The Running Event Recap

Disclaimer: I received admission to The Running Event, a travel stipend for my trip and products from Addaday, Altra, Arcanum, Brooks, CEP, Incrediwear, Nuun, Vooray, Vuori and Zwift as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review, find and write race reviews!

Being a Bibrave Pro definitely has it's perks! Usually it's in the form of a free race entry or free products to test. I was one of the lucky Pro's who was chosen to travel to Austin, TX for Influencer Day at The Running Event. The Running Event is a trade show where all brands that make running products get to showcase their latest goods. 

We had three main events throughout the weekend from Thursday to Friday including The Influencer Reception Sponsored by Zwift, a Bibrave group run, and tour of The Running Event (TRE) expo.

Thursday

After arriving in Austin the majority of us all met up for lunch to finally meet each other, some for the first time. It was so awesome to finally meet some of the Pro's that I have been connecting with on social for over two years. We instantly bonded like we were lifelong friends! After some much needed food, sightseeing, and exploring we headed to the Hilton Austin for the Zwift welcome reception. 

The Influencer Reception sponsored by Zwift.

Thursday evening we were welcome to Austin by Zwift. Zwift has been the leading the virtual endurance industry with its virtual cycling app. The app just recently was made for runners on a treadmill, which was released at The Running Event. How it works is you wear a shoe pod which tracks your movement and transmits it to the app which shows your avatar running in the virtual world. 

I along with Vanessa, Brenda, and Lindsey were the "chosen ones" for the Zwift virtual 5K. We were pacers for the race which was available for others to join as well. We had about 20 other Bibrave Pros running it with us. The entire experience was riveting! For years I've been connecting with Pros from all over the country, yet haven't had to opportunity to meet them in person. Zwift made it possible for me to run with them, and made the experience much more rewarding. It was actually motivating to run with pros like Lisa and Alastair during the run because I wanted to make sure I was keeping up with my peers.

After the run I was able to view my Ultimate Swag Bag from TRE. Here is what I received:

• Addaday Massage Roller
• Altra Escalante 1.5 Running Shoes
• Arcanum Edge Quill, Freeze Ointment, and Breeze - Sport Massage Oil
• Vuori Running Shorts
• CEP Compression Socks and Merino Trail Socks
• Incrediwear no-show, ankle, and knee-high recovery socks, and compression pants
• Zwift Running Pod
• Brooks Ghost Running Shoes, Reflective Jacket
• Nuun Electrolyte, Energy, Vitamin, and Immunity Tablets
• Vooray Backpack

It was quite the surprise to be honest! I didn't have much time to look everything over right away because I was participating in the Zwift run. 

Next I went back to my hotel to shower and change, and met the Pros at Iron Works BBQ for some delicious fuel. After dinner we were all invited to an after party sponsored by Brooks. There was a live bad, compimentary beverages and dancing. We even got to meet Boston Marathon Champion Des Linden.

Friday

Today was the big day! We woke up early for a Bibrave group run at 6:30am. Not the most fun time to meet up after being at the Brooks party but the weather was so amazing that it didn't matter. It was low 70's for our run. We started at Hilton Austin and then made our way to the Austin Capitol building. Along the way we had a professional photographer taking pictures of us. 

Since we got carried away taking pictured I decided to duck out with a few other pros and head back to our hotel. We changed, grabbed a quick bite, and then headed to The Running Event!

TRE is a big convention where all brands that make any type of product for running showcase their latest products. The regular expo is designed for suppliers, store owners, and distributors of running gear. For example, if I owned a local running store I would have gone to see what new products I might want to stock in my store. We were there for Influencer Day.    

Influencer Day is the last day of the expo where other social media influencers like ourselves get to walk through the expo and see what everyone has to offer. Our tour group sepcifically stopped at all the booths that we received swag from, to learn more about them, and to thank them.

First stop was Arcanum Edge:

I had never heard of this company so I was very excited to hear about there product, since I had recently tested CBD oil earlier this year and became a huge hemp advocate. What sets them apart is that they use activated hemp rather than CBD. It was explained that CBD is an isolated compound from the hemp plant, where activated hemp is using the whole components (i.e. absorbic acid vitamin c verse eating a fresh orange).

We received The Quill which is a topical cream to be applied to the wrists for maximum absorption of the nutrients, Freeze which is a post-workout recovery cream, and Breeze which is a massage oil that balances skin moisture levels.

For my full review of Arcanum Edge see my blog post.

Second stop was Handful Bra:

Handful is a company that is striving to make make women feel empowered and confident while running and in every day life. Their products had no wiring, room for padding, and no bounce. They work a lot with women who are diagnosed or have beaten breast cancer to help them find a bra that gives them back their confidence. Their clothes have a balance of function and style.

Next was Vuori:

Vuori makes some of the most comfortable clothing I have ever felt. From silky soft sweatpants to lined running shorts, I fell in love with everything. Their clothing is very versatile made to look great at work but still functional and flexible enough for hiking, running, and yoga. I'm pretty sure we all said "oh sh*t" when we touched their clothing. 

For my full review of my Vuori shorts see my blog post.

Vooray was next:

Talk about a dangerous booth! Vooray makes bags in all shapes and sizes, from backpacks to duffels and all in between. Their designs are very floral and simple which makes it ideal for men and women. What sets them apart from other companies is that they keep business cost super low which allows them to focus more on quality, and gives you a more affordable higher quality bag than competitors. 

Before I even left Austin I had bought one of their duffel bags online because I fell for it so hard. 

For my full review of my Vooray Backback see my blog post.

We went to Addaday next:

We all know Addaday from their amazing rollers, hand rollers and foam rollers. I was so stoked to get the hand roller because I have been eyeing it for some time. At their booth they wanted to talk to us about their latest product which is an Oolong Tea designed for runners. The tea leaves are hand picked in Taiwan and not cut or crushed. This means all the nutrients and antioxidants are still naturally whole and ready for absorption. What's also amazing is that since the leaves are whole, you can rebrew the tea up to 6 times and still receive the benefits from it.

For my full review of the Addaday hand roller see my blog post.

Next we were off to Nuun:

Nuun will always have a place in my heart! I love nuun, hence my I am a Nuun Ambassador too. Here at their booth that talked about the different types of nuun they offer: Electrolytes, Vitamin, Energy, and Immunity.

They even had sample for us to try too. That was the best part because some of the flavors I wasn't sure I would like, and hadn't bought them before. Being able to taste them made all the difference, and I ended up liking the flavors I didn't think I would. 

For my full Nuun review see my blog post.

Incrediwear was our next stop:

We all know the benefits of compression, right? I learned so much more at from Incrediwear than I ever knew. They make preventative compression and recovery compression. Their speaker was Olymypic Runner Manteo Mitchell who ran his race on a broke limb. Using the recovery compression from Incrediwear he was able to make a full recovery and run again in less than a year. Their products range from ankle compression for pregnant women, socks, knee braces, and more to help specific parts of the body recover.

For my full review of Incrediwear see my blog post.

We kept the compression going and went to CEP next:

CEP needed no introduction since they are one of the leading compression sock companies, and making compression for over 65 years. What sets them apart from other companies is that they started with medical application for patients before making products for runners. So they know what they are doing. They talked about the correct amount of compression in specific locations like more in the feet and less in the ankle which helps prevent water retention to increase blood flow.

Check out this blog for my full review:

Altra Running was our second to last stop:

Altra makes a very unique style of running shoes that I have had my eye on since I ran Runner's World Grand Slam, which was sponsored by Altra. Their shoes are know for a zero drop from the heel to toe, meaning that your whole foot is on the same plane which is more natural. They also designed their shoes in the shape of feet which contour the foot better. They showed us several different shoe styles and what each is good for. They even let us check out their latest trail running shoe which has been rated the #1 trail running shoe.

Run to this blog for my full Altra review:

Our last stop was at Brooks:

Brooks again needed no introductions. We are all familiar with their shoes and brand. they were primarily there promoting their shoes since that is their bread and butter. I was a bit more interested in their gear because I love the feel of it all but I learned a lot about what makes their shoes different. They have a special plate in the sole of the shoes that directs the impact energy upward back into your stride, rather than out to the side. So there is a bit more spring in each step because you're using your own momentum to push off with each step.

Check out this blog for my full review.

After our guided tour was over we had until the expo closed to view all the other booths. There were lots of new brands with unique products and some of our favorites like Orange Mud. We got so many samples and free swag from everyone that I needed an extra bag just to carry the stuff I got that day, let alone the swag from the TRE sponsors. 

Final Reflections

I'm humbled that I was chosen to be a part of this amazing weekend! To meet so many Pros would have been enough but to get all the swag and explore Austin too made it the trip of a lifetime. Huge thank you goes out to Team Bibrave for all their hard work arranging this for us and to all the companies that sponsored our Ultimate Swag Bags.

5 Reasons to Run the Reebok Boston 10K for Women

Disclaimer: I’m promoting Reebok Boston 10K for Women as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to find and write race reviews!

There's lots to be excited for about fall: pumpkin everything, cooler weather, flannel, and of course the best races of the year. If you don't have any races planned yet then here are my top 5 reasons to sign up for a fall race, and specifically the Reebok Women's 10K.

1.) Weather: October is the best month of the year to run a race for optimal weather. Summer has come to a close and the cooler weather of fall is happening. According to the Elite Daily website, the best temperature for women to run in is 51.8 degrees, and the average temperature in Boston is about 60 degrees. So while it might not be the exact ideal temperature it is definitely much better than 70's or even 80's of summer. That means you'll be able to perform better and have a better race.

2.) Scenery: Fall is one of the prettiest times of the year! Trees change colors and blend into the perfect sunsets, and pumpkins decorate everything. The Reebok Women's 10K course is one of the most scenic in Boston. Starting on Beacon Street lined with trees, then crossing the Charles River, and then following the river before crossing it again. It's a city race with all the fall feels.

3.) Race Beneficiaries: No race would be complete without a way to give back to the community. The Reebok Women's 10K has two different beneficiaries that are making a big difference in the Boston community. Boks is a program that encourages physical, mental, and social health of children through the power of movement. They host before and after school programs to help children move and exercise. The second beneficiary is Health Works Community Fitness, an amazing program that helps low income women and children get health and fitness opportunities. See the video to right to get inspired!

4.) Supporting Women: This whole race is about showing support for women, and to empower them to reach their health and fitness goals. Running has always had an amazing community for support and camaraderie but this race brings it to the next level because it's all about showing how strong the women of our nation are. Women are a force to be reckoned with so this is your opportunity to show off what you got. I've heard that crossing the Avenue Bridge is one of the best parts of the race. You get to see the elite runners on their way back as you cross it the first time then as you make your way back across you get to share that enthusiasm with the runners who are on the other side. Keep the positive vibes flowing!

5.) History: This race has a long history dating back to the late 1970's. It was one of the first of 12 races that was women only back then and now is one of the biggest women only races in the nation. In the early 2000's it held an award for the biggest women's only race for four consecutive years. Where the roots run deep with this race there is one thing that has been consistent since its conception: this is the race of choice for women of all ages. The proof is in the pudding, and you can see this from the remarkable support by the community.

There is so much to love about this race so don't waste another second, sign up for the Reebok Boston 10K for Women today!

Product Review: Athlinks

Disclaimer: I am promoting Athlinks as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews!

This year Bibrave has partnered with Athlinks which is a company that is about make your racing life so much easier. Athlinks is a website that compiles races results from virtually every race that there is in one place. So you create a profile and can search their data banks of results to find your results to save to your profile, et voilà!

For example with me, I was able to claim my results (see above) in just a few simple clicks for all of these races. It even has the statistics each race on where you placed in your age group, finish time, and pace. I find all of this information to be super handy especially when looking at your races all next to each other.

I'm a sucker for data, so when I'm trying to figure out how to improve or modify my training being able to see a birds eye view of my results is quite handy. Either that or having to look back in Strava to each specific date, then going to each individual website for results (if they have them), ugh what a pain.

One of my favorite features is that it shows you your PR's for each distance. We all know that sometimes our tracking devices can be a little off from our actual finish time, when the finish time is really the official PR time. Being able to have this information readily available is so convenient when signing up for a new race that requires a finish time from another race. Oh and it GETS BETTER! They have an app for it too, so you can always have your results with you. (app on right, desktop below).

So I bet you're wondering a few things:

• How easy can this really be? 
• I don't remember the name of every race I have run.
• How will this be different than searching through a race website for results?

Sit back and relax my friends as I put all your hesitations at ease. I started my profile and entered my personal information like birthday and name, now the website uses that to populate race results that match your information. So all I had to do was scroll down a list of unclaimed results and claim which races were mine, and which were by this imposter Chris McManus. Yeah I found out that not only is my name not original but that there is another runner with my name, gasp! So keep that in mind when claiming your results, only claim results that you yours.

To sum this up, save time and energy by checking out this website and getting all your race results. Oh did I mention that this is free?! So there is nothing holding you back from greatness! 

Check out Athlinks on their social media profiles for more cool updated from them:

T: @athlinks

IG: @athlinks

My new Thanksgiving tradition, Maui Style

First off I want to thank you for taking the time to read my blog today! If you don't know yet, this post is one of many that has been brought to you by the Bibravepro Team as a fun was to share our holiday spirit with you! After reading my post follow the link at the bottom to check out what my fellow Pro Jessica has to say about thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is some of everyone’s favorite holidays of the year. For runners it’s probably even more so. Not that we need an excuse to carb load because we do our best to on the regular,  but this is a holiday where everyone else who isn’t a runner gets to eat like a runner. The point I’m trying to make is that now since others get to eat copious amounts of carbs with us, we don’t feel weird by piling the mashed potatoes and stuffing.

Thanksgiving was always very big in my family, both of my sides. So we would have thanksgiving early with my mom’s side and then we would be in Florida on the actually day with my dad’s side. Add on the gravy and the desserts and you can probably understand why I had some winter weight every year. However that all changed when I moved to Maui. I work in the hospitality industry which means that I have sold my holidays to the pleasure of my guests. I haven’t had a thanksgiving off in 5 years. So that made going home difficult because this is one of our busiest times of the year, and even if I was approved the time off I would feel bad making my team work harder in my absence.

So I knew I would have to come up with a new holiday tradition since I would be stuck here. My first two years were rather hard to come up with a tradition since my friends that I were close with were always changing – Maui is considered to be a revolving door in the sense that people are always coming and going. But it wasn’t until last year that I finally found what I wanted to do as my new tradition. The Valley Isle Road Runners (VIRR) hosts a turkey trot on thanksgiving that’s either an 8 mile or 16 mile race, with the intention of being a good training race for the upcoming Honolulu Marathon on December 11^th.

What's super cool about this race is that it's not a position based race for the winners, meaning he/she who finishes first is not the winner. At the beginning of the race you give the officials an estimated finish time for the race. The winner are determined by who has the closest finish time to their prediction, without the use of cell phones or watches.

It's not exactly the flattest course by any means. The first six miles are all down hill, then the next eight miles are solid uphill, then the remaining two miles are down hill again back to the beginning elevation. But the views are remarkable, so it's worth it! The race begin in Kula, Maui at Rice Park which is over 3000 feet above sea level, so all the views are looking down on the valley of Maui. 

To add a little more challenge to the race, there are companies that run bike rides from the top of the summit at 10,000 feet down to the bottom, so that means that you are dodging cars and bikers the whole time. Can you say, wear bright clothes? 

I've never forget the feeling of finally making it to the top of the road and starting down. I was so happy after those grueling eight miles, but then my legs we so sore going down such a steep hill. I think that only momentum kept me going. Then the finish came into sight and I was so proud that I completed it. I hung around for the awards because I wanted to know how close people were going to be. The biggest surprise was that I had won second place for being within 3 minutes of my guess. My prize was a canned ham, which I had never had before but I was thankful for it regardless.

Then what made this race even more victorious for me was that I had burned over 1700 calories. That meant a free pass for all the thanksgiving fixing, an extra guilt free slice of pie, and gravy over everything. As I sat there reflecting after dinner I realized that I was full of food and pride for my run that day, and boy was I content. That's when I knew that this would be a tradition that I wanted to keep, I wanted to feel this good at least for one night every year!

Now it's time to continue on to Jessica's post as you continue along our Thanksgiving inspired Bibravepro blog linkup. Click here to go to Jessica's Blog! Wishing you all a safe and satisfying holiday this week!

Running with Jet-lag

Just a few weeks ago I returned from my fall runcation to the Northeast for Chicago Marathon and my brother's wedding in Pennsylvania. I was so happy to be back to the Valley Isle where it's warm. #sorrynotsorry I'm spoiled here with the warm tropical climate. Anything below 74 is cold to me, so it was a very cold vacation for me. I have to say I did enjoy wearing jeans for a change!

The one thing that's hardest for me when I come back home from the east coast is the Jet-lag, a six hour time change really messes with your internal clock. Especially spending over two weeks in that time zone, it's quite the challenge to readjust to Maui time. I'm one of those people that rarely has to set an alarm because I'm always up at the crack of dawn anyways.

My whole first week back on Maui my body was waking up between 3:30-4:15am. Aka the time that most people my age are going to bed, especially my friends that work closing shifts are restaurants. At first I thought that I would go crazy waking up so early! What could I possible do for almost six hours before I had to go to work? The first day I easily filled in the time getting my life and apartment back in order, planning my groceries for the week, etc. But come day two I was already caught up on everything. So I found the healthiest outlet for my restlessness, and what feel the most natural, running.

I could have literally slapped myself for not thinking about it sooner. This pale half Irish white boy on Maui knows the peril that awaits me if I run while the sun is up, sunburn. So what I had gotten used to during my marathon training in the previous m
onths was running after dark. I already had the gear to run in the dark that keeps me aware of others, and others aware of me: my Amphipod reflector vest, Knuckle Lights, and Treks Titanium headphones (featured on the right).

What I noticed first was that it was much cooler in the mornings, duh. The sun had been down all night so the residual heat had already dissipated. Cool temps meant cooler body and less stress which equal faster pace and better performance. The other and more noticeable observation was the slim to none traffic when compared to night running. Most people were still sleeping so there less people were on the roads which means less of a chance for me to get hit from a drunk driver or tourist (sorry but they cause more accidents than drunks on Maui).

After two or three days of spending my early mornings out running I realized how much better my days happened to be. I'm a firm believer that when you start a day with a healthy decision then you are more inclined to make healthy decisions throughout the day. So by starting the day with a run that led to a veggie packed protein shake, and tons of water. That then led to better food choices in the employee cafeteria. Then come night time I would end up heading to bed much earlier, but I was sleeping longer and better than before.

Just this week I had a night body barre class, and going to bed after that class was much harder since the workout was so fresh that my muscles hadn't had all day to start recovering. So by exercising in the morning my body was ready for restful sleep by the time it hit 8:00pm. That might seem early to most people, call me a grandpa if you want, but I was still waking up at 4:00am so going to bed that early would get me my eight hours of sleep.

To sum this whole idea up I want to keep this whole morning thing up for a while. I want to see how my training differs, how my sleep will be affected in the long run, and how strong my body will become because of it.