I've got a dirty little shoe secret: I've been cheating on my flats. And I think I like it.

It's not them. It's me!

No, it is them.

You can ask anyone. I've been a die-hard, committed fan of minimalist shoes for more years than I'd like to admit. I love the lightness. I love the groundfeel. I love the connection to the earth I feel when I'm running in them.

I've done half-marathons, 5 ks, ultra runs, and trail runs in shoes that have barely more than a handful of mm of rubber on their soles.

My coach and my running friends all encouraged me to keep my flat shoes for the track and for racing, and to have at least a second pair to do long runs in. And I never did, because I never believed that I needed to.

But this past year my left Achilles tendon has begun to hurt. A lot.

So much so that I worried that I would end up with an injury before I headed out to Worlds. So I scoured my favorite RunBlogger to see what recommendations they could come up with for me: I needed something still light and with a similar run feel, but more cushion for training runs, and I absolutely refuse to go maximalist... could it be done? I wound up testing both the New Balance 1400v2 and the Adidas adios Boost 1.0. I fell in love with the 1400s, largely I suspect because the feel of them reminded me of my NB Mimimus shoes I use on the trail.

But the tendon pain did not really go away. I managed to end the season injury-free, but I still worried...

Then about a month and a half ago, I was doing some off season running on the local trails, talking to a new friend I'd made here. The sudden cold snap seemed to be particularly bothering my joints and tendon that day, but she seemed light and spry, and something made me glance down at her shoes. I was shocked with what a saw. She was wearing shoes as maximalist as mine were minimalist - a pair of Hoka One One trails shoes! I was agog, and I told her as much. She replied that they were much, much lighter than they looked, and further, she had found that she could now run 13 miles and feel like she only ran 3.

I was more than a bit skeptical - how could you possibly have any groundfeel on the trail with shoes that cushy? - I remembered a bad experience I had had with a thick pair of inov8s - but I kept her words in mind.

Then during the Thanksgiving weekend, when all the good shoe sales were on, my husband decided he needed a replacement for his trusty Saucony Kinvaras. Since they were no longer sold in wide widths, this only meant one thing: time for shoe shopping. We headed out to some local running stores, and while he was digging through their inventories, I spied some Hokas on the rack in the corner of one shop. Curiosity got the best of me, and I gave in, asking the salesman to please bring me a pair to try on.

I was shocked. Not only did they feel more comfortable than I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised that both my stride and footstrike felt natural in them during a quick test run.

I immediately went home and checked RunBlogger one more time, and sure enough, he had some advice on some Hokas and actually seemed to sorta like them. The Huaka line seemed particularly suited for me, so I loaded up Running Warehouse and ordered a pair. Happy Thanksgiving to me.

The rest is, as they say, history. I've been doing all of my long runs and my tempo runs in them. I took them out to a track for a test drive, but I found that I did not like them there. Something about how they felt - just too squishy for track reps - meant that I would still be able to take my flats out for training, which means they won't feel totally abandoned.

Big Purps on campus

But more importantly, I've been running pain free. Completely.

My Achilles tendon hasn't said a peep.

So for all you other minimalist type folk out there who are facing a similar situation as me, I recommend you check out this line of shoes. The heel-toe drop is a minimal 1-2 mm, the shoe has a nice curvature to it which lends to a natural gait, and despite the maximal stack height, the shoe is not designed to induce any unwanted pronation control. And what's nicer, the Huaka is just as light as my inov8 bare-X lite 155s, if not a smidge lighter.

Go on. Try them out. Cheat on your loves.

I won't tell.

Update: No sooner do I find a distance shoe that I love, than they discontinue it. Story of my life. Running Warehouse has some crazy good closeout prices on the Huaka, so I recommend stocking up. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out what may be a good replacement. Another Hoka? The rest are squishier without the RMAT midsole and feature more heel-toe drop... I may look into some Altra's, instead.