Inov8 Trailroc v More Mile Cheviot Pace

This is a review of 2 halves - my new(ish) daps from the extremes of the market: Inov8 at the top, and More Mile Cheviot Pace at the bottom. Both trainers are supposed to serve the same function of hard packed trails, the tread on the lugs for both is intermediate.

Inov8 Trailroc 285

A good friend of mine has had to give-up running on the advice of his quack after having his knee rebuilt - unfortunately for him he had recently bought a pair of Inov8 Trailrocs and they now sat there with only about 50 miles on them mugging him off in his hallway, so he wanted shot of them and asked what size I was… Fortunately for me, the same as him!

Being a tight-arse I never tend to go above £30 for a pair of trainers, with the most I’ve ever spaffed on a pair being £45, so Inov8 have never really been an option for me with their retail mark being £50 if you’re very lucky in the sales up to around £120, with this pair sitting at £70-£130 in the market place depending on where you shop.

I’ve been out and about in them for a few months now over various distances from 5 miles to 50k and have found them to be very comfortable and absolutely ideal for hard-packed trails. With the reinforced toe-box they seem to be the perfect shoe for those hard-packed mountainous lake-district trails… Just a shame to think I won’t be able to get up there to try them out.

They compare quite well to my Scarpa Neutron 2’s which are designed for the same purpose, however I find the Scarpas to be a bit more comfortable and the grip to be better all round.

While effusing over their ability on hard packed trails, the first time I took them out for a spin it was for the last of the Southern Cross Country League races where we had a mix of trails - on the hard packed and mettled sections they were great, but when the slightest bit of mud came into play, dear god they were shite! I was all over the place like Bambi on ice. The shallow lugs offered 4/5 of fuck all in traction at the merest hint of mud, to the point running was impossible and even walking in anything slightly muddy was sketchy in the extreme!

I’m up to 225 miles in them now and to be truthful they are showing wear and tear on the upper of the right foot - though strangely not on the left! Also on the soles, the lugs are now rapidly scrubbing down to nothing on the outstep of the heels, a product of the way I run and the trails being like concrete at present with us having had fuck-all rain since I’ve had them! Looking at how the upper will eventually fail, hopefully it will not be a structural issue and allow for more wear and hopefully get me up to around the 350 miles marker - as a comparison I’m over 400 miles into the Scarpas and the only wear and damage on those are from falls.

More Mile Cheviot Pace

Around the same time I had my stroke of luck with the Trailrocs, I had decided to take a punt on a pair of More Mile ‘Cheviot Pace’. The original Cheviot trainers have been my go-to for winter running where grip has been needed and at £30 a pair the fact they only go for 200 to 300 miles on average has not really been an issue as they have seen me through each winter season and the £/mile ratio has been superior to what other people get out of premium brands in the same conditions.

When I saw that More Mile had brought out an intermediate tread trail trainer which was essentially the same as their Cheviot but with far less of a lug to them I had been intrigued. Normally I run in Karrimor trainers for intermediate trails, which have till now been priced around the £30 mark, however they seem to have upped their starting price to £40 and coupled with the fact they are made by Sports Direct, the ethically problematic retailer with how it treats its staff, the time to give the Cheviot Pace a try had arrived.

Most of my recent running has been in the Trailrocs, however I have managed to rack-up to 80 miles in them so enough to give them a review - and as you’d expect they are not showing damage at present.

Grip-wise these are like chalk & cheese to the Trailrocs, behaving as you would hope in the mud, providing enough traction but nowhere near as much as their bigger brothers’ do - which is completely understandable. Fit wise they are roomy for me, even with my flippers for feet, however they do fall-down in one regard: comfort.

As with the other Cheviots, they are a bit spartan in the cushioning department. That has never been too much of an issue when out on the soft winter trails as the terrain itself offers some cushioning, however with the very dry spell we’ve had for the last few months, I’ve found the Cheviot Pace’s to give the soles of my feet a bit of a battering with the lack of cushioning, to the point I’m considering putting insoles in them for going out on the harder trails, or just forget about them until the trails are a bit softer and rely on my Asics in the meantime.

I suppose the question is would I buy another pair of either of them? Once I’ve trashed this pair of  Trailrocs… You know what, probably not - I would be more likely to give a go to the Scarpa Spin RS8’s which are the replacement for the Neutrons (once I’ve gone through those as well), which come in at slightly cheaper than the Inov8’s however at £68 they would be the most expensive pair of trainers I’ve bought, although at in excess of 400 miles before the Neutron’s failed I think that is decent enough value for money.

On the Cheviot Pace front - I’ve already bought a second pair in anticipation of the demise of the first - mostly because the price point of them is what I would hope to pay for a pair of trainers, and so long as I can manage the discomfort factor of concrete hard trails, which is not really what they are for running on, I’ll be fine!

Eat pies.

Drink beer.

Run far.

17th April: Karrimor Pace Trail 2

With the forthcoming summer of ultras looming large upon the horizon, kicking-off in a matter of weeks with the Jurassic Quarter, I’ve found myself a new pair of trainers for wearing-out on the trail.

As the trail dries-out through spring into summer I move away from my trusty More Mile Cheviot’s and their hardcore tread on the sole to something that is a bit more ‘intermediate’: A trainer that offers grip on the mud still to be found after a summer’s rain on the trail, but one that is also comfortable enough to run in over hardened surfaces - something that Cheviot’s certainly aren’t, and nor were they designed to be!

In my quest for the best ’bang for my buck’ I’ve picked-up another pair of Karrimor’s - this time their ‘Pace Trail 2’ model in black to cope with the summer mileage.

I’ve found with Karrimor that they tend to ‘ape’ the design of Salomon, Inov8 and other ‘premium’ brands but at an rrp of around £20-£25 rather than the £60-£100 you would pay for the premier marques… Yes the ‘build’ quality does not seem to be as good as the premium brands, but they certainly are not 3 or more times worse, so they will always work-out far better in the value per mile stakes. Grip-wise they do not wear-down too quickly either - it always seems with me to be the uppers that give-out first, so loss of grip has not been something I’ve experienced so far.

My previous pair of Karrimor’s are over 400 miles to the good and are still surviving, albeit far closer to the end of their life than the beginning, which has motivated me in buying a new pair as I am not sure whether to trust them to not finally disintegrate over an ultra distance. One thing I don’t want is to end-up with a DNF through early avoidable trainer issues!

As I always do, I’ve put some sorbothane shock-absorbing insoles into them to help with lessening the impact when 15 stone of idiot comes in to contact with the ground over the forthcoming runs. Safe to say I’m looking-forward to getting some decent mileage out of this new pair over the next few months until I finally manage to kill them off and so long as they get me through the Jurassic Quarter, the UT55 & the Lakeland 50 then I’ll be a happy bunny.

Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.

26th January: Cheviot

A couple of years back after the chastening experience of running my first official trail marathon with footwear that turned-out to be somewhat less than ideal, a subscriber offer came-up on a magazine that I was looking to subscribe to and I became the owner of a pair of More Mile Cheviot trail running shoes.

I eagerly began running the winter trails in these and they soon became a firm favourite of mine… They are by no means the ‘perfect’ trainer, as they are somewhat lacking in the cushioning department so I require an insole to be fitted, but for free they were fantastic… So much so that when they died I bought another pair, even though they have been superseded by the ‘Cheviot 2’.

This second par has now bitten the dust and when I spotted a deal on at the More Mile stockists Start Fitness, I ordered pairs number 3&4!

Since using Strava to record my runs in detail I am able to track the mileage on my trainers quite accurately and the Cheviot's are good for 200 miles before dying. These miles though as a rule are trail marathon miles through the winter when the need for the very aggressive lugs on the soles are required… So in effect they are good for me to get around 7-10 trail marathons in the most tricky of conditions.

So below is my long term review of the More Mile Cheviot having tested 2 pairs to destruction!

Introducing the Cheviot…

Named after the range of hills found on the eastern border of England and Scotland, the trainer’s monicker is a giveaway to their nature: one that is at its happiest in the rugged wilds of hills, fells and the harsher of the trails.

In the box.

In case you have never heard of them, the Cheviot’s manufacturer More Mile are a British maker of sporting goods, both clothing and footwear, primarily aimed at those who run, cycle or partake in triathlon and the company has built up a deserved reputation for value for money over more established ‘premium’ brands in the marketplace. They are also the kit suppliers to the English School’s Athletic Association.

For me, the colour of a trainer is not a really important consideration, as this does not impact performance in any way, shape or form - unlike with cars where everybody knows that red cars go faster!.. With the Cheviot’s at present you have 3 options available to you in lime green, grey with yellow flashing and grey with blue flashing. I opted for the former!

No danger of not being seen from a distance!

Their construction seems to have been based on an almost indestructible sole and worked upwards from there. The lugs on the sole are the deepest I have seen out there on the market, affording tractor-levels of grip that would happily allow you to play rugby in them and still remain poised on both feet. The problem you could face with very deep lugs is the aggregation of mud between them, building up to a level that the grip is reduced over a long-run to almost zero. With the wide spacing of the Cheviot’s lugs the chance of mud building up is minimised to the point that you would have to be in a really sticky clay-based mire for a significant loss of grip to occur and with the flex of the trainer’s sole, once out the other side, the claggy chunks of mud are soon kicked clear through the normal action of running and any lost grip is restored.

Get a load of them lugs!

The toe-box has a heavy-duty rubber toe guard around it to protect against stubbing on rocks and tree-roots, with the rest of the upper being made from synthetic mesh-like fabric that allows for easy and rapid draining when you do have the misfortune of immersing your foot entirely whilst fording a stream or ploughing through deep puddles. This also ensures your feet do not overheat through these uppers being naturally breathable.

Turning your attention to the inside, the padding is quite minimal. Outside of the heel padding which is high and holds you quite snug and guards agains the ingress of small rocks, the only other noticeable area of padding is the underside of the tongue - whilst having minimal padding inside the trainer does denying you the sensation of having your feet cradled by warm purring kittens, it does mean there is a lot less in there to soak-up water and add weight through absorption rather than draining away.

I have found that I personally need to add a layer of cushioning to the insole, as it is very spartan, with the addition of sorbothane shock-absorbers to increase the comfort and reduce any jarring my body may experience… But that is something personal to me.

Taking them out on a run, you can tell these are definitely at their most happy in the more extreme conditions. The wide spacing between the deep lugs when on tarmac or other hard flat surfaces gives you the impression of your feet rolling around over a series of points on their underside so is not the most comfortable of experience - but as soon as you hit dirt they come in to their own, affording a good even grip over the entire sole and keeping you firmly on your feet able to carry on running where other trainers would have you on your backside… The only times these trainers are not 100% happy off-road is over the 2 types of ground that all trainers do not like or manage a perfect grip on: wet rocks and ice!

When testing them to destruction, the weak-point that develops is the just behind the toe-box, where through the creasing action on the material through the foot flexing in the shoe, the uppers seem to give-way at roughly the same time on the corresponding location on both shoes, and on both sides of each shoe.

The value for money on these shoes is phenomenal. You can pick them up for around £20-£25 a pair - which is 3-4 times cheaper than the nearest equivalent soled Salomon or Inov8’s. When you extrapolate out the mileage and pound costs, you could go through 3-4 pairs of Cheviot’s before you have reached the cost of the Salomon/ Inov8’s, but would these two brands have survived the combined ‘hard’ mileage of 600-800 miles of the Cheviot’s?.. Especially when you are recommended to replace your trainers between 300-500 miles, and let’s face it, trail running is particularly tough on trainers!

I would recommend these trainers to anyone who is hard on theirs when trail running over the winter months when grip is at a premium. They are comfortable and capable enough to be running marathons and ultras in them over the sternest of courses… And for those out there who are worried about damage/ wearing to their premium brand of trainers, you can’t go wrong by getting a pair of these to do your winter training miles in and save the more expensive pair for race day, although I bet you would soon be converted to using the Cheviot as your race shoe by the time that day comes.

Price £20-£30
Longevity 3/5
Comfort 3/5 (with an additional insole) 4/5
Value for Money 5/5

Overall 4/5


Eat pies.
Drink beer.
Run far.