My Run In With The Skechers GoRun Speed (GoRun Racer)

I stopped by the San Francisco Skechers store and to my surprise found the Skechers GoRun Speed (the salespeople referred to it as this and not the GoRun Racer). I had heard through some forum talk that it would be released in April, but the salespeople told me that they actually had some men's pairs in stock about a month ago, sold the few pairs that they had and then got another small shipment of womens shoes two days ago.

I was surprised to see that they kept the "GoMeb" on the heel counter. I like it.

Though I thought it looked bullet shaped, I was happy to find the toe box could accomodate
my toes just fine. This is the women's model, mind you. I am not a woman.

*checks pants*

Nope, not a woman.

The shoe felt light. Definitely racer category light, but not as light as my GoBionics.

Though I could bend it to this degree, it took some force. Enough force to leave a permanent
crease in the sole where it bent (sssshhhh). This being a racer, I didn't mind that it wasn't
super flexible.

The sole. The purple GoImpulse sensors didn't feel like the hard rubber like in my other
GoRuns. They actually felt kind of squishy, which I like. More notably, there seems to be
a carbon plate in the middle of the sole that may run through the heel. I would guess (just a guess)
that this gives it some extra spring and pop.

A closer view of the carbon (plastic?) plate. And the ummm, crease.
I feel really guilty and totally intend to buy from this store now, especially since I've
had a genuinely great experience with the salespeople. Positive word of mouth is all
I can afford to give for now.

The heel counter was unexpectedly stiff. This is my real effort to make it collapse.

Note that the printed name as "GoRun S." The salepeople
immediately called it the Gorun Speed when I asked for "that work of beauty in the window."

The insole is NOT removeable. Or well, it is, in that it's glued on but only
around the middle portions of the insole.

The front 2 centimeters had a lamination type of thing going on. 

Inside the box. Looks to be the men's colorway.

I got to put them on and jog in the store. Jogging 20 meters in a store on hardwood is by no means comprehensive, but I loved them. They felt pretty flat, maybe 4-5mm drop or so. The ride height felt significant along with the cushioning, despite being stiff when I tried to bend it. But it could've just been the hardwood I was jogging on and again, 20 meters isn't much to go on. They felt firmer than my Lunaracers. The M-strike technology felt almost non-existent but I was definitely mid-foot striking, so it at least wasn't making me heel-slam.

My initial impressions made me want to buy them right there and then, as I suspected they wouldn't have it around for long and if it was really only to be released widely in April, oh man....The only reason I didn't is that I can't afford to just keep buying $110US shoes (that was the retail price) as I just purchased a pair of Mizuno Ekidens a few days ago. I felt (and apparently, so does this fellow named Meb) that they would be very appropriate for long races up to a marathon so I considered it for my first half-marathon race the next day, but even I know better than to make such a drastic gamble. But mostly, money.

Again, these were the women's shoes as that is all they had, but I thought the colorway looked fine for a guy, and the toe box fit fine for me.

*edit*

My friend recently bought me a pair. I have a (very long) unboxing and preview video in this post: http://newbierunnerblog.blogspot.com/2013/02/skechers-gorun-speed-unboxing-preview.html