Cross Country Spikes!?
I'm in cross country, and I need spikes. My mom tried to get me some, but I looked at them and they were just regular running shoes, and I told her about it, and then she returned them. The question is, are there such things as special spikes for cross country, or do people just call regular running shoes they used for cross country "cross country spikes"? My mom said she went to Academy sports and asked for "cross country shoes" but the salesperson said there were no such thing, and that I just get running shoes. That's really weird, because I thought there were such things as shoes made for cross country that have spikes on the bottom, is there? An addition question is, if I get cross country spikes, can I use them for track?
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There are indeed cross country spikes. They have a more padded heel bed than track spikes do.
But, as you guy’s have learned, they’re not only tricky to find, most salesmen in sporting goods stores - or even Foot Locker sometimes - won’t know what you’re talking about.
All this said, unless you're running on a 100% dirt, grass, or sod courses every time out, spikes are not necessarily the best shoes for racing; you’ll want to look at “cross country flats” like Nike Free 3.0 or Nike Flex etc. Go to Eastbay.com and look there.
My son - he’s 16 and a top competitor in our area - has three different types of racing shoes that he takes to most meets. Even though by now, he’s seen most of the courses he‘ll be running on, as he’s in his third season of high school running, he takes all three types - flats, rubber spikes, and his trainers - because conditions can change. A hard packed, mostly dirt course or grass , for example, can quickly become a mud bath in certain parts of the course if it rains; so he has his Nike Zoom Air waffle, which are rubber spikes - VERY tough to find (eBay) -
But mostly, he uses Nike’s Mayfly - uses those for 1600 and 3200 meters in track as well - which are now out of production, but worth every penny if you can find them, again, eBay or Footlocker.com.
Good luck, and look at Runners World.com etc…..