I have a strange relationship with Saucony running shoes. The Endorphin Speed was the first time I’d bought any shoe from them and it instantly became my favourite road shoe of all time. V2 was equally good. My Endorphin Pro 1, whilst flawed, has more miles on it than any other pair of shoes I still have in rotation.
And then there are their trail shoes which have been an unmitigated disaster for me. I have bought and immediately had to stop using both the Peregrine 10 and Xodus Ultra RunShield for the same two reasons - the outsole rubber is actively dangerous on wet rocks and the hard narrow heel counter hurt my heel so badly I ended up limping after using them on several runs.
That outsole rubber is great on mud and wet grass but it’s so hard and smooth that it actually has less grip that a pair of fashion sneakers on wet slippy rocks. I could almost forgive that and limit them both to nasty boggy running but the heel counter thing is unbearable. I’ve never had any shoe by any other brand hurt as badly as the Peregrine and Xodus. It’s like there’s an edge of hard plastic digging directly into the back of my heel.
After the bad experiences running in the Caldera 6 and 7 in winter/spring Irish conditions over the past couple of months, I needed to find a unicorn shoe. It had to have deep narrow lugs for abominable mud/grass/water, good grip on rocks and it had to have enough cushion to do long distances comfortably.
Eventually all signs pointed to the Endorphin Rift. It had the Endorphin name, it had the fabulous Endorphin midsole and those lugs looked like they meant business in the gnarly stuff. The reviews were all very positive apart from some concerns about lockdown and sizing. Would I take a chance on having a third flop on my hands with Saucony? I eventually found them on big enough discount online that I decided to go for it.
I went up half a size for the first time in years, which didn’t fill me with confidence. Why not use the same sizing as the road Endorphins? But in any case, they arrived quickly and the sizing tweak seemed to have been a good call.
Initial impressions around the house were that they were very comfortable, the midsole was fantastic and the lugs looked great. The only niggle was my big toe rubbing against the rubbery toe-bumper. It seems to be related to the slightly odd shape of the shoe which doesn’t match any human foot I’ve ever seen.
My first 5 mile run on very light trails went incredibly well. No heel pain detected and the outsole seemed to handle all the surfaces easily. My big toe seemed fine.
The following day I decided to give them a much tougher test. 20 miles and 4500ft of elevation on atrociously bad ground on the Kerry Way from the Black Valley to near Glencar and back. It had everything - roads, bog, more bog, wet smooth rocks, mud, grass, streams, rough rocks, more bog, steep ups, steep downs, gritty paths and finally more bog.
The Endorphin Rifts handled everything almost flawlessly. There were some minor slips but they were on absolutely horrendous steep ground that nothing could grip properly on. Amazingly they were really grippy on wet rocks too. The midsole bounced beautifully any time the ground was hard. I had no problems with lack of lockdown. And the heel pain? On some very steep rocky uphills, I did feel a disconcerting squeeze on my heel a few times. But at the end of the 20 miles I had no residual pain and my feet were actually in a spectacularly good state. I did tape my big toes, just in case, so I’m still not sure if there is an issue with rubbing.
One unexpected benefit was the bootee-style ankle collar. It did a surprisingly great job of keeping debris out of the shoes. The Brooks Caldera seem to be a magnet for big lumps of grit, stones, seeds and everything else, aggravating my feet. But despite wading through non-stop streams and bogs, I mostly just collected some fine-grained sandy grit in the Endorphins.
I wonder if maybe the road team designed these rather than the trail team? They felt much closer to my Endorphin Speed happy place than the Peregrine Jigsaw horror show. And they have clearly tweaked the outsole compound to be much more tacky and grippy on stones. I’ll keep an eye on the lugs as I suspect they will wear down quickly if I have to run on too much road in ultras. But I’m fine with that.
Improvements in V2? I’d still suggest a softer broader heel counter. The shoes are also strangely shaped. Finally it’s not great that the midsole is just painted. You can see that the paint has already started coming off after two runs. It’s no biggie, but why bother paint them?
Based on those two runs, I think the Endorphin Rifts are my new trail running shoes for most off-road situations. They may displace both the Speedgoats and the Calderas. I’ll probably start with them in the Waterville Trail Running festival in May and see how they get on at ultra distances.
UPDATE: I have to add one caution here. On a 16 mile training run for the Beara Way Ultra last weekend, I had some bad rubbing on the bottom of my ankle from the high cuff of the Rifts and it eventually blistered and broke skin. I’m pretty sure this is because the first two runs were in heavy waterproof socks and this run was in a light pair of Odlo socks. Just something to be aware of. As a result I may just keep them as backups in WTF, unless the ground is terrible and I wear the heavier socks again.
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