I’ve reviewed two shoes before, the Brooks Hyperion Tempo and the On Running Cloudflyer neither of which I totally loved. That said, I’ve since run a couple of 5 and 10km PBs in the Tempos so maybe I was a bit harsh on them? Anyway, I’m here to write an unhesitatingly positive review for once. Let’s call it my love letter to the Brooks Ghost.

I think I’ve owned about three or four pairs of these over the years, and it’s the shoe I reach for most often for those sessions which pay the bills. You know, the long weekend run, the parkrun, the walk to the coffee shop, the easy catch-up run with a friend. 

Wearing the Ghost feels like wearing a favourite pair of slippers. It’s soooo cushioned and comfortable, and about as neutral as they get, with a slight heel drop and responsive midsole. Okay, so it’s not that exciting. There’s no fancy carbon plate or thrilling ping of energy return on the downforce, they don’t look all that sexy and they never feature on the winner’s podium.

But since I’m never a winner, that just doesn’t matter to me. These shoes are something of a best friend; reliable, responsive comfortable, supportive in just the right amounts and provide incredible value for money. I comfortably get around 800km+ out of each pair without losing the cushioning, and they never ever give me blisters. 

I’m also genuinely happy to read that they are Brooks’ first foray into developing 100% carbon neutral shoe and on this metric alone I will continue to support them.

I don’t have a relationship with Brooks and I pay for all the shoes I run in. So I can comfortably say that if you need a workhorse shoe, that will do the hard miles and the junk miles and the coffee runs and the easy runs, then this will always be the shoe I’d recommend.