Review of the Altra Olympus 5 Trail Running shoes
After a few runs and a 54k trail, it's time for a proper review!
Back on Altra for Trail shoes
Last year, I bought a pair of Salomon Ultra Glide (see the review here), which I like and still use, but running with them on long(ish) distances (i.e. > 20 Kms) is always a bit unpleasant, as the toebox is a lot narrower than with Altra, and I can feel it with my right foot.
So I decided to go back to Altra.
Which model?
Mont Blanc BOA vs. Olympus 5
When short-listing, I initially thought I would go for a pair of Lone Peak,
since after all they're the first Trail model that Altra did.
But upon reviewing other models, I liked the Mont Bloac BOA and Olympus 5 more:
- the Mont Blanc BOA because of their very clever lacing system, and also their aesthetics,
- the Olympus 5 for their comfort.
Decision
In the end, I chose... both!
I first ordered the Mont Blanc, which I tried, but since I like switching shoes at every run, I decided to order the Olympus nonetheless.
What I had in mind was to use the Mont Blanc for races up to 50k, and the Olympus for longer distances (as I'm now heading to distances around 75k).
So you can expect a review of the Mont Blanc BOA soon® :)
Testing the Olympus 5
First impression
When I received and unpacked them, I thought "wow, they look nice, but also a lot bigger than the Superior I used last year.
Compared with the Superior, the Olympus' outsole uses Vibram's Megagrip, and has much thicker lugs.
At 350 grams, they're not especially light, but hey, those are trail shoes, so I wasn't expecting something else.
Last but not least, there's a sort of "loop" at the rear of the shoe, which makes it super easy to put the shoe on, avoiding you to fully unlace your shoe if they were too tight.
First runs
The thing which struck me during my first runs with the Olympus 5 is their
comfort - it really felt like running in slippers!
The laces are super flat and a bit long, but unlike other Altra shoes I got,
they're not too long. Having them flat also means they're easier to clean
after a muddy session.
As you can see in the pictures, I got the black-ish model, which means it's not a mess to clean - or at least, it's less visible :)
First "proper" trail with the Olympus 5
I used those Olympus to run the "X-Trail Corrèze" 54k race - you can see my
full report here.
In a nutshell, I had absolutely no issue with them - the race was challenging
for (many) other reasons, but on the shoes' front, it went really well - even
though the weather was really nice, it didn't rain before the race so we had
almost no mud.
Using Altra's Trail Gaiters
My next trail race will be in ~4 weeks: "SaintéLyon" is a 78k run between Saint-Etienne and Lyon, 2 French cities in the East of France, nearby Switzerland and Italy:
The race takes place on the first weekend of December, starts at 11pm, and is known for its tough weather: you can expect snow, mud and wind.
So with that in mind, I decided it was time to invest in trail gaiters.
I already had Salomon trail gaiters, but when I tried them on the Olympus, that
didn't work, as Salomon's ones go under the outsole, which means you need a
place where there's no lug for the gaiter to pass properly.
The Olympus have lugs covering the whole outsole, so it wasn't possible.
I looked on Altra's website, and surely enough, they're selling their own trail gaters, which I bought.
I'll be using them for the first time during SaintéLyon, so we'll see how it goes - if I had to compare them with the Salomon's one, I'd say they're a lot lighter, so while I'm confident they'll do a good job at avoiding mud or sand in my shoes, I'm a bit doubtful that they'll protect my ankles from rocks, like the Salomon do.
I'll report on that in my post-race blog post :)
What is nice though with those Altra Trail Gaters is that the Olympus (as well as few other models) have been designed for them - Altra have incorporated Velcro at the rear of most of their trail running shoes:
You just have to attach the gaiter hook to the shoe's loop (or front most shoelace if using a non-Altra shoe), and then attach the gaiter to the rear of the shoe with the Velco, and voilà!
Wrap Up
I'm very happy that I decided to buy those Olympus instead of the Lone Peak, as they're really super comfortable and perfect for longer runs/races.