Disclaimer: I received 2Toms‘ FootShield to review 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! All opinions are my own.
Ever have a blister on your feet? Maybe from when you’re trying to break in those cute ballet flats or sandals? Or from when you’re running a half marathon in humid weather? Oh I definitely have and let me tell you, it’s not a pleasant feeling.
2Toms FootShield and compression socks to keep the blisters away
“2Toms mission has always been to provide the best comfort and care to athletes by offering the most technologically advanced products available anywhere.”
2Toms’ most popular products include the BlisterShield and Sportshield, a blister prevention and chafing prevention product respectively. Most recently, they came out with FootShield, a perspiration barrier for your feet. I was fortunate enough to try it out and here’s my review of the product. Enjoy!
How it works: FootShield comes in the form of a roll-on applicator. You roll the solution onto the bottom, top, and sides of your feet, wait a few minutes for your feet to dry, and voila, you’re on your way to a blister free day. As mentioned previously, Footshield creates a perspiration barrier. That barrier prevents your feet from getting sweaty, which also means it reduces your chances of getting blisters. As a runner, I cannot love this aspect of the product more. Blisters suck and if I can prevent them, I will.
Brought Footshield with me to Texas, where is was HUMID as hell
The formula 2Toms uses also contains natural anti-fungal ingredients that fight bacteria, which minimizes odor and your chances of getting Athlete’s foot. That’s a nice perk, don’t you think? 🙂 The roll-on also smells of spearmint, which I can totally get on board with.
My experience: I’ve applied FootShield several times before going out on long runs (even a half marathon on a super humid day) and never have I come back with blisters. I have also applied FootShield and gone out in sandals and ballet flats and have not experienced any irritation. I should mention that I’m not as prone to getting blisters nowadays, but I will say that my feet are not as sweaty after application, which I’m extremely grateful for. This will definitely help me during the humid summer. It allows me to wear socks for multiple days without having to do laundry. Hooray!
Happy feet. Happy life.
I will continue to use it all summer long (races and marathon training included) and hope that I never have to repeat my AFC experience. Ouch.
Join us for #bibchat on Twitter at 6 pm PT on Tuesday, June 27th. We’ll be giving away a bottle of Footshield to two participants. Also, if you would like to buy a bottle, they are $15 and you can use the code “2TOMS20” for 20% off your entire online order. 🙂
Check out other BibRave Pros’ review of the product below.
This is a week late, but Chicago marathon training has commenced! The Chicago marathon will be my second full marathon and I’m nervous as hell about training for it. Last year, I ran the NYC marathon and had an absolute blast. I wasn’t shooting for a particular time. I just wanted to finish, which I did. 🙂 This year, it’s time to shoot for the moon.
Since I’ve been getting faster the past six or seven months, I decided to try for an ambitious goal. I finished last year’s marathon in 4 hours 48 min and 49 seconds. This year, I’m hoping to shave down 49 minutes and run the Chicago marathon in under 4 hours. Holy crap, right? That means I would have to run a full 2 min/mile faster AND do it for 26.2 miles. O.M.G. I only started running sub 2 half marathons last December. I’m thinking about it now and this has got to be one of my craziest goals yet. I find myself giggling whenever I think or talk about it. It could be part nerves and part excitement. Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s all nerves, but whatever. LOL.
Marathon training has commenced and I’m going to try and put my best foot forward – literally. Last year, I tried to follow this Women’s Running plan. I ended up doing 3 out of the 4 runs a week and I think my peak mileage was 31 miles. This year, I’m following Hanson’s marathon, which emphasizes CUMULATIVE FATIGUE. I’m essentially running on tired legs for 17 weeks. LOL According to the plan, I’ll be hitting 57 miles during peak week. Yikes! The plan is actually 18 weeks and I started a week late, but that’s fine because I’m already starting off with a base mileage of 21 miles a week. 🙂 I’ll try my best to recap each week’s workouts, but since I’m also trying to graduate in August, I may miss a week or two. Hope you’ll forgive me. 🙂
Week 1
Monday (Rest) – I actually did rest – unintentionally. I was coming back from vacation and didn’t get a chance to run. Luckily, it worked out for me since I wasn’t supposed to run anyway.
Tuesday (Easy 4 miles) – According to the Hanson plan, easy runs are supposed to be EASY. Since you’re running so much, you have to run a chunk of the miles at an easy pace. I’ve never really tried training this way so my first easy run kind of failed. My target pace was a 10:15 min/mile. I ran at an 8:17 min/mile. Oops. At least I hit 4 miles. 🙂
Wednesday (Rest) – Sooooo I did not run on Wednesday, but I did attend a free spin class and according to Hanson’s method, crosstraining is a big no no. LOL. But the class was free and I wanted to take advantage of it. Oh well. 🙂
Thursday (Easy 4 miles) – Ran 4 miles close to my target pace. Also, attended another spin class because, all the free classes end on Sunday. I had to make the most of it.
Friday (Easy 4 miles) – Ran 4 miles, but my pacing was all over the place. I ran for the first time in a sports bra and I was feeling very nervous about being judged so I ran faster to finish faster. Maybe I’ll get more comfortable just running in a sports bra one day. 🙂
Saturday (Easy 4 miles) – Nailed my pacing and mileage. Also, I took my last free spin class. 😦
Sunday (Easy 5 miles) – I had actually run a little more than 4 miles on the other days so I only had to run a little over 4 on Sunday to finish the week off with 21 miles. Hooray!
Sooooo can I actually do this? And the answer is that I honestly don’t know. I’m scared. This plan could completely blow up in my face, but I’m trying anyway. It’s better to shoot for the moon and land among the stars, right? 🙂
Disclaimer: I received a pair of Adidas UltraBoost X to review 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!
If you told me when I was 10 that I’d have a closet full of shoes almost 20 years later, I’d laugh at you. I’ve never been interested in shoes. Heels were too difficult for me to walk in and sandals didn’t really give me the support I needed. To me, shoes were just shoes…or so I thought. As a more serious runner now, I’ve found that a good pair of running shoes can make or break your training.
Those aren’t even all of my shoes. LOL
Here’s a short history of my running shoes: I started out with Brooks’ Ghost – a neutral shoe with cushioning (12 mm midsole drop) I ran through almost four pairs before giving another brand a try, not because they no longer worked for me, but because I had won a pair of New Balance shoes from a Strava challenge. I chose to try out the New Balance Vazee2090 – a neutral shoe with cushioning (6 mm midsole drop) and in all honesty, this shoe blew my mind. The Vazee2090s were more responsive and I got faster.
A responsive shoe means that the shoe is responding to the ground. It’ll allow you to spring faster after the initial contact with the ground.
So when BibRave gave us the opportunity to try out the new Adidas’ UltraBoostXs – another neutral shoe (10 mm midsole drop) that praised to have the most responsive cushioning ever, I was 100% hands down to try them. Here’s a little bit more information about them.
The first look and feel: I’ve never had more people compliment me on my running shoes before. LOL. The UltraBoostXs are a hug for your feet. Seriously. Their Primeknit material wraps around your foot and leaves it feeling pretty breatheable. The only thing I don’t like about the material is that I do have to put more effort into putting on the shoe. I can’t just push my foot into the shoe and wiggle it into a good fit. With these, I have to hold the collar open and insert my foot in. The sole is made from Continental tire rubber. Yes, you read correctly. Tire rubber. They’re meant to last. I obviously can’t say how true this is because I’ve only run 30-40 miles on these, but it’s comforting to know they are made out of tire rubber. These shoes also have a free floating arch that adapts to your running style. This arch felt VERY different from previous running shoes and definitely took a lot of getting used to.
The first 35 miles: For anyone trying out these shoes, I’d definitely walk around in them for a few miles before attempting any runs with them. Once you think you’re used to the floating arch, try running a few miles with them. Build up SLOWLY especially if you’re prone to injury. Like all running shoes, you should take the time to break them in properly or else you’ll risk injury. I made the mistake of taking these shoes out on an uphill 10k run and pulled a hamstring because of that. I’ve run on tracks, roads, and relatively flat trails and have found these shoes to work well on all of them. I would advise against running on any rocky trails. I found that the shoes don’t work very well on uneven surfaces. Personally, I find the shoes to not be as responsive as the Vazee2090s, but it could be that I haven’t fully broken in the shoes.
My overall experience with these have been a positive one. They’re wonderful to walk in and I’m sure these shoes will get better to run in over time. I will be putting these shoes into my rotating shoe schedule for marathon training this summer. Who knows? Maybe I’ll end up running my marathon with them. 🙂
If you’re interested in purchasing these shoes, you can find them here at Dick’s Sporting Goods. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask me. I’ve also included a list of reviews from my fellow BibRavePros on the shoes below.
Hey everyone! It’s been over a week and a half since I last ran the San Diego Rock N Roll half marathon and I’m happy to report that the overall experience was a success! I ran this course in under 2 hours, which was a dream of mine ever since the first time I ran it 3 years ago. 🙂 Without further adieu, my race report and some lessons I learned throughout the trip.
Health and Fitness Expo –
Lesson #1: Take the trolley from a transit center to get to expo. It’s $2.50 one day and $5 for an all day pass. If you’re planning on going by trolley to get to the race, buy a 2 day pass for $9 and save yourself the hassle of downtown parking and high parking rates.
I easily got to the expo in Saturday afternoon by trolley, picked up my bib, changed my corral, and spent a few hours volunteering at the HoneyStinger booth. I’m one of their ambassadors and when they asked for volunteers to help man their booth, I jumped at the opportunity. For two hours, I cut up waffles and filled up bowls with whatever they were running low on (while also tasting their newest products). It really was a fun gig and I walked away with some free product as a thank you for volunteering. Whoo. Thanks HoneyStinger! I definitely have enough HoneyStinger fuel for my summer marathon training. 🙂
My HoneyStinger score 🙂
While I was at the booth, a few people who I’ve interacted with online came to see me. I had told them I’d be volunteering and they actually dropped by. I was estatic and extremely appreciative they took their time to see me. I met the talented Briana from @MatMilesMedals (IG),
After working my shift, I checked out a few other booths. While at the ProCompression booth, I saw other runners I followed on Instagram (Brian from PavementRunner – the organizer of the #WeRunSocial ornament exchange I took part in last year and CarleeMcDot – an incredible runner who I won a giveaway from last December). I definitely had a fangirl kind of moment.
The WeRunSocial crew and I
I also made a stop by the SportHooks booth for an add-on medal rack, but was sad to find out they had run out. 😦 I’ll be sure to stop by at the Los Angeles Rock N Roll expo in October to get one then. I also met up with BibRavePro Emily from @AZSunGoddess (IG) and Fallon again later that day. 🙂 I had a wonderful time circling the expo. They have a lot of variety and entertainment and is still to this day one of my favorites.
Pre-race –
Lesson #2 – This ties back to lesson #1. If you’re local, drive to Qualcomm stadium or one of the other trolley transit centers and take the trolley to downtown. From the stop, you have to walk about 10 minutes to the start line. Consider the walk a warm up. Taking the trolley will save you LOTS of stress, time, and money. Even if you’re not a local and you’re not in central downtown, do this option. It is by far the best way to get to the race.
This year, the race had different start times depending on which corral you were in. I was in the first 10 corrals and was amongst one of the first few corrals released. I got there around 5:45 am, dropped off my stuff at gear check, made it into the #WeRunSocial picture, met Maria from @Running_notybaby (IG), and was off to race.
Maria, Briana, Fallon, and I
Race time –
Plan A – Beat my PR of 1:52:34
Plan B – Run a sub 2 hour half marathon
Plan C – Beat my course PR of 2:07:31
My plan for this race was to try and PR. I had done so well in the past few races I figured why not shoot for it. Unfortunately, I had pulled a hamstring the week before and was just going “wing it” during the race. Mile 1 went off just fine. I wasn’t as fast starting out, but I was in under the pace time. I saw some drag queens in Hillcrest that boosted my morale, but mile 2 to 6 was a struggle. Even the mile 4.5 bar that some neighbors set up wasn’t enough to pump up my energy levels. The humidity was high and by mile 5, I was already wishing it was over. It also didn’t help that I had been having lower back problems a few days before. By mile 6, I knew I wasn’t going to PR. I was still on track for Plan B and I also planned on trying out my new StimGear compression arm sleeves around mile 7 so I tried to remain positive. At mile 6.5, I activated the cooling packets from StimGear and within seconds, a rush of cold hit my wrists and began cooling me down. The packets were actually so cold that I tried pumping my arms faster so I’d warm back up. LOL. The effects wore out after 15 minutes and the rest of the race was kind of a blur. I was so focused on finishing in under the 2 hours that I didn’t enjoy the rest of the race. I did finish the half in 1:54:11, but I regret not slowing down even a bit to make the event more enjoyable.
Lessson #3: If race conditions aren’t favorable to PR, slow down and enjoy the experience. There’s course entertainment and lots of things to see along the route. Not every race is meant to be a PR.
Post-race –
After crossing that finish line, I grabbed my medal and all the food in sight. LOL. Unfortunately, the race AGAIN forgot to provide bags for us to carry all the food given out at the finish line. Don’t get me wrong. I am super grateful for all the goodies they gave us at the end, but a bag would have been nice to carry all the stuff in. I instead was dropping things left and right and had to sit down on the side of the curb and eat some things so I could carry the rest of it with fewer problems. LOL.
At the finish line
I made my way to the festival, grabbed my gear bag, and sat down to eat the rest of the food I received. After a few minutes, I quickly got cold to the point where I started shaking.
Lesson #4: Bring a change of clothes or a jacket and put it in your gear check.
Luckily, I had stashed a jacket with me in my bag and put it on. Had I brought a change of clothes, I think I would have recovered a bit better. I was soaked in my sweat and was shaking for a bit even after I put my jacket on. I planned on meeting up with more friends after the race, but because I was so cold and by myself, I decided to just head home. I have never appreciated a shower more. LOL.
Overall – The expo was amazing. I had a great time interacting with other runners and wish I had more money to go to more races and meet other people I’ve interacted with online. The race was a little lackluster, but I think that could have been due to the humid weather. Ew. The race entertainment could have been a bit more interesting, but I will say that the neighborhood support was wonderful. It was amazing to see people come out and support us with alcohol, water bottles, and other things. 🙂
The center spins too
Woohoo. My 14th half marathon is done. Now onto my 15th next month. 🙂 Have you run a Rock N Roll race? Which one? How was your experience?
Yes, that’s right, today, Wednesday June 7th is Global Running Day and here are 5 ways to celebrate.
Sign up for a race (at a discount)! A lot of races (and running affiliated stores i.e. HoneyStinger code “Runday”, SportHooks code “Pledgetorun”, etc) have discounts on their sites today so take advantage of them. The Rock N Roll Marathon series has their largest sale on races. Check their site for deals as soon as you can as entries at the discounted price are limited. Should you miss the initial sale price, use the code “BIBRAVE15” for $15 off the following races:
Seattle, WA 6/18: $15 off Half and Full, valid until 6/11 Chicago, IL 7/15-16: $15 off Half, valid until 7/9 Dublin 8/12-13: 3 €/£ off Half, valid until 8/6 Virginia Beach, VA 9/2-3: $15 off Half, valid until 8/27 Philadelphia, PA 9/17: $15 off Half, valid until 9/10 Montreal, Canada 9/24: $15 off Half and Full, valid until 9/17 San Jose, CA 10/8: $15 off Half, valid until 10/1 Brooklyn, NY 10/14: $15 off Half, valid until 10/7 Denver, CO 10/15: $15 off Half, valid until 10/8 St Louis, MO 10/15: $15 off Half, valid until 10/8 Lisbon 10/15: 3 €/£ off Half and Full, valid until 10 Los Angeles, CA 10/29: $15 off Half, valid until 10/22 Merida 11/4: $15 or 270 Pesos off Half, valid until 10/28 Savannah, GA 11/4: $15 off Half and Full, valid until 10/28 Las Vegas, NV 11/12: #15 off Half and Full, valid until 11/5 San Antonio, TX 12/3: $15 off Half and Full, valid until 11/26 Arizona 1/13-14/18: $15 off Half and Full, valid until 1/7/18
After finishing the RnR San Diego Half on Sunday
Big Sur Marathon Events is also offering a special 24 hour discount on the Salinas Valley Half Marathon & the Monterey Bay Half Marathon (previously known as the Big Sur Half Marathon). Today, runners can save $10 on a race entry into either event by using the special discount code “GRD17” here. You can also use the BibRave code “BRP17” with “GRD17” for an additional bonus 13.1 magnet.
The Hot Chocolate Race Series isn’t have any discounts for the day, BUT you can use the following codes to get some bonus race swag and if you know anything about this series, you know they’re known for their swag. I’m already planning on registering for the San Diego Hot Chocolate Race for March 2018 so come join me. 🙂 Denver 10/1/17 – Code: BRHCDEN17 Chicago 10/29/17 – Code: BRHCCHI17 Columbus 11/5/17 – Code: BRHCCOL17 Scottsdale 12/4/17 – Code: BRHCSCOTTS17 St. Louis 12/10/17 – Code: BRHCSTL17 Tampa 12/17/17 – Code: BRHCTAMPA17 San Francisco 1/7/18 – BRHCSF18 Atlanta 1/21/18 – BRHCATL18 Dallas 2/3/18 – BRHCDAL18 Nashville 2/10/18 – BRHCNASH18 Las Vegas 2/25/18 – BRHCVEGAS18 Seattle 3/4/18 – BRHCSEA18 San Diego 3/18/18 – BRHCSD18 Philadelphia 4/7/18 – BRHCPHILLY18 Minneapolis 4/14/18 – BRHCMINN18
Last but not least, this is a shameless plug, but I’m running the San Diego Craft Classic next month and would love it if some of you would join me to run either the half marathon or 5k. If you still aren’t convinced, here my post on why you should run it. Use the code “BIBRAVEHALF” for $10 off your half entry and “BIBRAVE5k” for $5 off the 5k entry. Their race shirt is kind of awesome. I don’t even really drink beer, but this shirt is so true to the “will run for beer” theme.
For more discounts, refer to my race discounts page for up to date discounts.
Go for a run! If you’re unable to sign up for a race today, go for a run instead. Run with a friend, a run group, run alone, or just go out and walk. Exercise is good. 🙂 I promise.
Enter Strava’s #mymile sweepstakes by running a mile and having Strava track it. If you need a little more incentive to run, how about free running shoes for you and 10 of your friends on Strava? 🙂 For the month of June, Strava is challenging you to run your best mile and hashtag it with “mymile.” Even if it isn’t your best, hashtag it anyway and enter yourself and 10 of your Strava friends into the sweepstakes for a chance to win a free pair of shoes from wiggle.com. Isn’t that cool? Like most challenges, the entry cannot be put in manually and the activity can’t be tracked on a treadmill. So what are you waiting for? Go out for at least a 1 mile run and enter the sweepstakes. 🙂 You can run as many times through the month of June and enter so go crazy. Also, feel free to friend me on Strava. I’d like some new shoes too! Hah!
Take a run selfie today (June 7th), tag @RoadRunnerSports (on Instagram), include the hashtags #globalrunningday and #laceupandexplore, and post. Ten lucky winners will be chosen to win a Road Runner Sports R Gear Graphic Tee.
Participate in #RunChatHunt! If you love scavenger hunts and need an excuse to run, this is it! @Therunchat (Twitter) is hosting a scavenger hunt for the month of June. They want you to find specific things on your run, snap a photo of it, and upload it onto Twitter with the hashtag #RunChatHunt. At the end of the month, they’ll randomly pick 10 winners. Who knows? One of those winners could be you!
So there you have it. I don’t know about you, but I’m definitely going to be participating in ALL OF THE RUN activities tomorrow. Who said running couldn’t be fun, right? What will you be doing to celebrate Global Running Day?
And just like that, the month of May is done and we’re onto June. You know what that means, don’t you? It’s time for my monthly recap!
Networking – For the past few months, I have been helping the San Diego chapter for the Association of Women in Science (AWIS) plan a STEM conference called WIST (Women in Science and Technology). I decided that being involved was better than not so I put myself out there and worked with other scientists in all different fields. Isn’t that what networking is about? Putting yourself out there and hoping you make an impression? I don’t know if I have made an impression on anyone yet, but I think I’m bettering myself just by going to these events.
All of the months of preparation culminated in a conference with inspirational keynote speakers, motivational workshops, and enthusiastic attendees. I walked out of that conference inspired and ready to jump into new experiences (even scary ones) head first. “If they could do it, why couldn’t I” was the mentality I had walking out of there.
At WIST’s non-bench career panelGraduate School – Thank goodness for attending the WIST conference. Ever since attending, I feel like I’ve been more productive. It also helped a lot to hear about other scientists’ struggles through graduate school and beyond. There are still moments where I worry about my future, but I tell myself to just put one foot in front of the other and before I know it, the scary part will be over. At least that’s how I’m approaching my committee meeting deadlines. So far it’s worked for me and I hope it will continue to work in the future. 🙂 *Fingers crossed*
Preparing for my committee meetingTraveling – It’s been awhile since I last traveled. This month, I went to Austin, Texas for a few days to visit the boyfriend. He actually lives outside of Austin so I got to experience a lot more countryside. It was a nice change of pace and I enjoyed walking around the area. I even saw fireflies by the Colorado River!
While in Austin, I went to Sixth Street and went into a few bars to escape the heat and listen to some music. There were some cool bands and I’m sad I wasn’t able to stay longer. The heat just drained me and I napped a lot while I was in Texas.
Walking down Sixth StreetLOL. Maybe I’ll drop by again on my next visit. I also did another escape room called The Escape Game Austin and did not escape. Womp womp. Despite not escaping, it was the best escape room I’ve ever done. I would recommend this room to anyone in Austin. The puzzles were extremely clever and intricate. There was so much teamwork involved and I never felt left out of the group.
Prison Break!This visit was just to get my toes wet. I will actually be visiting again this month and I will be better prepared for the heat. Any suggestions as to what to do there?
Running – I didn’t run any races this month, but I did hit my monthly mileage goal of 83 miles. I actually ended up running 90.7 miles! Woohoo. I think it was easier to hit this month because I started doing more group runs. Movin Shoes, a San Diego based running shoe store holds weekly runs and I’ve been able to make a few of their weekend ones. I even started my memorial day with a 10k run up and down a monstrous hill. I also attended a few other group runs with Run North County and Lululemon for their #morethanmilestour and have found them to be more exciting than running alone. Six + miles isn’t so bad when there are others running it with you. 🙂
We got free lululemon apparel for participating in their tour too!This is good news guys and gals. It means that I won’t be running alone during my long runs this summer! Hooray! I expect to run some long runs alone, but at least I’ll be mixing it in with group runs too. Yay!
That sums up my month. How was your May? Anything interesting happen that you’d like to share with me? 🙂
Yes, it’s that time again: the week leading up to a half marathon, the San Diego Rock N Roll Half marathon to be exact. I’m not going to lie; I’m pretty excited about it. I didn’t race at all this month and I’ve been missing the racing atmosphere terribly. Maybe that’s why I’ve been doing more social runs lately; so that I can be around people when I run. LOL. I’ll also be meeting some online bloggers for the first time so I’m pretty stoked about that too.
Anyway, today’s post is a bit of a ramble. I’ve been feeling more confident with running as the months go by. I’ve managed to maintain my average of 21 miles a week and this past weekend, I logged almost 24 miles! I also ran every day this week, not because I was obligated to, but because I genuinely wanted to. Every day this past week, I woke up wanting to run. I didn’t necessarily run in the morning, but the feeling was there. At night before I fell asleep, I thought about how many miles I could feasibly run the next day. It’s kind of crazy. I might be enthusiastic to run because I’ve been so stressed out about my pre-thesis committee meeting that I’m using running to keep my stress level in check.
Running aroundOr maybe it’s because I’ve run for 3 years now and running has now become a part of me. And you know what? I love it. I love talking to people about running (probably a little too much) and I love encouraging others to run. 🙂
Speaking of which, if you are visiting the health and fitness expo on Saturday, let me know! I’ll be volunteering at the HoneyStinger booth from 1 – 3 pm and we’re giving out free samples. 🙂 Come say hi!
My personal HoneyStinger collection – can you tell I love them?
