastardly dozen are trying out the gruesome twosome from the Mizuno minimalist stable, leading to the Reading Half Marathon on Sunday, March 17 where we will gather as one and see how our feet stand up to 13.1 miles of hard core running.

So last night was the first outing. I tried the Cursosis. I've just Googled the word in case it means something like "runs like the wind but looks like a Tango ad". Instead I get links to a lot of dodgy Spanish websites!!

I'm not going to write too much about my experience now, because I need to have a couple of runs to get a feel for the shoes. We ran six miles out and back along the prom at just under eight minute mile pace.

The shoes are light as a feather, well just 205 grammes - the equivalent of one cup of rice - they fit really well and as you walk in them it feels like you are walking in a pair of slippers or crocs. The running sensation is interesting!

The one noticeable aspect of the run was that towards the end I was more able to pick up my tired feet and stride. I wasn't laden by the heavy soles of my traditional Asics.

The morning after the night before, my feet feel a little sore. They've had a bit of a pounding, but I'm not put off. This is an interesting journey of discovery, something new for my running and maybe it might change the way I run. Who knows!

Here's a link to the Mizuno site for the new shoes: www.mizuno.eu/en/sports/running/products/discoverevo

And these are my fellow Mizuno runners, check them out on Twitter with updates and links to their blogs :

@Mizuno_Running
@theRunningEd
@gofasterfood
@Boshrun
@kimingleby
@BePrettyFit
@NatRunClinic
@Ashton378
@JuliaArmstrong
@sammymargo
@lewychalk