I may be a little obssesive! New Balance MT101 review, La Sportiva Skylite review.

Since I have started training for ultras, shoes have become somewhat of an obsession for me. The picture above depicts my current quiver of shoes. Starting with the Black/Red and heading clockwise are:
Nike Air Pegasus+ 26 TR
Saucony Kinvara (Street Shoe)
Adidas Marathon 10 (Street Shoe)
Brooks Cascadia 5
La Sportiva Skylite
New Balance MT101
Why such the obsession? When my long runs started getting over 3-4 hours, my feet began to suffer. From giant blisters to blisters under my toenails, to black toenails, etc., I began to get serious about what I was putting my feet into. Then, when some of my runs hit the 8-9 hour mark, the little things that I ignored before became very hard to ignore past 4 hours. 
My first foray into trail shoes were the Nike Air Pegasus+ TR. These were everything I thought I wanted. Nikes were my favorite shoes when I ran cross country in school. They were also nice and cushiony. I found two problems though. First, I was running in a half size too small, and second, they had too much cushion. I was able to get about 350 miles out of these shoes before they broke down.
My next trail shoe was the Brooks Cascadia. A trail shoe that is known in the ultra world and a successful trail shoe. From the start I liked this shoe. A fairly low profile sole and a much lower and compact heal. While I had logged some big training runs of up to 52 miles, I felt as though these shoes had a little too much support. They didn't seem to let my feet move through their normal motion. Durability has been good though. I have about 350+ miles on them and they still have life.
The next shoe I picked up was the minimalist shoe from New Balance called the MT101. I read several reviews on these and many were saying that they were good for up to a half marathon (13.1 miles), but anything over that, there was just not enough cushion. I ran two runs in these of about six miles each and then ran 30 rough trail miles. These shoes were like wearing a comfy pair of house slippers. I am extremely impressed with the wear of these shoes. I now have over 100 miles on these shoes and the tread has shown little wear.
Lastly, I searched for a shoe for the RR100 coming up. I chose the La Sportiva because the course is all on well groomed horse trails. A ton of traction is not necessary and neither is a lot of cushion. The Skylites feature a build in scree guard which is helpful for keeping the gravel-like clay out of the shoes. These shoes were a little tight to start with. I did a couple of street 6 milers and the balls of my feet were sore. Regardless, I decided to use them last weekend. I ran 40 miles in them on the dirt and they felt great. These shoes are definitely a trail shoe and not a street shoe.
So you can see why there is such an obsession. Each shoe is different and has its own set of strengths and weaknesses. I have found the fewer "bells and whistles", the better. As of now, I will take 2 pairs of shoes to the Rocky Road 100; the La Sportiva Skylites and the New Balance MT101s.