On The Fence (Product Review)

It’s still winter, there’s still snow on the ground making my runs slippery and long. About half way through the winter season I gave in and purchased a product that I have heard so many great things about, YakTrax. I thought I would share my little review of these. I purchased them for my Frozen Otter Ultra Trek. Since it was a last minute purchase though and I hadn’t trained with them so I didn’t immediately put them on. Half way through the race I decided I needed all the help I could get on the frozen tundra of a trail and placed them on. In the days that have passed since then I have continually worn them on a majority of my trail runs. To be honest I am still a little up in the air as to their benefit. On flat snowy trail surfaces I do not notice any significant benefit to wearing them more so than an ordinary pair of trail running shoes. I feel a bit more confident when I hit that patch of ice on the trail but at the same time without spikes it’s still a bit slippery. Where I expected to feel the best improvement was running up hills. This was absolutely not the case. I found no benefit or significant improvement in traction in wearing them compared to just my trail running shoes. Surprisingly though and what I did not expect was a significant improvement in going downhill. I didn’t even consider this beforehand but while wearing the YakTrax I found going downhill to be not just a little bit but hugely improved. I didn’t slip or over extend my strides and maintained good form while running down the snow/ice covered hills on the trail runs. All of that being said, after about a dozen runs on the same 8 mile trail my times haven’t changed one way or another. No improvement but no hindrance in wearing them. Bottom line: For the $30 (approximate) cost of this device it’s a take it or leave it scenario. If you have the extra cash I would say go ahead and buy them just because they do help with your stability, just don’t expect any explicit gains from wearing these. The last thing I would like to add is that in other reviews I have read of these is that people swear by them with the only complaint that they don’t typically last more than one season. I have put just about a little more than 100 miles on mine thus far and they still are holding up well so we will still have to see about that one.