Recently, my Saucony Triumph 22 running shoes crossed 600kms & I started looking out for shoes to replace them. I always wanted to go back to Hokas, but I wanted something more responsive than the Clifton. After briefly considering the Rincon 4s, I decided to buy the Hoka Mach 6.
I generally prefer colourful shoes, but the Hoka Mach 6 Oat Milk variant were 50% off and the others were not.
The first impression is how light and bare they are, compared to what I am normally used to.
Comparing to my previous Saucony, I see that they are also thinner and a bit smaller (For the same size). I didn’t think of it much then, because my Saucony always felt a bit too big. As you will see later, this will come back to bite me in the ass hard.
But how do they feel while running?
Of course, they are not as plush and feel lower to the ground. However, I could feel I was running faster with the same effort. But let the numbers do the talking.
As you can see, the Hoka Mach 6 helped me shave more than a minute off my standard 4.8k run. And I did it with the same amount of effort I did with the Triumph 22, as is evident from the total calories burnt and the average heart rate.
Not so fast…
After running in them a week, I started to notice the toenails of my big toes on both feet peeling off on the outer edge. I could only attribute them to the narrower toe box and smaller size, so I had to bin the brand new Mach 6 and get the Mach 6 wide in a higher size. This time I tried them on at the store before buying. The colour was even worse.
As you can see, the “wide” Mach 6 from Hoka are still narrower than the Saucony. However, my nails have been fine since then, so not complaining much. Thankfully, my pace didn’t drop with the bigger and wider shoes.
My only concern : While running, I could feel the shock of the steps reverberating through my joints, especially my hips. In the last couple of weeks, I haven’t had any joint pain, but only time will tell how this works out.
