HOKA - Clifton 8

I have one pair of trail I use a couple times a year. I usually only wear one pair of road until I have an egregious number of miles on them (I’ve pushed two pairs to 700 miles). But I’ve been running more marathons and I like a fresh pair of shoes for each race, so I have one pair of hoka Clifton 8 that I don’t like that has 500 miles, a pair of Clifton 9 that has 370 miles from my spring marathon, and my current pair of Clifton 9 for my marathon next week that has about 100 miles. I also usually switch between Clifton and brooks glycerin, but Clifton’s have been serving me well for my PRs lately and I guess I’ve been hesitant to change (based on my last three pairs lol).

My most recent race shoe purchase is the AP4. Haven’t run a full in them yet, but have done some shorter races. Previously, I’ve raced halfs and fulls in the Clifton 8, Vaporfly 2, Alphafly 1, Endorphin Speed 2, Adios Pro 3, Zegama 1, Topo Specter 1, Endorphin Trail, Endorphin Pro 3, Endorphin Speed 3, and Tyr Valkyrie Speedworks. AP3 has been my favorite of those. Ran 2 halfs and 2 fulls in them plus an ultra and then put a lot of miles in them as a daily trainer. Great shoe. AF1 was great too, but I did a lot more daily miles than races in those.

Last official marathon 3:45. Wore a fresh pair of hoka clifton 8’s. Trained my whole block in them as well.

Yea I 100% agree. I personally don’t get along with Hoka as i feel them a bit too firm for my liking. Hopefully you have a running store that has a broad selection of shoes for you to try.

I went to a running store and had the foot scan and hated the feel of what they recommended for me. I ended up getting Hoka Cliftons instead and they have been great for my use so far but I am a slow runner and haven’t run more than 9k at once yet so I haven’t exactly pushed the boundaries of the shoe. Regardless of what you end up with, be sure to do some stretching & foam roll bc that can contribute to foot pain as much if not more than your shoe.

I did the Pig in '23! Epic. I also wore normal shoes (Hoka Cliftons) and just embraced the wet, heavy shoes. I remember running out of Mariemont around mile 18 thinking "my feet are getting dry" only for it to start raining heavily 2 minutes later. This was before I embraced race shoes and I probably would have faired much better with my meshy Vapor Flys. My husband wore his Vapor Flys and is toes faired much better than mine.

I currently use HOKA Clifton’s for running but due to the tall heel stack, I use Brookes Adrenaline or Asics Kayanos for more high intensity workouts like Hyrox, circuits etc

So there’s this redditor who went full marathon scientist mode lol dude legit made this massive side by side chart of like every good women’s running shoe out there super clutch if ur tryna figure out which ones are actually worth the hype lol that’s how i ended up getting my Hoka Cliftons tbh needed smth comfy for long runs but still cute enough to flex at Starbucks after lol [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1taxDI\_XFXphR8-qugRolFPLP\_ffUCuYvXE670FuKvR8/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1taxDI_XFXphR8-qugRolFPLP_ffUCuYvXE670FuKvR8/edit?usp=sharing)

From this, personally, I find NB super comfortable, but the foam does 'die' a bit earlier. I think if you're after a versatile trainer, Clifton is meant to be great daily (I have the Bondi for easy/recovery). They're meant to be a bit more durable too, I like the Vomero (just from trying on, not running), but they're soo soft I'd worry they would break down faster than the clifton

hoka cliftons are the 🐐