I bought a new pair of Inov-8 Trailroc 255s the other day, and they look like this:

I love my old pair to bits. Literally. They’ve been with me for nearly a year and in that time they’ve helped me see off the Norman Conquest 50, The Wall Ultra (69 miles), half of the NDW100, the Punchbowl Marathon, the SDW50 and various shorter races – and of course hundreds of miles of training in-between. But honestly, apart from some (quite even) wear in the soles, there’s not a huge amount wrong with them. Just some holes in the uppers.

The holes are quite small and regular, but they look like they will get much bigger until eventually the uppers will split. So I’m going to try to repair them and eke out a few more miles from my old friends.

Sugru is a rubber solution created for repairing pretty much anything, and a mate of mine had used them to patch enormous holes in his Inov-8s, so let’s have a go. First I select the sachet of black Sugru – in the pack there is also blue, yellow and red.

Then I work it around in my hands a little bit, like using Plasticene or Fimo modelling clay. I don’t use too much, just a pea-sized ball. I press one into the inside of the hole, and one into the outside.

I press it around and work it into the mesh of the cloth, so that all the frayed area around the hole is covered with Sugru, and there’s a good amount beyond that so that it gets a good grip. It won’t win any prizes for looks, but if it means me keeping my ol’ faithfuls for a bit longer then I’ll be happy.

I do the same with the hole in the other shoe.

Then I leave it for 24 hours to set. And now, they’re very wearable; I’ve only worn them for 20-odd miles of running so far but there’s no rubbing or any other ill-effects. I’ll keep you posted with the condition of the repair, but I reckon I have another couple of hundred miles to go in these now.

I bought this multipack of Sugru from Ellis Brigham in Covent Garden, London. It cost £9.99 for 5 sachets.