Inov-8 showcased their new shoe model for this fall at the Kendal Outdoor Retail Show – one of the outdoor fairs in the UK. The x-talon 212 is an ultra-light trail shoe with quite some mid-sole cushioning, light mesh uppers and a sticky rubber outsole.

Other news from Inov-8 for the upcoming year is a couple of completely new shoes, three women-only models and the Flyroc 310 and Roclite 320 models getting a revision, amongst other.

The guys at outdoorsmagic.com have more details and photos of these new shoes.

Some bad news today from Karl and his crew on the attempt to break the speed record running the Appalachian Trail. A swollen left anterior tibialis is forcing him to take an unplanned day off. The inflammation is a direct result of changing his stride to compensate for the pain in his toe due to a blister he is having since day 3. Although he was 23 miles ahead of Andrew Thompson’s course (he holds the current AT record), this forced rest day will make impossible for him to break the record. “Honestly, right now, the record is important, but it’s more important for me to do what I have to do to keep going. I am not a quitter.”, said Karl, “You have no idea how frustrated I am right now.”. After checking with his doctors, family, crew and sponsors, the decision to take a break was made to ensure the inflammation was not getting worse and to avoid having to quit the challenge.

Twietmeyer’s speed record is safe… for now. Peter Lubbers could not run the Tahoe Rim Trail in less than 46 hours. Severe altitude sickness affected him during Saturday, when he covered a stretch of trail which had parts over 9,000′ elevation. This caused him to loose several hours that turned to be impossible to overcome. But despite this setback, he kept running at a good speed on Sunday and Monday and finished with a final time of 57:54. During his amazing challenge he run 165 miles with almost 30,000′ elevation gain and loss and sleeping very little time. In Peter’s words “[the challenge] has been an incredible adventure; easily the best run of my life. I am feeling great (need to get a little bit of sleep now, though).“. Congrats Peter! The record can wait!

This past July, 60 minutes dedicated one of its shows to Dean Karnazes. Dean was interviewed and talked about his life as a runner, his workouts, his experience in Badwater amongst other things. Partial clips of the show are viewable on-line at 60minutes.yahoo.com. It’s quite annoying the way they set up the site, as you have to close the player after every 1-minute clip and re-open to watch another (thus having to watch the same commercial again and again at the beginning of every video). Anyway, it’s worth it if you missed the whole thing on tv and you are a bit patient.

We’ve got another record attempt underway! At this very moment Petter Lubbers is running the Tahoe Rim Trail in his attempt to break the speed record of 45:58 currently held by Tim Twietmeyer. Peter, part of the Wasatch Speed Goat Mountain Racing Team, kicked off the challenge yesterday August 15 at 4:00 PM and his progress is being blogged by Michael Kanning at runlaketahoe.blogspot.com. As of yesterday 9:30 PM he is 15 min behind the schedule, on what seems to be a prudent approach on his part, as the crew has reported “he is looking fresh as when began, in high spirits”.

We’ll be following Peter’s progress so check back tomorrow to read the final outcome of this challenge!

One more year - since 1983 when Kenneth Chlouber came up with the “crazy idea” - Leadville, Colorado will attract some of the best ultra runners in the country to obtain one of the gold belt buckles, given to all those who finish the race under 25 hours. Leadville Trail 100 is a 100-miler on forest trails, with 50 miles out and back in the midst of the Colorado Rockies with a lowest point of 9,200 ft. and 12,600 ft the highest. This year we are going to see “new” winners on the men’s race, as Anton Krupicka took the victory in the past two years and is not on the participants list and neither seems to be Tammy Stone, winner for the women’s race.

Yesterday, athletes had a carbo-dinner with race check-in and packet pick-up, today all athletes will follow a mandatory medical check-in, and the competition will kick off tomorrow Saturday at 4:00 AM with a cut-off time of 25 30 hours.

LT100 has seen a growing popularity over the years and is part of the Western Slam, part of the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning and an optional part of the Rocky Mountain Slam. Over the time, other running and biking races have been included into the Leadville 100 umbrella, creating a new title, Leadman and Leadwoman, for all those who complete – on top of the ultramarathon – the Trail 100 Mountainbike, the Marathon, the Silver Rush, and the 10k run.