Run harder. Hurt less. Hoka OneOne gives you back your run.
May 21, 2013 Leave a comment
Just saw an awesome array of inspired docos and short clips paying homage to the world’s natural wonders and what they compel some extreme humans to do. If you’ve never made it to the Banff Mountain Movie Tour, make it a priority.
This one, Sashimi Unicorn, is utterly gorgeous and clearly as much about reverence for natural beauty as it is about the joy of playing amongst elemental mountains.
Love it!
May 2, 2013 Leave a comment
We were so excited by news of Ultra Trail Mt. Fuji winner yesterday that we wrote all about it here.
Today, moving pictures! Some great bits of video are showing up about the place so we’re excited again to post them here.
This clip shows the start of the weekend’s epic miler in Japan. This looks like a race to definitely do at least once for any ultra runner living in Australasia.
Here is the challenging terrain from the first part of the race.
And there is more footage to come, including our hero, Yoshikazu Hara, arriving at the finish line to claim victory in his Bondi Speeds from Hoka OneOne.
But we’ll post that tomorrow….
Just kidding!! More footage still to come tomorrow, but for now taste the brilliant Japanese victory of UTMF 2013 winner Yoshikazu Hara!
Visit the Australian Hoka OneOne shop if you live in Australia or New Zealand for all the running efficiency and protection your courageous feet will ever need!
May 1, 2013 3 Comments
In Japanese healing and martial arts, the word ‘Hara‘ refers to the abdominal power centre – in typical Japanese appreciation of a world in dynamic balance this is both a place of great softness, which exposes the vital organs when open, and a place of deep strength, from which great physical and spiritual efforts originate.
So it is appropriate that the winner of Japan’s newborn but iconic 100-miler, Ultra-Trail Mount Fuji, over the weekend was none other than homegrown hero Mr. Yoshikazu Hara. Even as one of Japan’s top road runners – a blazing 6:33 for 100km – Hara even flew under Japanese radar prior to UTMF, without any prediction of his success. This is unsurprising, as road speed frequently does not translate to trail dominance. Australia (and Inov8‘s) own Brendan Davies has himself bucked this trend, devoting himself to building an impressive array of trail skills and showing the results for it last year, recording a sub-7-hour 100km in the World Championships just months before smashing an already exceptional Great North Walk 174km/100+ miler course record by close to 2 1/2 hours.
To get a sense of how tough the Fuji course must have been for runners on the weekend, Davies secured an impressive 5th place at UTMF, finishing barely an hour behind the leader in an internationally competitive field. On the Great North Walk course just 6 months ago, without anybody to really run against after the first 30km and an extra 14km in the legs, he was able to finish a full hour faster. This indicates what a toll the cold conditions and over 9,000 metres of ascending must have taken on runners in Japan.
So it is with some excitement that we read of the success of 4 Hoka runners, with the most prominent being Mr. Hara himself! A doctor, rather than a professional athlete, Hara raced to victory in a pair of Bondi Speeds bought from a running shop after initially testing models brought in by the local importer of Hoka OneOne.
UTMF 2014 winner Mr Yoshikazu Hara, his lovely partner, and his Bondi Speeds!
With the top 3 this year finishing within a 10-minute window, and Mr. Hara beating out last year’s winner Julien Chorier by only 8 minutes, competition for the victory was intense. A quick summary from the French Hoka crew describes his race as follows:
He ran a very clever race , taking his pace , not trying to be among the very first ones at start . At km 55 , he was 20min back over the 2 leaders at that time , one of them being our team manager and athlete Cyril Cointre .He caught up with the leaders at about km 70 , following a long moderate grade climb .He built a small advantage yet his lead was never more than 10 min . Everybody was chasing him but his mental strength, the crazy support of thousands of Japanese fans, and of course his Hoka Bondi B made him fly to this amazing victory ahead of 2 of the very best Ultra runners in the world!
March 11, 2013 1 Comment
If you’re a manny man man looking for your next hardass running shoe, don’t take our advice or listen to the hundreds of endurance athletes and longtime runners singing the praises of our genius design team. Take the advice of your favourite manny magazine, it’s right there in this month’s issue of Men’s Fitness.
We all wore Hoka OneOne trail shoes which have thick padded soles. They cushioned your feet and prevented blisters. Runners in cushioned shoes fared better.
January 10, 2013 1 Comment
3-time Uncle Toby’s Ironman series winner, adventurer racer, elite personal trainer, and host of www.guyandrews.tv, Guy Andrews gives his impressions of the mixed terrain racer from Hoka OneOne, Stinson Evo.
January 5, 2013 Leave a comment
Lizzy Hawker, The North Face athlete and genuinely one of the strongest long distance runners of all time, talks ultra running and summer training with brandmate Seb Chaigneau.
December 19, 2012 Leave a comment
Sharon is one of the better known characters and strongest performers in Australian ultra running. She holds national records over a number of distances and timed races and has a swag of podiums, not surprisingly. In 2013, along with her husband Justin – also an accomplished runner – Sharon will be putting on the First National Wangaratta Marathon. It’s a dual loop of a 21km course that sounds fast, scenic, and will be supporting Little Athletics Australia in an area that has copped it hard over the past few years – country Australia.
Check it out – great people, a great sounding event with a variety of distances, and a good excuse to get out of the city.
That’s just part of a bigger story though. Having previously run Australia’s peak ultra for the year, Coast2Kosci, Sharon had won the event and placed third last year, when running machine Julia Fatton decimated the course record. This year, barely a few months ago, Sharon was running for Australia in the 24 Hour World Championships. Things didn’t work out and she withdrew early.
It probably doesn’t occur to most people that it is much harder to know what it’s like to run like a champion, but have a tough day out, than to have never tasted success, or felt the weight of those expectations – both from others and oneself. But Sharon wanted to finish the year on top of Australia. So, knowing that it wasn’t going to be her fastest time or her easiest run ever, she toed the line on December 7, setting out at 5:30am with nearly 3 dozen other hopefuls, uncertain how the next 30+ hours and 240km would unfold.
Just like Jo Blake, who holds the course record but still kept going even when his began to unravel with nearly 100km to go, Sharon ran with the heart of a champion, finishing what she started. Her race writeup pulls no punches and this video collage of race photos with a bit of personal storytelling gives a great glimpse into what the run meant for her. Thanks Shaz!!
November 20, 2012 Leave a comment
Hi, it’s Roger from Hoka OneOne Australia and Team Born to Run. That’s me on the left, along with my team mates, gear testing on Ushuaia’s Martial Glacier earlier today. This Thursday, we’ll take a 2-day boat trip across the notorious Drake’s Passage to the coast of Antarctica.
Each day, rubber duckies will whisk us from ship to shore as we complete a number of world firsts. In the 9 year history of the 4 Deserts Challenge, we’ll be the first team ever to bag the Grand Slam. That might not sound complicated, but when entering as a team means running as a team, within close proximity every step of the way for each of 4 250-km multiday races under extremes of heat, fatigue, dehydration, and restricted calorie-intake… yeah, at times, it’s been challenging. But now, the mood is of extreme excitement.
We can’t wait to get to Antarctica. We are about to do something amazing in a place where almost nobody has ever been. If you’d asked me 12 months ago whether I’d ever go running in Antarctica, I’d have likely what-the-eff-bombed you. But now it’s happening! Youngest runner, first couple, first father-and-son, and first type 1 diabetic to take out the Slam (assuming no race-ending injuries on the ice).
Endurance running and the power of possibility, longtime partners in juicy life-changing goodness!
See http://www.facebook.com/teamborntorun for more.
October 11, 2012 Leave a comment
Andrew’s just returned from Turkey where he ran top 10 in the Lycian Way ultra as a way to kick over his legs after running 1,000km from Brisbane to Sydney. Here he is in New Zealand Fitness Magazine. Remember, Kiwis, we’ll be at Queens Wharf next week, and I’m pretty sure we’re the only running shoe in the world with a Maori name. See you there!
