Ran about 3 miles at 6:30 pace, including a couple fast laps on the track, in New Balance 305s. Ran with Todd Coolidge, fast as usual. Saw some other late-night freaks out running too.
30 years later:
Due to the heat of summer, we'd often run after 9pm in the streets of Baraboo. 1979 was the heart of what is now in retrospect called "the first running boom", and ordinary folks were coming off of their couches and beginning to jog. They'd often do this after dark, partly out of embarrassment. But we were proud to be part of a sort of fringe fraternity. In these days, when a small road race might have over 4000 runners, I sometimes miss the spirit and simplicity of a 70-runner race in a small town, with numbered popsicle sticks used to determine awards. Ah, the old days.
I have been searching high and low for a photo of the old New Balance 305s, and I can't find one anywhere. Below is a photo of the 320, which came out a couple of years later. Actually, this photo is of a re-release version intended for the casual shoe market about two years ago. The colors are all wrong, but the outsole and upper are almost identical to the 305. The 305 was blue, with navy blue suede trim. The main difference between the 320 pictured below and the 305 was in the midsole; in the picture below, you can see a two-later EVA midsole in the heel, with one layer in the forefoot. Both layers are about 0.5 inches thick. In the 305, the upper layer (and single layer in the forefoot) was much, much thinner, less than 0.25 inches, and was red; the lower layer in the heel was blue and about the same thickness as below. That made the shoes lighter and more flexible, but it also meant they had very little padding. Luckily, I was young. Check out the herringbone pattern, gum rubber sole.
Okay, I decided to use Photoshop to create a quick sketch of the 305 by modifying the image above. This is bad, but it's fairly close. Did any of you own this shoe?
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