Disclosure: this post is not in any way sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise connected with Monthly Java. I paid for my own subscription. I chose to write about the Arizona Monthly Java because I love coffee, not because Monthly Java paid me. (Though if they wanted to pay me to write for them, I wouldn’t be opposed!) If you check out Monthly Java, would you let them know you found them through my review? They might not notice, but it can’t hurt to let them know, right?
Don’t be afraid to climb out of bed–coffee is waiting!
Have you heard the good news about coffee?
While procrastinating–wait, I mean researching!–on social media, I happened to run into Monthly Java. It’s a subscription coffee box and like other subscription coffee boxes, it sends you coffee each month. Unlike other boxes, a Monthly Java box contains coffee from local roasters (not big, well-known ones), and each box has two bags from different roasters in the same state. The roasters package the coffee, so it comes to your house in the same packaging as if you’d bought it directly from them (not in some Monthly Java branded package). That means you might get a pound (16 oz) or you might get 12 oz (which seems to be the most common package size on shelves right now), depending on how the roaster packages their beans.
Monthly Java, revealed
My first box had two coffees from Arizona roasters. Also included were two bookmark-sized brief dossiers on the roasters, some supplemental material from one roaster, and a handwritten thank you note. I liked the low-key, no-fuss packaging. (Hey, I subscribed for the coffee. I don’t need or want ridiculous packaging–I want my money going into the coffee.)
Cartel’s beans
Cartel Coffee Lab
The Roaster. Funny thing, I was already familiar with Cartel, a roaster based in Tempe, AZ, because they have a cafe in the Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. (Thank god they do. The first time I flew through Phoenix there was literally NO coffee in the nearby terminals. While there’s a Starbucks in the airport now, I prefer the Austin/Portland model of putting local businesses in the airport.) Cartel included the “Cartel Coffee Lab Brew Guide” which lays out the optimal amounts of coffee and water, as well as the process, for making coffee in the Aeropress, Hario V60, Clever, or Chemex. (I have a no-frills $10 4 cup and an Aeropress, but didn’t get around to trying it in the Aeropress.) The website contains all sorts of information about Cartel and coffee in general. Cartel also included a decal, because they think I’m cool enough to have something to put decals on.
The Cartel Package
The Facts. The bookmark dossier indicated this Cartel coffee came from Coban, Guatemala from a farm at an elevation of 1400-1600 meters. (It’s not in the online store right now, but other beans are.) The beans were processed using the “washed” process. Since I had no clue what that meant, I visited the Cartel site for an explanation: “Washed coffees are popular where there is an abundance of fresh water. The cherries have an outer layer mechanically stripped off and the inner pulp is allowed to ferment for a prescribed time. The fermented pulp layer is then removed with fresh flowing water.” During my time in Guatemala, I’m pretty sure I saw the residents of El Durazno using this method on their small family plots; they had received clean water only a few months before I was there, and had previously used water carried by hand from a river.
Appearance. Cartel’s beans came in a lined brown bag with a card of coffee info held to the front of the package with a rubber bracelet type thingy (which, it turns out, was just a bit too big to be a bracelet–but it worked great for holding the info card to the mason jar I stored the coffee in.)
When I opened the package and took out the beans, the first thing I noticed is that the beans were a lighter shade of brown than most beans I buy. In addition, the beans had a dry, not oily, appearance and feel. When I put them in my coffee grinder, a few pulses revealed an even lighter interior bean color.
Taste. The bookmark’s tasting notes said “dark chocolate & cranberry.” I’m not sure I got the cranberry, but the aroma was definitely chocolate. I used my usual five scoops per pot (four cup pot, so 1 scoop per cup + “one for the pot”) method. Unadultered, the coffee had a medium level of intensity, and low-to-no feel of acidity. If you are a coffee purist you could drink this straight and be happy. If you are a coffee snob (like me) but like to mess with your coffee (say, by adding milk and a smidge of high-quality hot cocoa mix), that works out very well too.
Peixoto’s beans and the coffee package
Peixoto Coffee
The Roaster. I had never heard of Peixoto Coffee before, and the bookmark only told me that they source beans from a family farm and are the fourth generation in their coffee-growing family. (How cool is that?) So I went to the website, which has gorgeous pictures of the coffee fruit, and the story of the Peixoto family legacy. (Side note, ye gods do I love the internet. I can get a DIY PhD in coffee right in my living room.) One of the benefits of buying from a family operation like Peixoto Coffee is that the supply chain is short–they grow, roast it, and sell it. That means all of your dollar is paying for the coffee (and the work it took to produce it), instead of intermediate distributors, warehousing, etc. Any coffee Peixoto roasts that doesn’t come from their own farm–such as their Ethiopian beans–is Direct Trade (which is sort of like Fair Trade but with higher standards). Like Cartel, Peix0to also has retail locations, and you can buy online.
The Facts. This particular Peixoto coffee is the yellow catucai, from the Peixoto family’s coffee farm, Fazenda Sao José da Boa Vista, in Alta Mogiana, Brazil. The website has some pictures to give you an idea of what the farm l0oks like, and one of the sliding header photos on the main page shows yellow catucai–the coffee fruit is actually yellow! The beans were processed using the “natural” process. Since I had no idea what that meant, I relied on the Cartel site’s description: “Natural coffees do not use any water and are therefore associated primarily with producing regions that tend to be dryer. With naturals, the fruit is left to shrivel like a raisin before being removed through milling.” Hm, maybe this is the process I observed in Guatemala?
Peixoto peeking out of the box
Appearance. Most notable to me, the beans are irregular sizes. You know when you open a typical bag of coffee, all the beans are basically identical? These beans are a mix of the size you expect to see plus all sorts of smaller sizes. I didn’t even need to put them through the grinder to see they had a lighter interior than many beans I use. They had a medium brown external appearance, mostly dry but with a little bit of oiliness. (The oiliness is evident in the empty bag.)
Taste. The bookmark’s tasting notes say “chocolate, mandarin, hazelnut” (the package says “sweet, milk chocolate, hazelnut”). I can definitely understand the milk chocolate–both from the color and the scent of the beans–and the nuttiness. I’m not sure I get “mandarin,” as I didn’t detect the tart citrus taste I expect to go with that word. To the extent “mandarin” is supposed to mean a very slightly sweet, “bright” note, that I do get. Unadultered, this coffee was medium in terms of color (using the exact same process I have described above). It wasn’t 100% acidity-free, as it did have a little citrus-like aspect to it, but the brew also wasn’t so acidic that you could feel it in your teeth. (Monthly Java does advertise that it chooses light to medium roasts, so if you fear the dark, you can still enjoy Monthly Java.) If you’re a purist, this is a fine choice all by itself. It also made a great base for my preferred coffee drink.
The beans, side by side; can you tell which is which?
What do you think?
Have you tried Monthly Java or another coffee subscription service? (If not, would you?)
I’ll be the first to admit that a Monthly Java subscription isn’t cheap. Pricing for a single month is $48, paying three months at once brings the cost to $46.56 per month, and the six month plan works out to $45.60 per month. Yet even on the most expensive plan, I would save money–$48 would maybe cover a venti Starbucks mocha for ten days, yet Monthly Java brings me two bags of beans for that cost. Even adding in the most decadent cocoa mix I might use (approx. $10, lasts a month) and the cost of milk, making my drink at home still puts me ahead.
Disclosure: Amphipod provided the prize for the giveaway in this post, because I am a BibRave Pro. Amphipod did not exercise any editorial control, or provide any content, for this post. All content reflects my own research, experience, and opinions. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro, and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews. It’s a great way to help race directors see what is working and what needs improvement, and to help other runners find out what a race is really like.
You are just a big bag of water.
Let’s talk water. Did you know that about 60% of your body’s weight is water? Think about that for a minute: a 200 lb. man is 120 pounds of water. You’ve got water in your cells and water in between your cells. Basically you’re a carbon-based container of mostly water.
You are what you drink (water). Everything your body uses to run contains water. Your blood, which carries oxygen and nutrients to your working cells, is 83% water. Your body fat, which you might be burning as fuel, is 25% water. Your muscles that propel you along at 75% water. Even your bones are about 22% water.
You run on water. Again, literally. Every system in your body needs water while you are running (and while you are not!). Water dissolves and transports various substances, moving nutrients into cells and waste products out of cells and eventually out of the body as urine and feces. Water plays a role in the synthesis of proteins, glycogen, and other nutrients. Water keeps you moving by lubricating your joints, and serves as a shock absorber for your eyes and in your spine (and for your fetus, if you’re pregnant).
The Sweaty Life. If you lead an active lifestyle you’re more than familiar with water as a temperature regulator. Exercise heats the body, which sends water outside of the body to the surface of your skin, so that it can evaporate and cool. The more you exercise, the more efficient your body becomes at cooling itself. Translation: you start to sweat earlier, and likely sweat more. Since each body is different, some of us sweat more than others. Sweat isn’t the only way you lose water while exercising though.
You lose water 24/7: It’s not just about sweat. Breathing also requires water, as your nose and mouth hydrate dry air on the way in, and release vapor (water in gas form) on the way out. The harder you work out, the more demand your body has for oxygen, the harder you breathe. Tissue in your nose, nasal passage, throat, bronchial tubes, and lungs is more sensitive when it is dehydrated. As a practical matter, that can trigger asthma, allergies, and COPD; if you have none of these, it still means you’re more likely to be irritated by pollen, dust, and fumes.
Sleep is dehydrating! Just think about it–you go 8 hours without taking in any liquids, but you continue to breathe, losing water. Maybe you sweat a little at night.
Dehydration is BAD. You’ve probably read that dehydration–not enough water in the body–contributes to heat stroke and heat exhaustion, as reduced water reduces your body’s ability to regulate body temperature. It’s worse than that. If you are down a mere 0.5% of your body water, you have an increased strain on your heart. (Think about it: less water, less blood volume, sludgier blood, takes more effort to pump it through your body.) At 1% loss of body water, your aerobic endurance suffers. At 2%, your muscular endurance declines; basically if you hit 2% as a runner, you are nowhere near the top of your game. At 4% you have not just reduced aerobic and muscular endurance, but also reduced muscle strength and reduced motors skills–and you’re at a risk for heat cramps. Seriously, you’ve got to keep that water loss below half a percentage point.
As a runner, you MUST be on top of your hydration game.
Water intake isn’t the whole story. You can drink boatloads of water, but unless you give your body some electrolytes, that water might just pass right through, useless. Electrolytes are compounds that dissolve in water and keep an electrical charge, allowing them to regulate the flow of water (and other substances) in and out of cells. Electrolytes form the salty grit on your face if you’re a sweaty runner (and even if you are not, since they regulate the release of water from the cells of your body). Electrolytes include: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, chloride, manganese, sodium, and potassium.
Carbohydrates love water. You’ve probably read that for most athletes, the notion of “carb loading” before a race to replenish glycogen stores is neither necessary nor particularly helpful. But wait, there’s more: carbohydrates love water, and for every gram of carbohydrate stored in your body, you’ve also got 3-4 grams of water hanging out. (This is why low-carb, high-protein diets initially show a quick weight loss–depleting the carb stores means water goes away, plus a high protein diet contributes to fluid losses to remove urea from the body.) This is also why most electrolyte drinks have some amount of sugar or carb in them. Like to eat pasta? You’re welcome.
It’s harder to judge dehydration that you think. By the time you’re thirsty, you’re already partially dehydrated–and now you know how bad even half a percent of body water loss is. Urine color is favored by some, but you’re unlikely to see your urine on race day (I don’t know about you, but I’m NOT looking into that porta-potty!), and a number of popular supplements and foods (beets!) can darken your urine and give a misleading impression.
Top Five Tips for Building Your Hydration Strategy
Know your body. Learn to recognize the pre-thirst indicators of dehydration in your body, monitor your water loss through sweat, pay attention to how you feel during training runs and workouts. So many factors affect your hydration needs–body weight, body composition, environment, medication usage, diet, and more–that the best advice is to learn and listen to your body.
Practice good hydration when you’re NOT running. Eat lots of fresh vegetables and fruit (they are good sources of water, as well as electrolytes and other vitamins and minerals). Sip on beverages throughout your day. Like coffee, tea, soda? Current research shows they aren’t automatically dehydrating, but they are not as hydrating as other choices.
Pre-hydrate before a workout or a run. Drink a glass of water first thing in the morning to make up for water loss while you’ve slept. (Adding a lemon to it makes it taste nice, but it’s not going help you lose weight, burn fat, “detox,” or any other popular yet silly-and-unscientific claim. Watch your teeth if you take that option, lemons aren’t kind to tooth enamel.) If you’re taking a heated class like hot yoga, tank up before you go.
Test your hydration products BEFORE race day! Nothing new on race day. Seriously, you don’t want to discover that your tummy doesn’t like XYZ Hydration Brand at mile 4. Anything you’re going to use at a race, take it for a test drive. Find out what hydration the race plans to have on the course, so you can evaluate whether to use what they provide or bring your own exclusively.
Carry hydration–and emergency cash. I need sips of fluids more often than every two miles (how aid stations are frequently spaced at races) to stay fresh and properly hydrated. Once I ran a race where the second aid station, manned by well-meaning but clueless high school students, completely ran out of water and electrolyte beverage! Fortunately I had my emergency fiver, and ran into a nearby CVS.
Enter (to win) the Amphipod.
I’m giving away THIS exact Amphipod, an Ergo-Lite Ultra.
To help you up your hydration game, I’ve got an Ergo-Lite Ultra Amphipod to give away, courtesy of Amphipod. (Amphipod provided this exclusively for this giveaway; it was not sent to me for testing purposes.) It’s brand new, never-used, and only came out of the box so I could take a few pictures of it.
All of the BibRave Pros who tried out the Amphipod liked it, even those who had previously shied away from hand-helds for various reasons. Like Running for the Average Joe, most of us hated the idea of running “while holding something.” But as he pointed out, the Amphipod isn’t something you hold, it’s something you wear. Dr. Runner liked the one-way drinking valve (you have to suck on it or squirt to get the water out).
Hand elastic showing both the ergonomic thumb hole and the loops for gels or fuel
The thumb holed was a hit with Runner Transformed, who liked the more ergonomic fit. Run Away with Me liked the softness of the fabric (we all agree that chafing from stiff fabric is BAD). If you look at the various photos accompanying the reviews, you can see that the Amphipod works well on either hand, something Samantha Andrews liked.
The products are durable, and might just save your hand if you crash on the trail, as My Name Is Dad learned. Unlike some bottles, it’s also easy to clean, as Fun Size Athlete noted. That said, if you leave it in a hot car, the sleeve might discolor the bottle (as Darlin’ Rae learned). Maybe wash the sleeve first?
The storage pocket has a key loop inside
All of the Pros liked the amount of storage in the pocket, and The Caffeinated Runner found it had enough room to carry doggy essentials when running with her pooch.
Seattle-based blogger Sweet Blonde’s Fit Life points out these are made in USA and, specifically, in Seattle!
Disclosure: I am a member of the 2016 Rock ‘n’ Blog team. As a member of the team, I receive entry to Rock ‘n’ Roll races and other perks. This post is not sponsored, edited, or written (in any way) by the Rock ‘n’ Roll series or Competitor Group. All opinions are my own.
Most of the Rock ‘n’ Roll races are on Sundays. When there is a race on Saturday, ordinarily it is a 5k or 10k as part of a “Remix Challenge” weekend. Seattle is a different story: the main races are on Saturday. There is NO RACE ON SUNDAY. Since this is my third year running RnR Seattle, you might think I would have that figured out in advance. Or have, you know, looked at the date on the website or something. Big bowl of NOPE. (I even wrote it into my calendar as taking place on Sunday. #fail)
Who cannot remember which day the race is? This runner!
Most of the time when I travel for a Rock ‘n’ Roll race, I will stay all weekend, Friday to Sunday (or to Monday, as is my plan for Vancouver this year). Due to the amount of travel I’ve had lately both for work and for personal, the fact that my 19-year-old kittyboy now turns into Angry Kitty when I leave, and my general desire to have a day before the end of the month to do laundry and clean the house, this time I decided to just stay overnight, run, and go home. “When are you flying into Seattle?” Briana asked me. “Probably Saturday afternoon,” I wrote back, “I’m super busy and I think one night is better for me.” “Really?” Briana replied, “Um, you know you’ll miss the race if you do that, right?” DOH. Briana then reminded me that I made the same mistake last year (thinking the race was on Sunday). (She got it right, per usual. Check out her event review on Mat Miles Medals.)
This year I also made a brand-new mistake: I bought two sets of plane tickets for the same trip. After Briana reminded me I’d better make my trip Friday-Saturday (and not Saturday-Sunday) I hopped over to Southwest to make a reservation. It wasn’t until I went to the website to check in for my flight that I discovered I had apparently already purchased a Friday-Sunday ticket. Oops. Thankfully, Southwest has an awesome policy where they will hold funds for you from nonrefundable tickets, and I know I’ll be flying again, so no harm, no foul.
Thursday night I stayed up later than planned for a variety of reasons, but also managed to not pack for the adventure because I was pacifying Angry Kitty (who does not like it when I move things in and out of The Ominous Things On Wheels). Hey, he’s 19 years old and has put up with a lot throughout our 15 years together, so the least I can do is let him snuggle into my lap and snore, right?
Shoe game–on point–packed in Eagle Creek gear
Up at 4 a.m. to put things into the weekender. One of my top travel tricks is that I have a TSA-friendly ziploc bag filled with the overnight essentials (e.g. shampoo, toothpaste, lotion) that I never unpack. I also have a toothbrush in a travel case, a detangling comb, a pair of old prescription bottles (the orange-ish see-through kind) with the labels removed that are now filled with cotton swabs and cotton balls, and a travel-designated bath pouf that live inside the suitcase. When it’s time to pack, I just have to check that the essentials are all there (and not empty) instead of repacking. Eagle Creek was nice enough to give each of the Rock ‘n’ Blog team members a few bags that make my racing travel easier–a shoe locker for the shoes and small things, a gear locker for my clean clothes, and a fold-over for the dirty clothes–and I’ve got packing the things down to a science. (For the curious, this is the Pack-It Sport line.) Off to the 6: 30 a.m. flight at 5:30, and I was the last person to board the plane.
How tired was I? I was very excited to find a mini-sunblock spray to pack. For a race in Seattle.
Two hours is barely enough time to catch a nap. I tried.
One thing I love about Seattle is there is pretty much no need to rent a car for the race. LINK light rail goes right to the airport, and downtown is criss-crossed by a variety of bus lines. I bought a reloadable Orca card (the better to not have to worry about keeping cash on hand for bus fares) and stuck $20 on it. It was a short LINK ride to Pioneer Square, which is exactly one block away from the Courtyard Marriott on Second Avenue (aka my Seattle home away from home). This is the second year I’ve stayed there, and I really love the x02 rooms (702, 802, etc.) because they are quiet and have a ton of space. Of course when you show up at 9:15 they don’t have your room ready, but they will store your luggage.
I hopped a north-going bus to meet up with Lillie Goker, a running buddy of mine who lives in Seattle. (We conquered Rock ‘n’ Roll San Francisco together in 2014.) She and I had brunch at this great breakfast place called Roxy’s Diner. I tried to find it on Google Maps, but it isn’t there. (Instead, look for Norm’s Eatery & Ale House, which is right next door.) After a night of really no sleep, it was great to relax over an eggy scramble with tater tots and a bottomless cup of coffee. We don’t get to hang out nearly enough, either.
Big race, big expo
Lillie lives nearby, and after a quick tour of her new digs, and a brief stop to hack some Ingress portals, she drove me over to the race expo. If you park in the parking structure, you end up entering the expo from the back, as opposed to entering where bib pickup is like you do in other cities. So we wandered through a little of the expo before we got to registration. The patterned totes from the Edmonton marathon were super cute, so I accepted one even though I’m unlikely to run it this year. (The race calendar is full. Maybe in 2017?)
The booth featured the same graphics as the tote
Then Lillie helped me take a selfie (which I guess makes it not-quite-a-selfie?) with Elba Benzler, race director for Blooms to Brews (and a guest on Runner of A Certain Age, the podcast I now co-host, for a pre-race interview).
In case you missed it, I ran Blooms to Brews this year and LOVED it!
He’s also got a new event cooking, the North County Wine Run (first running: September 24, 2016). The medal is gorgeous, epic, and functional–so naturally I asked for a demonstration!
Have you ever seen a race medal that does THIS??
After picking up bibs and shirts, Lillie decided to call it a day and headed off to whatever it is that people do when they are not fixated on running. I stayed behind to wander the expo a bit before teh 3:00 #werunsocial meetup. (Actually, first I cased the joint to find an outlet to charge my phone.) Because I had decided that I was NOT going to buy anything at the expo, Nuun had to go and have a Seattle-specific water bottle. Guess who bought some more Nuun? I know, I know, way to stick to my resolve, but it’s something I use regularly, and it isn’t like it will spoil quickly. Besides, I was running low on cherry limeade. Then I came across the CEP booth, which tempted me with a good sale (I resisted) and a $10 copy of Meb for Mortals (I caved).
Seaplane, Space Needle, Guitar, Skyline…and green! How could I resist?
The #werunsocial meetup was a great time, as always. I am always glad to see Briana, Carleeh, Sarah, Carlee, Brian, Linzie…you get the idea. I remember I was so nervous at my first meetup that I forced myself to go talk to everyone about Run 10 Feed 10, and i was so nervous doing it that I accidentally gave the same spiel to one group of people twice! D’oh! Since then I’ve figured out that the cool kids are really nice, and I’ve made a bunch of friends. It makes travel to races even better, because I can always look forward to “running” into at least one of them. Pro Compression sponsored the meetup and donated some prizes, and after we took all the selfies there was barely enough time for me to hit my hotel for an all-too-brief nap.
Post-race, rocking my Pro Compression socks in BibRave Orange with A Major Award!
I capped off the evening with dinner at Buca di Beppo, a pretty standard pre-race carb-fest for sure. This time the dinner planning landed in my lap, and I kept changing the number of seats on the reservation. In the end we had more seats than people (though in San Francisco it was the other way around, so I never know how it will shake out). I was quite happy the bus landed just a few blocks from the restaurant, as it started to drizzle as I was leaving the restaurant. Once I hit the hotel, I’d love to say I slept like a log for the few hours I had left to sleep. I didn’t. I’d love to say I love it when I’m sleepless for two nights in a row before a race…
Flat Bain, pre-Seattle
All good Seattle stories end with coffee…and in the second half of this race review, you can enter to win some of your very own!
Disclosure: the prize for this giveaway will be provided by siggi’s (legally: The Icelandic Milk & Skyr Corp.). Everything in this post is my own creation unless otherwise indicated. The folks at siggi’s did not preview or edit this post, it’s all me, baby!
A few years ago I stumbled on siggi’s and fell in love. Since then, I’ve learned more about the siggi’s story, and even met Siggi himself! As I’m writing this from Oakland, California I’m just one week out from the third IDEA World/Sweat Pink BlogFest, which siggi’s has sponsored for the past two years. Actually I SHOULD be in Indianapolis at FitBloggin’ and FitSocial 2016–which siggi’s is also sponsoring this year–but as you may have heard, Southwest had a little computer issue, and that left me stranded. Oops. In any case, I am thankful and happy to have siggi’s sponsor these events for health and fitness bloggers. I’m even more thankful they make a protein-packed, yummy skyr.
But back to the story. A few years ago I fell in love with siggi’s. At that time, siggi’s had one product: Icelandic style skyr, a strained non-fat yogurt. I wish I could tell you the story, but I honestly do not remember how it happened! I do remember two things.
Set up for a recent skyr tasting
First, I was very impressed by the ingredients list. Here is the ingredients list from the peach flavor in front of me:
pasteurized skim milk,
peaches,
cane sugar,
fruit pectin,
live active cultures
That’s it. Five ingredients, and I know what each one of them is and why it is there. (The package has a list of the live active cultures, in case your nerdy streak runs deep.) This was around the point that I started to get more picky about my food. While I still indulge in some items that are absolutely, inexcusably, 100% junk food, I’m trying to be more conscious of eating more whole foods. I really liked that siggi’s doesn’t have any artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners, or artificial anything else. I also really loved that there isn’t a ton of added sugar. The peach skyr sitting in front of me (150g serving size) has 11g of sugar, and 14g of protein, for example. Compare this to other yogurts and you’ll see how awesome this is.
No weird stuff in the ingredients means I’m happy to share
Let’s compare strawberries to strawberries. A serving of siggi’s strawberry skyr is 150g, and contains 11g sugar, 16g protein, and 120 calories. (I picked those data points because they are important to me.) Data from the respective manufacturer’s websites:
original Yoplait strawberry, serving size not listed on website (currently has 18g sugar, used to have 26g; 6g protein; 150 calories
thick ‘n’ creamy Yoplait strawberry, serving size not listed on website (28g sugar, 7g protein, 180 calories
Chobani (fruit on the bottom style) strawberry, serving size 150g (15g sugar, 12g protein, 120 calories)
I’m not picking on these guys–they are no better or worse than any other brand, store brand, etc.–those are just brands that immediately popped to mind when I thought of yogurt. I didn’t even bother to compare other “fruit on the bottom” styles to siggi’s, or the dessert flavors (i.e. anything with “pie” in the name) as those are a hot mess of sugar…and let’s not mention the yogurt marketed to kids with cartoon characters on it. Seriously, you might as well hand your kid a Snickers. Now sometimes you WANT a dessert, and I’ve been known to pick a certain coconut cream pie flavor of yogurt instead of a pudding…you make your own choices 🙂
My very favorite, as I love all things pumpkin spice and fall!
The “not a lot of sugar” brings me to the second thing I remember: the taste! One of the things I liked about the initial wave of Greek-style yogurts is that they are thicker than what I will call mainstream yogurt; I also liked that the initial offerings of those yogurts didn’t seem as sickly sweet as mainstream yogurt. My first taste of Skyr blew my mind! It’s thick and smooth and creamy. If you open a container and hold it upside down (don’t squeeze!) it is so thick that it will stay in the container. When I eat it, I feel like I am eating something of substance–and not just because of the 14g of protein–because it has a creamy mouth-feel. While you don’t have to chew it (it’s yogurt), it feels more satisfying to me than mainstream yogurt, more like a solid breakfast. I learned it takes four times as much milk to make a serving of siggi’s as it does to make a mainstream yogurt.
As seen in my local grocery!
After I decided I loved the products–seriously, I said “goodbye!” to the rest of the yogurt world and haven’t looked back–I became a member of the inaugural siggi’s Culture Club. Each month we had a challenge to focus on, all about sharing the love of siggi’s. I took coupons for freebies to my yoga students and they universally loved siggi’s. My current favorites are seasonal flavors: pumpkin in the fall, and strawberry basil in the summer. Other flavors in the siggi’s family include peach, raspberry, strawberry, pomegranate & passion fruit, blueberry, orange & ginger, vanilla, mixed berries & açai, and (of course!) plain (with no added sugar). All of these come in single serving cups, and the vanilla and plain come in economical 24 oz. packages as well.
Whole-fat milk skyr is even thicker and creamier
siggi’s now makes other products in addition to the Icelandic style skyr strained non-fat yogurt, including a low-fat mile skyr (2%milkfat), whole-milk skyr (4% milkfat), filmjölk (a drinkable yogurt), and tubes (a kid-friendly to-go product with 5g sugar and the same five basic ingredients). I haven’t tried anything but the skyr yet, though I’m stalking my local retailers for the others.
But enough about my experience, here’s a chance to win your own!
The fine print: There is ONE prize, which consists of coupons for free siggi’s. If you eat one a day, it’s a 30-day month’s worth. After I contact you, you’ll have seven days to claim it; at that time you must provide your mailing address so I can send it to siggi’s and they can send you the prize! a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: I received free samples of MeStrength because I am a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro, and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews. It’s a great way to help race directors see what is working and what needs improvement, and to help other runners find out what a race is really like.
Runners today are lucky to live in a world with unlimited hydration options. Do you like flavored or unflavored? Liquid, powder, tablet? Single serve or bulk? Sugar, monkfruit, stevia, sugar alcohols? Carbs? Caffeine? Electrolytes alone, or in combination with fuel/protein/something else? Pre-workout or post-workout? Strawberry, grape, lemon-lime…we could be here for awhile. Anyway, you get the point.
MeStrength is hydration with creatine. “Creatine?” I can hear you asking. “Isn’t that something that 1970s musclehead lifters use?” Au contraire, and that is the focus of this review.
(If you want to read about all the details that make MeStrength a fine product–such as the attention to detail in the manufacturing process, or how the electrolytes are isotonic which is the same as they exist naturally in your body–you can head to the MeStrength website. There are too many specifics to cover in my one little review.)
What is Creatine and Why Should You Care?
Let’s start at square one. “Creatine is a nitrogenous substance, derived from arginine, glycine, and methionine, found in muscle tissue.” Your body makes it in the liver, pancreas, and kidneys. It is part of creatine kinase, which is an isoenzyme found in muscle and brain tissue that catalyzes the formation of ATP (remember that from high school biology?). Creatine is present in HIGHER amounts after muscle injury, which should make it very interesting to anyone involved in sports training, since part of what you do when you work out (and race) is break down muscle tissue (that’s injury).
Creatine is considered a non-essential nutrient. Precision Nutrition defines a non-essential nutrient as “food-based nutrients that either the body can make itself, assuming adequate nutritional intake, or nutrients that aren’t needed for normal physiological functioning.” Creatine falls into this category, along with glutamine, the other non-essential amino acids, caffeine, and green tea extract.
Creatine is also one of the best-studied potential supplements. According to the Precision Nutrition textbook (see Resources section), there are over 500 published studies on creatine supplementation. When I did a search in PubMed specific to creatine and exercise, I found 414 studies (and remember, PubMed doesn’t index every published study). Oh, and in case you have Olympic dreams, creatine isn’t on the World Anti-Doping Agency banned substances list.
Highly portable MeStrength
Let Me Drop Some Science On You: ATP and Energy In the Body
ATP is adenosine triphosphate; basically that’s adenosine (A) with three phosphate molecules (P) attached. One of the ways the body makes energy is to break the bonds that hold the A to one of the P, creating ADP (adenosine with two phophates) and P (just the phosphate, all by itself); the body then regenerates the ATP, basically recycling it. This all happens through the ATP-PCr system. Creatine kinase breaks up phosphoecreatine (PCr) into two parts, creatine (Cr) and phosphate (the same P we’ve been discussing), by breaking the bond that holds them together. That creates both energy from breaking the bond, and extra P that can be used to make more ATP (by combining with
The body stores about 80-100 grams of ATP, which is enough to fuel maximal exercise–think crazy hard sprint–for a few seconds. When you engage in intense exercise, the body’s natural supply of PCR only lasts about ten seconds. Once that system is maxed out, you MUST slow down–your body can’t carry you faster.
If you train hard, doing the type of high-intensity exercise that is dependent on the ATP-PCr system (hill repeats? strength training?wind sprints?), and would like to add lean muscle mass, creatine supplementation can help you. (In contrast, if you do low-volume or infrequent exercise, or always run in the very comfortable jog-zone, creatine isn’t likely to offer you many benefits.)
Supplementing with creatine improves your performance in a very specific way: “By increasing the intramuscular creatine pool, more creatine (and PCr) will be available for high intensity, short-bury muscle contractions. Research has shown that higher concentrations of intramuscular creatine are linked with improved force during maximal contraction, and improved staying power with high intensity exercise.” (74) In other words, adding creatine helps your hard training by letting your body continue to recycle the ATP, and that gives you strength and longer endurance (for the high-intensity periods like sprints or lifts you can improve your staying power past the usual ten seconds).
Creatine Benefit #2: Improved Muscle Recovery
If you’ve read anything about training or worked with a trainer, you’ve probably heard about the SAID principle which states that the body responds to training with Stragetic Adaptation to Imposed Demands. In other words, if you repeat an exercise over time your body will get better and more efficient at doing that exercise. (This is also the reason why you eventually burn fewer calories doing the same workout, and why trainer Tony Horton’s programs all vary exercises instead of sticking with the same program over and over; he calls it “muscle confusion,” but let’s be real: your muscle isn’t confused, it’s just getting better at performing something it has rehearsed many times.)
The body’s responses to training include increases in stored ATP and increases in stored PCr. The more you engage in high intensity exercise, the better your body adapts to using the ATP-PCr cycle to fuel the system, and the faster it can do it. This has an additional benefit: “Increasing the rate of creatine phosphate resynthesis during intense exercise appears to lower blood lactate accumulation and ammonia levels, both byproducts that inhibit peak performance output,” according to research cited by Elliott Reimers (see Resources below).
Translated into everyday language, that means two things. First, in doing high intensity exercise, your body recovers faster so you can spend less time resting between intervals. Second, your final recovery may also be easier (as your body will have less muscular waste product–lactate and ammonia if you supplement with creatine). There is at least one studythat shows creatine supplementation can help with recovery following injury.
MeStrength
Packaging. MeStrength comes in individual “stick” style packets, making it portable and easy to use while on the run (or at the gym, if that’s your schtick–see, I’m funny!). The instructions say to mix with 20 oz of water, though if you happen to have a water bottle that only holds 16 oz (as I did during one test), it just ends up with a slightly stronger flavor, and you can always add more water later. As with any supplement (and pretty much any other consumable product I can think of, from canned tomatoes to toilet paper), buying the larger package is more economical.
Usage. While I initially thought of MeStrength as a pre-workout because that provides the benefit of pre-hydration and available extra creatine within the body, it also works well as an in-workout hydration product. Given the study showing creatine can aid recovery, and I don’t know anyone who is properly 100% hydrated following a hard workout, there is also evidence it would make a good post-workout/recovery beverage.
Ingredients. Setting aside creatine, what’s in it? MeStrength contains five electrolytes: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, and potassium. Personally, I find this superior to the hydration products that rely exclusively on sodium and potassium. I’m a sweaty girl, and I’m sure I lose ALL the electrolytes during an intense workout. It’s definitely better than consuming only potassium (which can cause cardiac issues in some individuals) or just sodium (which makes some of us feel water-logged but still thirsty).
The other ingredients are citric acid, natural flavor, vegetable and fruit juice for color only, and stevia (for a touch of sweetness).
Citric acid exists in nature in fruits and vegetables, and is often used as a preservative. It also occurs in the citric acid cycle, part of the metabolic processes in humans (and other living things).
Natural flavor has a very specific meaning in the administrative code relevant to the FDA: “[natural flavor] means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.” Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 21, Section 501.22 MeStrength is a vegan product, so the natural flavor does not come from meal, etc. You can safely ignore all the fear-mongers who claim the term natural flavor is a way to hide mystery ingredients in food.
Vegetable and fruit juices for color only means the small amount of juices present do not add nutrients (or calories) to the product.
Stevia is a sweetener/sugar-substitute that comes from the plant Stevia Rebaudiana. It has a slightly bitter aftertaste so it isn’t usually used as the sole sweetener, but I didn’t notice any bitter aftertaste in MeStrength.
Taste & Opinions. Overall, I liked the taste of MeStrength, with my favorite flavor being fruit punch. (That’s almost always my favorite flavor in supplements. Something about how much I loved Hawaiian Punch as a kid.) It isn’t super sweet like, say, full-strength Gatorade or Powerade. As I mentioned above, there isn’t a bitter aftertaste. I’m willing to bet those who complain they don’t like the new Nuun formulations due to the stevia won’t even notice it in this product. I also like that this product separates hydration (electrolytes) and supplementation from fuel. I tend to need hydration at a more rapid rate than fuel, and my stomach cramps if I rely on a two-in-one product. This way I can use MeStrength by itself, add it to a fuel product, or consume separate fuel (like actual food!)
Fruit punch is my favorite!
Resources
The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, Certification Manual, second edition. John Berardi, PhD; Ryan ANdrews, MA, MS, RD. (All of the material in quotation marks above is from this textbook, numbers indicate page numbers.)
Where have I been for…the entire month of June and the first half of July? Sometimes when I go a long time between posts, it is for predictable reasons—I have a full-time “day job” (which sometimes wants to place higher demands on my time) or I’m out running races and have prioritized DOING THINGS over blogging about them—but other times it is not. Co-schedule reminded me today that I haven’t posted in weeks. It’s not for lack of ideas (there are a dozen partially-drafted posts in my queue, I have dozens of great giveaways to run, and my post reviewing MeStrength and why you would want to supplement your electrolytes with creatine is now an entire week overdue). I’m having a hard time forcing myself to sit down and write, and it’s not because of writer’s block. Nope.
Here’s the problem.
I’m injured.
Got cheese to go with my w(h)ine?
As a fitness instructor, yoga teacher, and nutrition student, I’d like to think my nutrition and exercise choices should get the credit for my overall health. For example, I’m rarely sick. When I log time off from work as sick time, it’s usually because I’ve developed a headache (also rare, but unavoidable due to lingering effects of a car accident in which I broke more than a few bones). Yoga has taught me to know my body very well, and I recognize the earliest warning signs that I might, maybe, possibly be a few days away from illness. When that happens, I take immediate course corrections: drink more water, add more sleep time, eat more vegetables, take a multi-vitamin, otherwise take action that feels appropriate to the situation. Usually I shake it off before I even get sick. This is a giant blessing, and I am thankful for the knowledge and space to execute it in my life.
For most of my life I’ve also rarely been injured, save for catastrophic events like the aforementioned car accident. (That put me out of commission for over a month, and then for subsequent months I wasn’t able to operate at full mental or physical capacity. I really hated that.) I was rear-ended twice during the time I lived in Austin and that messed up my left shoulder, so it requires some maintenance, but it usually doesn’t bother me (and when it does it is usually because I have been slacking on my maintenance.) Like every runner or fitness pro, I encounter the occasional muscle strain or sprain, but up until now they have also healed pretty quickly after application of the appropriate remedies (things like rest, ice or heat, modification of specific exercises or workouts, foam rolling or other SMFR, and a little patience). I try to take body breaks throughout the day instead of staying in a static desk-sitting-position all day, and same for when I drive.
So as I sit here writing the first part of this post at IDEA World—the largest gathering of fitness professionals in the world, a veritable candy store of workouts—I’m incredibly frustrated and angry and mad and sad and grumpy and whiny (“It’s sooooo UNFAIR!!”) that I’ve developed an injury that doesn’t want to make peace and go away. Worse, I can’t figure out exactly what I need to do to make it go away, and my schedule (work and life) has kept me from getting to a specialist.
Earlier this year, I had some pain in my glute/hamstring tie-in on my left leg. After I ran long, or spent most of the day on my feet, I’d find myself with a big lump of a pain on the back of my leg. After Rock ‘n’ Roll San Francisco (April) I had the massage pro at the VIP tent work on that and nothing else; he immediately knew exactly which spot I was trying to describe because he found a giant knot there that would not release. I made an appointment with my chiropractor (she’s also a yoga teacher and a distance cyclist, and is amazing with a variety of modalities) who figured it out and fixed it. Basically, my pelvis was misaligned so that my left hip was more forward than it should be, and that misalignment was forcing the muscle fibers in one spot (where I was having the pain) to do more work than they should. Overworked and maxed out, those muscle fibers rebelled. She put my pelvis back where it should be, and the problem went away.
Or so I thought.
The big car accident cracked some vertebrae in my lower spine. While I assume they’ve basically healed and aren’t causing any trouble on their own, that experience taught me a lot about how the low bank and pelvis are related to each other. After the knotty-hammy-glute-tie-in issue earlier this year, I’ve tried to be much more careful about my daily habits with my low back and pelvis. You probably don’t think about this much, but just as habitual exercise causes changes in muscle size, strength, composition, and power, your daily habits affect your low back and pelvis. Consider the placement of your pelvis and low back when you sit at your desk (or on your sofa), when you drive, when you stand in social/business settings, when you sleep.
The vast majority of office workers have terrible sitting posture. Specifically, they (we) sit in chairs in a way that allows the low back to pooch out, reversing the natural lumbar curve (it normally curves into the body, not out and away from it). Or sit with one leg crossed over the other, tilting the pelvis to one side while simultaneously reversing the low back’s curve. Or worse, sit on one foot. (The upper body suffers similar evils: forward-leaning computer-screen head, downward-facing text-message neck, typing posture with shoulders rolled forward and the upper back’s natural outward curve turned into a veritable dowager’s hump.) At home I have a small rectangular pillow that I use as a lumbar support because otherwise I tend to melt into the couch like a blob.
It’s been difficult for me to observe the driving posture of others (beyond the few people I know who drive with an exaggerated version of desk postures). At some point I noticed that when I slide into the driver’s seat, I tend to sit on the seat in such a way that my right hip is higher than my left. (This is easy to do because most car seats are not flat, but are sort of curved/butt-shaped.) As soon as I noticed this, I made a point to sit myself squarely in the seat before putting on my seatbelt or turning the key. On long drives—which I sometimes make for work—I find myself adjusting my left leg, from stretched out and slack to foot flat on the floor, to compensate for the constant tension in my right leg. I try to stop regularly to get out of the car for a “body break”—a few stretches, maybe some jumping around a bit to keep my blood circulating, etc.
Standing posture is particularly interesting because you can very easily watch this. I can’t generalize as to all people, but I’ve noticed several repeat patterns. For example, men with big guts tend to stand with an overarched low back or with an exaggerated anterior tilt to the pelvis (the hip bones much more forward than the pubic bone). This makes sense, since your center of gravity is “off” from its natural default position when you add a keg where the six-pack should be. Women wearing heels often have a similar pattern in the low back/hips/pelvis. I’ve also notice many people—myself included—tend to stand with their weight primarily on one side, hips shifted over. This stance is event more exaggerated in people wearing a backpack with just one strap on (not a cross-body bag, but a traditional two-strap backpack). In fact, on any day when I am observing bodies, it is only a minority of people who are standing with decent posture.
Sleeping is another habit that it’s rare to observe others, and I mostly have my own experience to go on. Sleeping flat on my back feels unnatural to me and I can’t seem to fall asleep that way. Sleeping flat on my stomach makes me over-arch my low back and exaggerate the anterior pelvic tilt, so much so that I can feel the strain on the little muscles attached to the spine in my low back. I prefer to sleep on my left side—which is now painful—with a second pillow in front of me and between my knees to keep my hips in order.
Warning! Cases of w(h)ine ahead!
So whyyyy is my left hip so angry at me?! It is incredibly frustrating to know that I take better, thoughtful care of my body than most humans and still be in pain, and not know the cause. When I first noticed my left hip acting up, it felt stiff and achy and I noticed I had been doing more desk-sitting than usual; so I tried mobilizing and movement. I took stretch breaks for the muscles around the hip complex and tried to add movement. It was still a little sore when I hit the road for the Across the Bay 415k &12k, and I figured I’d be able to run-walk most of it. I started in Marin with 1 minute intervals, and by the time I hit the lead-up to the Golden Gate Bridge, I knew that wasn’t going to be a plan. I was too tempted to try to add speed. Yet at the end of the race–most of which I walked–I was in so much pain I wanted to cry, and I spent the rest of the day sleeping
It could be the TRX class I took, or it could be a movement I didn’t even notice. It could be a continuation of the prior dysfunction in my pelvis. It could be tight tissue (the SMFR class I took at IDEA helped). Whatever the cause, it is incredibly annoying. As I write the end of this post, I’m just back from IDEA World, where I sat out all of the amazing workouts: a BlogFest workout with Gunnar Peterson, Boot Camp with Todd Durkin (Todd freaking Durkin!), a barre class, a BeachBody Live mashup…I also resisted the temptation to physically play at the expo: no TRX, no ActivMotion bar, no cycling (and Real Ryder was there!), no Lebert, no circuits, zip, zilch, nada. At least I’m “adulating” well (I didn’t do anything I knew would make me feel worse).
But…my chiropractor is out of town, I was unable to make an appointment at the substitute I know, and as I was making a sports massage appointment someone else booked it faster than I did and POOF! (Okay, I used some not-blog-appropriate language when that happened.) I’m off to FitBloggin’ in a day, and I’m in a world of hurt. So me, the rarely-to-never-injured, will spend the two best fitness conferences of the year mostly sidelined due to injury. The disappointment is palpable here, folks.
Tell me, have you been sidelined by an injury? How did you deal with it? Got advice for me?
Disclosure: I received raspberry Ultima sticks and a lemonade Ultima canister because I am a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro, and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews. It’s a great way to help race directors see what is working and what needs improvement, and to help other runners find out what a race is really like.All opinions are my own.
It’s summer, which means I need to up my hydration game. (Sadly, wine doesn’t count.) That’s part of why I asked to be one of the BibRave Pro Team members to test the new and improved formula of Ultima; I’m always looking for variety in my hydration game. Ultima sent me a 30-serving container of lemonade, as well as a box of raspberry individual stick-style packets. Ultima is a hydrating electrolyte beverage, NOT a fuel product. There are no carbs, proteins, or fats in Ultima (and therefore nothing for your body to use as fuel). Ever since I learned you can separate hydration from fuel, I’ve been a huge fan of taking that approach. First, since I sweat a lot (especially in the heat!) I need hydration more often than I need fuel. Second, separating hydration and fuel allows me to fuel with real foods and fat-containing foods, such as peanut butter. Third, the science is with me on this one: gastric emptying (stuff leaving your stomach and getting into the other parts of your body) is slowed by the addition of carbohydrates. (See resources below.)
First Thing’s First: How Does It Taste?
Flavor: Raspberry. If you’re like me, you need your hydration (and nutrition) to taste good. I can’t count the number of people who don’t drink enough water because “the water where I live tastes bad” (or some variation of that excuse). There are plenty of hydration options I don’t like because they are too sweet, too sour, too salty, taste like old socks, etc. To me, the raspberry flavor smells like a red popsicle. It has a pleasant taste that I like enough to both look forward to drinking while out running, and to drink at my desk to encourage me to stay hydrated. While it is sweetened in part with stevia, I had to try very hard to taste the stevia. At least one of the BibRave Pro team members (Heather from Heather Runs Thirteen Point One) loathes stevia and gave up on her prior hydration when the stevia flavor in the new formula got to be too much for her. (Note: I do not have this problem. I also like cilantro. That said, I’m sympathetic to those who have the genetic disposition that makes cilantro taste like soap. Perhaps there is a similar thing for stevia?)
Can you see why I thought this cute little scoop was too small?
Flavor: Lemonade. Since the raspberry Ultima I received came in sticks, it was easy to measure. (Cut one open, dump it in the glass, boom.) My lemonade Ultima came in a tub. By the way, I LOVE this. Thirty servings fit in the palm of my hand! This is a bonus to me because it means Ultima doesn’t hog a lot of pantry space and is travel-friendly. Of course a smaller package is also more environmentally-friendly (e.g. uses less plastic in the packaging, takes less fuel to transport, etc.) and a bulk package is less expensive than individually wrapped sticks (cost is about $0.66 per serving instead of $1 per serving). If you buy the larger canister (90 servings) the cost goes down to around $0.33 per serving. Anyway, when I first pulled out the teeny-tiny scoop I thought for sure it was too small to be the actual serving size, and mixed a heaping scoop with water. Bad move! It tasted like a non-gritty Country Time Lemonade mix! WAY too sweet! When I actually used the scoop to measure a level scoop–the real serving, and it seems tiny–it came out much better. The taste is lemonade, but a sweetish lemonade, not a sour/tart one. It’s not overly sugary, and I bet it would make a nice margarita when mixed with tequila.
Other flavors. Ultima also comes in orange, grape, cherry pomegranate, and “toddler berry punch” (which as the name implies, is intended for kids–a useful thing to have in your arsenal when your kid is getting dehydrated due to vomiting and diarrhea, for example). I’m using the BibRave discount to buy a big tub of cherry pomegranate the instant it comes back in stock.
Raspberry after initial mixing (the clumps around the sides dissolved too)
Mouth-feel. I hate gritty drink mixes. Many powdered drink mixes seem to not fully dissolve, leaving little sand-like particles floating around in the drink (and this makes me crazy). Initially I was afraid that might be the case for Ultima, but it turns out I was just being silly–like most powders, if you mix Ultima in ice water it isn’t going to dissolve very well. Oops. When I tried very cold water (from a pitcher that had been refrigerated overnight), I put the Ultima in the bottom and poured the water over the top. This time, some powder rose to the top almost like bubbles. A quick swish with a spoon and they were gone. The resulting beverage was translucent pink, and smooth like water. The very bottom of the glass had a small amount of undissolved solids, but that didn’t bother me (though the very last sip had a tiny bit of a granular texture, it wasn’t sandy, and overall didn’t bother me–plus when I’m running I almost never get all the way to the bottom of the bottle before I refill).
What is NOT in Ultima?
Ultima’s website and packaging spend quite a bit of space on what is NOT in Ultima. Since that may also be important to you, here’s a list:
No sugar
No calories
No artificial flavors
No artificial colors
No GMO ingredients (Non-GMO Project verified)
No gluten (certified gluten-free)
No animal products (certified vegan)
No caffeine
No added maltodextrin (the natural flavors have a tiny amount)
My Ultima arrived all wrapped up like a present!
What is actually IN Ultima? A bunch of things.
You probably know you lose “salt” when you sweat, especially if you are a salty sweat-er (you can feel the grit on your face when you are done). Many people rely on salt packets when they run, but this is a mistake (outside the scope of this article, read the science-y bits of the article cited below). The short story is that you need to replenish ALL of the electrolytes you lose through sweat. (Did you know you sweat out iron too, especially in hot weather? That’s also a blog post for another day.)
Since many of the ingredients are familiar to the average person as “something from the periodic table” or “a chemical,” I thought it might be helpful to understand what each of these ingredients does inside the body–yes, every one of the main ingredients in Ultima already exists inside your body AND is critical for it to function at peak performance. I’ve included a quickie description, but also a link to that nutrient’s page on the Precision Nutrition Encyclopedia of Food. That way you can read more about food sources for that nutrient, as well as more than the examples I’ve given of problems that a deficiency may cause, and find out where that item lives in your food/diet.
The name in parenthesis is the form found in Ultima. (That way if you are as nerdy as I am, you can use your Google-fu for more information, and compare the bioavailability of various forms.) Potassium, for example, can combine to form many chemical compounds including potassium chloride, a common substitute for regular table salt (sodium chloride). In selecting the forms to include in Ultima, the creators tried to use the form that your body can most easily access and use (known as the most “bioavailable” form).
Potassium (potassium aspartate)
Essential mineral
Electrolyte
Assists in keeping the proper electrochemical gradient across cell membranes; this is important for nerve impulse transmission, cardiac function, and muscle contraction. The proper electrochemical gradient allows nutrients into the cell and waste products to exit. Deficiency can cause cardiac problems and muscle cramps. Read more.
Magnesium (Magnesium citrate and Magnesium aspartate)
Essential mineral
Electrolyte
Helps your body metabolize fats and carbohydrates, involved in DNA and protein synthesis, plays a role in wound healing. Deficiency can cause hypokalemia (deficiency of potassium in the bloodstream). Read more.
Chloride (sodium chloride)
Essential mineral
Electrolyte
Like Potassium, assists in keeping the proper electrochemical gradient across cell membranes (see above); also aids in the digestion and absorption of many nutrients. Deficiency can cause low blood pressure and weakness. Read more.
Calcium (calcium citrate and calcium ascorbate)
Essential mineral, and the most common mineral in the body
Electrolyte
We all know it plays a role in healthy bones and teeth, but did you know it also regulates nerve impulse transmissions, muscle contractions, and hormone secretions? Deficiency can cause skeletal problems (e.g. rickets, osteoporosis), among others. Read more.
Selenium (amino acid chelate)
Essential mineral
Helps create antioxidant balance in the body, works in concert with certain proteins and enzymes. Deficiency can lead to problems with cartilage development/formation, among other problems. Read more.
Zinc
Essential mineral
Helps with growth, development, neurological function, reproduction, and immune function (that’s a lot of different things!); acts as a catalyst in some chemical reactions within the body; forms/sustains cell structure; regulates genetic expressions, signaling among cells (including in the nervous system), and release of hormones. A zinc deficiency can slow wound healing. Read more.
Phosphorus (potassium phosphate)
Essential mineral
Yes, this is the stuff on match tips (but please don’t go eat them!). It forms bone structure, plays a role in energy transfer, helps with hormone production and enzyme production, signals cells, and facilitates binding site activity for hemoglobin. Deficiency is pretty rare. Read more.
Sodium (sodium chloride)
Essential mineral
Electrolyte
Often painted as the dietary bad-guy, sodium is something you lose through sweat, and replacing it is important! Like Potassium, Sodium assists in keeping the proper electrochemical gradient across cell membranes. It also regulates extracellular fluid (fluid outside of your cells) and is key to blood volume and blood pressure. A sodium deficiency spells race day disaster: nausea, vomiting, disorientation/confusion, cramps, headache, and fatigue. Read more.
Copper (copper citrate)
Essential mineral
Pennies might not be made of it anymore, but copper does help make up some neurotransmitters and the myelin structures that coat your nerves. (No copper? Nervous breakdown, ha ha!) Copper helps with collagen and elastin structures, and helps with protein synthesis and cell energy. Deficiency can cause anemia that doesn’t respond to iron treatments, and cause imbalances/deficiencies in your white blood cells. Read more.
Manganese (manganese citrate)
Essential Mineral
Electrolyte
Tiny but mighty? That’s manganese. It helps metabolize carbs, cholesterol, and amino acids (the building blocks of protein); it helps the antioxidant enzymes of the mitochondria (the “powerhouse” organelles inside your cells). Deficiency is rare. Read more.
Molybdenum (sodium molybdate)
Essential Mineral
Acts as a cofactor (a substance required for enzymes to do their jobs) for the enzymes in the carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur cycles; also helps with metabolism of drugs. Read more.
Chromium (chromium dinicotinate glycinate)
Essential Mineral
Enhances the effects of insulin and assists in metabolism of glucose and fat. Deficiency (predictably!) can cause impaired glucose tolerance and elevated circulating insulin. Read more.
There are some additional ingredients that vary by flavor (for example, beta carotene exists naturally in oranges, so it is present in orange flavor). You can read Ultima’s description of their ingredients on their website.
That’s The Basics. You’ve probably now learned more than you ever needed or wanted to know about Ultima, but in case you need more, do go to the website: http://www.ultimareplenisher.com/ The website can tell you where to find Ultima in stores near you, but the code BIBRAVE2016 which gets you 35% off plus free shipping will only work on the Ultima website.
Selected References:
Maughan, RJ. “Fluid and electrolyte loss and replacement in exercise.” J Sports Sci. 1991 Summer;9 Spec No:117-42.
Waller, MF and Haymes, EM. “The effects of heat and exercise on sweat iron loss.” Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1996 Feb;28(2):197-203. Find the abstract on PubMed.
Disclosure: if you’ve read the other two #Buffalove posts, you know I got the opportunity to run and help promote the Buffalo Marathon because I am on the BibRave Pro Team. (If you haven’t read them, why not?!?) This post is a continuation of my adventures in Buffalo. This post has no sponsors or sponsored content. BibRave, Buffalo Marathon, and Spot don’t even know I’m going to write it.
As you may have figured out, I love a good cup of coffee. (Yes, I have a Starbucks Gold Card; when you travel for work as much as I do, it is often the only place to get coffee and/or the only place with reliable wifi…and sometimes I am not feeling adventurous.) When I travel for fun, I like to check out the local variations on the bean of life. It gives me an excuse to explore a little, and usually a place to check my email, start my race review, and otherwise kick back a little. In Buffalo, I checked out Spot Coffee. Spot has coffee and the usual coffee place menu (e.g. baked goods) but also serves real food (like breakfast, burritos/wraps, sandwiches, pizza, salads, and other things that are not just sweet little noshes to go with coffee).
Spot’s welcome chalkboard
The Spot I visited was smack in the middle of downtown; I ran past it during the marathon, and made a mental note of the name so I could look it up later. (Okay so I lost that note and had to google, but hey.) There is a Starbucks literally across the street, and yet both times I was there (you know I like coffee, right?) it had plenty of customers. The chalkboard marquis distracted me from my immediate goal (get coffee inside me, pronto) and enticed me to walk past the bags of freshly roasted coffee. That turns out well for you, as there is a chance to win a bag at the end of this post!
Before I left, I saw the roasting room. I didn’t have time to beg for a tour (I had a plane to catch) but I did stop to ogle the equipment and try not to drool.
But back to the Spot experience. There is a lot of real estate that could support a line to wait to order, but on the Tuesday after a holiday weekend (and not during a rush hour) there was no wait to belly up to the coffee bar. There were more choices than I expected, and the staff were kind and friendly as I dithered about what to get.
Sorry this shot turned out so dark–next time I’ll try a filter! (Yes, that was my attempt at a coffee joke.)
The decor was a funky mix, with unique lighting fixtures (I don’t think any two of the chandeliers over the tables matched each other), a mural covering one wall, and all sorts of seating. The main room (the part surrounding the bar, above) included tables and bar-style window seats. There were two outdoor areas, one reserved for smoking and the other non-smoking. Also, bonus, lots of places to plug in gadgets (since I started playing Ingress, my iPhone is always in need of a charge). The back room had a few bigger tables, some chairs and lamps, and a few booths. I like how there were many different types of seating; there was something suitable for every possible purpose at a cafe from study alone or read the paper to hosting a group meeting.
Chandelier and purple wall!
Aside from the mural, there were also various pieces of art hung around the cafe. I really enjoy visual art, and appreciate it when cafes support artists by hosting shows, or serving as a temporary art gallery. Another thing I like about checking out the local cafes is that there is usually a literature and brochure area. Sure, I did read The Buffalo News while in town, but I also like to read the alternative papers. It was fun to see postcards and papers out for other local races, Pride events, art shows, churches, and community groups. (Sometimes there is more than one place for these items, and sometimes there is a bulletin board as well. I find it is a way to get a different, less touristy, feel for a place I’m visiting.) Several of the fun runs sounded like I’d enjoy them, but since I live in California I knew they’d be a no-go.
Condiment bar with sriracha? Yes, please!
My first go at Spot, I had a (hot) mocha. I’m pretty sure the barista thought I was insane for ordering a hot drink on a hot day; if he saw the marathon medal that should have confirmed my insanity right there. It was made with a strong, dark espresso and wasn’t overly sweet. Tuesday I tried a variation, adding a shot of hazelnut (because as soon as I saw they had it, I had a major jones for hazelnut syrup). Yes, that made my drink taste more like a candy bar, but I loved every sip of it!
For a list of locations in Buffalo and elsewhere, try the Spot Coffee website. It also lists contact information and hours for each cafe.
Now the part you’ve been waiting for: win some coffee! This giveaway has two prizes. Prize #1 is Spot Coffee Company’s “House” coffee. The label identifies notes of milk chocolate, nougat, and cream. Prize #2 is Spot Coffee Company’s “Espresso” coffee. The label says it has notes of dark chocolate, stonefruit, and “syrupy” (which I believe refers to the consistency or mouth-feel after brewing). These are both 12 oz., sealed packages of whole-bean coffee roasted by Spot in Buffalo, NY.
Win this coffee!
Enter using the Rafflecopter below. Please note this contest is void where prohibited by law. I will happily ship prizes to addresses in the U.S. and Canada. Winners will be notified and must respond within 7 days or forfeit. There is only one of each prize, and the first winner drawn will get to choose which prize they would prefer.
Disclosure: I received a free entry to the Buffalo Marathon because I am a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro, and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews. It’s a great way to help race directors see what is working and what needs improvement, and to help other runners find out what a race is really like.
I had a PLAN. (Then I had another plan.)
Leading up to the Buffalo Marathon, I had BIG plans. The universe pointed and laughed.
Buffalo Theatre District
When I first heard that the BibRave Pro Team members would have the opportunity to run Buffalo, I figured I would run the half marathon. The half marathon is my “safe” spot, a distance I have done many times (like 80), and knew I could finish at around 3:00 even if the conditions are less than perfect, faster if I pushed myself. Then we had our first team call with race director Greg Weber. After enough jokes that the rest of the BibRave Pros were convinced I was going to get a pony, I was positive that I was going to run the full. I had a full already on calendar (Dopey Challenge) and plenty of time to train. Game. On.
I didn’t exactly run the marathon I’d planned at Disney World, in part due to my inability to plan ahead (read: failure to submit proof of time so I got placed in the last corral). Sure, I got to take plenty of pictures and I finished, but the “balloon ladies” got MUCH closer than I’d planned on. Whatever, I was tired, and by then I had signed up to run the Sedona Marathon for the BibRave Pro Team.
As you may have read–or can go read now–the Sedona Marathon didn’t go as planned either. (Something about how I live at about 10′ above sea level.) I took a little time off to rest my poor lungs, made a training plan on the ASICS running website, and endeavoured to plow forward. If I just followed that plan, I could break 6:00 (my goal, since the finish line deconstruction happened then). Onward!
This time, the universe cackled.
The Universe? Had a different plan.
After Sedona, every long run left with me really sore hips. Both sides. Work took me to places where running was a questionable idea. Eventually I was back to running, mostly well, just with somewhat sore hips after long runs, and I thought that a flat course might be reasonably do-able. After running Revel Mt. Charleston I developed a crazy knot in the spot at my glute-hamstring tie-in. (Turns out I needed my chiropractor to reset my pelvis; it had canted such that my left hip–the one that was trying to kill me–was pressed forward and higher than the right one. Trust me, it was super muy no bueno, and I was kicking myself for not finding a way to get to the chiropractor earlier.) Not much running happened. I looked into dropping down to the half–the glute-hamstring tie-in was quite painful still–but I’d missed the deadline and actually not been injured until a few days afterwards.
Team RWB raises the flags at the starting line
The Race had a plan!
Then the pre-race emails started coming: Buffalo was expecting a heat wave. Since I’m a delicate little flower who comes from two long lines of pasty white people from very northern climes, this did not bode well for me. I packed more than one option–Mother Nature is fickle and loves to see runners arrived over/under dressed. I packed my Orange Mud single barrel hydraquiver so I could carry Nuun on the course (for a supplement to the race-provided hydration options), as well as an extra Buff (to dunk in water to assist with cooling by evaporation).
Heat so nice, they warned us twice
One of the pre-race emails was “Racing When It’s Warm/Hot” by Steve Gonser from runsmartonline. (Steve also gave the course preview, including course-specific tips on heat, during the pasta party.) On the 27th, all participants received an email with details on what the Buffalo Marathon heat plan included, again with tips specific to running in the heat. The heat plan included:
Contact with the weather service monitoring the predicted temperature pre-race
6000 pounds of ice distributed throughout the course (in two formats: bags of ice intended for runners to take away in cups, and tubs of ice and water with washcloths to take away for cooling/evaporation)
Additional fluids distributed on the course, including an aid station every mile after the half marathon split
Mobile water delivery, including both trucks with bottled water and bicycle course monitors carrying bottled water.
Putting water supply trucks on standby to insure aid stations do not run out of water (because we’ve all been to a race where that happened, right?)
Adding gel and bananas to more locations on the course
Nurses at 7 aid stations
Cooling vans (air conditioned vans/buses for runners to take a little break and cool down, or sag out, if necessary)
Buffalo Fire Department opened some fire hydrants along the course, added more than the originally planned number of EMS stationed around the course, and added misters at the finish line
Rural Metro (the ambulance service) added more ambulance stations
Pre-race, Buffalo Marathon used the media to ask residents and businesses on the course turn on their sprinklers (so runners could use them to cool off)
The Buffalo Convention Center lowered the temperature inside the building to provide a post-race cooling zone.
Since running the 5k had given me a taste of what the heat was going to be like on the back half of the course, I was a little bit worried, but between the Buffalo Marathon’s preparations and my own experience with heat, hydration, and electrolyte balance, I crossed my fingers. Yes, I was injured and had a great “excuse” to drop out at any time, but I’m a little stubborn and didn’t want a DNF. (Besides, the medals were awesome.) Recommendations for runners, applicable to any hot race, included:
• Slow down. (Listen to your body, run conservatively.)
• Start the race well-hydrated. (Drink before the race, take fluids early and often during the race).
• Consider carrying a bottle. (Option to toss it at an aid station if it turns out you don’t need it.)
• Wear a hat. (Keeps sun off face/head; soak in water and add ice beneath at aid stations to cool.)
• Sunblock. (Sunburn taxes your body’s resources.)
• Chill out pre-race. (Stay horizontal and soak up the AC.)
• Know the warning signs. As the email said, “Heat exhaustion can be dangerous. If you feel dizzy, lightheaded or disoriented, stop running. Ask for help from a race volunteer who will help you to a medical tent.” (This communication included a link to signs of heat-related illness, which you may recalls I once wrote about on this blog.)
• Carry salt packets and/or drink Gatorade. (Sweat depletes electrolytes.)
• Stay positive. Visualize success.
As a side note, what constitutes a “heat wave” for running purposes depends on the location of the run and the typical experience of a high percentage of the pool of runners. Several races in the Northeastern states were black-flagged or cancelled pre-race due to the heat. These are tough decisions made by race directors in consultation with local EMS, water, and other authorities. What is normal for one location may be a potential disaster for another. I was really disappointed after the weekend to see runners talking smack about the choices some races made. Sure, maybe YOU are used to running in 90+ degree temperatures in full sun, maybe that wouldn’t be cause to shut down a race in Atlanta, or Houston, or Phoenix, but it’s not normal for most of the rest of the country.
Any idea how this flat runner thing got started?
A woman, The Universe, The Race, and the plan.
On race morning I suited up and headed out to the starting line. There were exactly zero people complaining that the race started at 6:30 a.m., and I was actually wishing we started an hour earlier since there was no pre-race chill. First we covered some of the same road as the 5k, which was partially shaded by trees and dotted with old brick buildings. The next section was through a gorgeous neighborhood with a lush green boulevard/park in the center of the street. There were a ton of families out, some with their sprinklers on and turned towards the streets. It was only mile 3ish at that point, but the sprinklers felt good. Despite the abundance of cute dogs, I knew I was going to slow down substantially on the back half of the course so I didn’t stop. I stuck as strictly as possible to 1-1 run-walk intervals and tried to cover as much ground as possible.
Running through one of the beautiful Buffalo neighborhoods in the first half of the half
The course headed back through the downtown area, and then west through another residential area. I think it was around mile 6 or 7 when I was offered my first cup of ice, which I split 50-50 between my mouth and my sports bra. Just before we headed down to Lake Erie we passed by what I assume was a condo association or planned community, where they had recently laid down cedar shavings/bark on the landscaping. It was exceptionally stinky, and I could feel the heat and wet coming off of the adjacent lawns.
Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park
Running along Lake Erie let me see the Buffalo waterfront from a different perspective than canalside (at least until we ran up to that point). As we ran through the marina area, various landscaping sprinklers had been adjusted to mist up and out away from the lawns and onto the runners. At this point I was still feeling pretty good and pacing a 6:00ish marathon.
This ones not a bison, but a Buffalove!
After passing through canalside, I got to say hi to Mr. Horton again on my way to the hockey arena. Dad had gotten up and taking the trolley down to that area to say hello as I ran through. By that point I had passed mile 11, it was past 8:00ish so the sun was up and shining, and the next stretch had no shade. A small section of the pavement was a bit torn up, so I proceeded carefully around that block, past The Buffalo News, and back over to say hi to Dad again before aiming for central downtown once more.
The mile 13 marker was mentally challenging. The vast majority of the people around me turned to take the half marathon finish, and I could hear all the cheering and crowds as I ran through. Crowds of folks with finisher medals were heading back to their hotels as I ran around the back side of the Convention Center and headed up to Linwood Avenue. I started to encounter the soft-re-opening of the course, and at one point was the only runner in my sight for at least three blocks. I could feel my pace starting to slow and while mentally I was pushing to keep the run intervals as fast as possible I was trying to balance that with the desire to not burn out before mile 16. I stopped briefly at every aid station to drink something, grab ice, splash water on my body, and refill my Nuun (the tube fits neatly into the slim pockets on the back of the Orange Mud).
I plodded onward along the Forest Lawn Cemetery boundary, and kinda wished the race ran through it. (I love cemeteries. They are some amazing green spaces and hold a crazy amount of history.) As I turned into Delaware park I stopped to pet the first dog of the day before tackling the loop around the golf course. About a half mile in, I saw a few other runners. Aha! Future road kill! I was going to pass someone!
Wherein one of us abandons the plan.
I pulled up alongside this runner and determined she was in the marathon. (There were some extraneous walkers/runners in the park as well.) She seemed overheated, so I gave her the rest of my ice, and then some tips on where to put it/how to use it (since thirst was not the issue). I pulled ahead a little bit for a short time, and then hit the back side of the park where there was a mini-aid station with bottled water and snacks where she caught up with me again. We started away from the aid station together. I’m going to call this runner “Vanessa” (that is not her name). She asked if she could “try to keep up” with me and as soon as I learned this was her very first marathon and she was by herself, any plan I had for my finish time evaporated. I thought about my Marathon Maniac angel Dexter, who pushed me through the last lap of the New Year’s Double Marathon in the cold and wet, and there was pretty much no choice but to pay it forward.
As we wound through the neighborhood behind the park, Vanessa and I got to know each other. This was her first marathon and she had trained for it, but heat wasn’t her jam either. She had finished multiple other races, including some half marathons. Vanessa raised two fine kids as a mostly single mom after growing her self-esteem and booting her now-ex-husband. (I know they are fine kids because Vanessa bragged on them a little, but also because she was a great human and so she must have pretty fine kids too.) Neighbors left sprinklers out for us to run through, and one guy was outside of his house with a table of oranges and other snacks, as well as a hose to spray us down. We grabbed ice at every opportunity. I poked Vanessa to carry a bottle and sip from it every now and then even though she didn’t “feel thirsty.”
Buffalo is filled with interesting details
After we exited the park, there was a tricky stretch towards Buffalo State College and down to mile 22. Every half mile or so, I’d convince Vanessa to take a “run break” (which is like a “walk break” but running). While she had definitely put in the miles and stuck to her training plan MUCH more faithfully than I had, there were many things she didn’t know about running that I had learned as much by trial-and-error as by exercising my extremely nerdy streak. Vanessa encouraged me to keep yapping to distract her from the pain–if you’ve made it as far as mile 20, you know what we were feeling there. When I ran out of running topics, I told her all about my cat. (Yes, I’m THAT runner.)
By this point the trucks had come to sweep the course, take down the aid stations, and re-open the roads to traffic. Multiple vehicles–including an ambulance–slow-followed us and called out to make sure we were okay, ask if we needed more water, and make sure we understood we were being officially moved to the sidewalks. It was pretty awesome course support, since at that point the race organization was 100% within rights to sweep us to a DNF. Vanessa was starting to dog it a little bit and I as my own dogs were barking (the sprinklers felt great on my body, but had soaked my shoes and socks) and hatching blisters. I promised her that she was crossing that finish line if I had to drag, pull, or push her over it. Vanessa steeled her nerves and dug deep, and we pressed forward.
Wherein the three of us hatch a New Plan.
Down Bidwell, onto Richmond, we started to pass some outdoor parties (it was, after all, Memorial Day weekend). Each time we passed a party people would clap and say encouraging things, and I’d bust out with “FIRST TIME MARATHONER! KICKING BUTT!!” and point to Vanessa. While she got a little shy whenever I did that, she also got a little more confident in her forward strides, so I hammed it up big time. Our running breaks got shorter but more frequent.
By this point there were zero directional signs left (though there were some cups of water left on tables at what was left of the aid station, and we had plenty of fluids with us). I whipped out my iPhone, low on battery from streaming Rock My Run tunes but still alive, to check the course. A few more blocks, and then to North. I may have lied slightly about how much course was left to go…and I didn’t stop at the Humane Society picnic in the park even though it was chock full o’ cute doggies. Around this point we came across another runner. Her name was not Jennifer. Vanessa and I introduced ourselves and the three of us continued to inch towards the finish line.
Jennifer was also running her first marathon. Unlike Vanessa, she hadn’t run a full training plan. As Jennifer explained it, the whole thing was her boyfriend’s idea. He read about the Buffalo Marathon, decided to do it, and enlisted Jennifer to help. (Note: said boyfriend was NOWHERE to be seen until after we crossed the finish line!) The way she tells it, they went out and ran 15 miles and that felt pretty good, so they showed up at the starting line. The three of us brainstormed what Jennifer should ask the boyfriend to do as payback and continued to take run-breaks.
Brick construction, showing evidence of past additions and deletions
Around mile 25.5ish, Vanessa’s triathlete friends appeared on a corner. Vanessa hadn’t wanted to “ruin” any of their races, and encouraged them to go forth and kill it, which I suspect they all did because they were wearing medals. They offered to carry all of her gear, handed her a cold water bottle, and otherwise did all the good things.
I knew we were close, and I started to push the trio faster and closer to that finish line. Jennifer started to wonder if there would even BE a finish line, as official course time was 6 hours and we were well into the seventh hour. She was honestly a little worried that there wouldn’t be anyone there to give her a medal. Since I knew how much Greg Weber, the Race Director, was invested in making this race a runner’s race, I promised both Jennifer and Vanessa that if we got to the end and there were no medals, I would personally call up Greg and ask to get them medals.
We hit Niagara Square and the 26 mile point. I was hot and disgustingly sweaty and tired, but I was so incredibly proud of how hard Vanessa was pushing herself to finish, and the dedication Jennifer had to persevere even though the boyfriend was MIA. We navigated around the roundabout (Niagara “Square” isn’t very square) and turned on to Court Street. I knew there was just one more turn to go.
Just before we came to Franklin Street I yelled to Jennifer and Vanessa that there was just half a block left to go, and they’d better run the instant we turned that corner. As the three of us turned on to Franklin I dropped back and yelled, “Go! Go! You’ve got this! Run! Finish strong!” and chased them to the finish line. Or rather where the finish line used to be. The last portion of the barricades were still up, though the finish line itself had been disassembled for about an hour.
Eyes on this prize!
Volunteers were waiting with medals and bottled water. Jennifer’s boyfriend appeared and I laughed a little inside as I thought about our semi-delirious race-brain suggestions for how she should exact her revenge. Vanessa’s friends were waiting for her, cheering up a storm and patting her on the back. Due to some minor glitch in the tracking program, Dad wasn’t at the finish line yet, but John (my Runner of a Certain Age co-host) was headed in my direction. I turned around in time to see Vanessa burst into tears, and I was so happy for her that I had to choke back a few myself. She ran over to give me a big hug. “Thank you,” cry hug cry, “thank you SO much!” Aw shucks. I didn’t even do half as good a job as Dexter did when he pushed me to that finish line. “YOU did it,” I whispered, “it was ALL. YOU.” I gave her a big squeeze, hoping that through a hug she could feel how proud I was that she kept on going and finished what she started.
(Almost) The End.
Vanessa’s friends spirited her away, and I’m really hoping Jennifer was chewing out her boyfriend for his incredibly stupid idea. Dad, who had sensibly only run the 5k (I say that because one, he wasn’t trained up to run even a half, and two, his wife Ellen would have killed me if I’d let him join me for the marathon, which thankfully was sold out when he went to register) was running down the street to meet up with me.
I chugged water. I hugged Dad, who is my hero, always. I admired the beautiful Buffalo Marathon finisher medal. Note that at that point, the finisher party was still raging on inside the Convention Center (which I know because I watched video of the final finishers an hour or so behind us), but I looked around and saw nothing outside, and just wanted to hang out with my Dad. It wasn’t until I saw the videos several hours later that I was like, wait, I missed the party?
I earned this one. Is it ironic that it is long-sleeved?
(The final night and day in #Buffalove Part 3. Also, free coffee.)
Disclosure: I received a free entry to the Buffalo Marathon because I am a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro, and check out BibRave.com to review find and write race reviews. It’s a great way to help race directors see what is working and what needs improvement, and to help other runners find out what a race is really like.
Flying to Buffalo from California takes ALL DAY. I finally landed in Buffalo at 4ish, met Dad at the airport, and the adventure began! I wish I’d taken a picture of the injured butterfly I attempted to help (by moving it from laying in the middle of the sidewalk to resting in a patch of tall grass). We headed to the Hyatt, the host hotel for the Buffalo Marathon races, and I promptly took a nap. Side note, the Hyatt was pretty great! They were totally ready for the deluge of runners, and really friendly.
VIP Reception. When I woke up, Dad and I went down to the VIP reception, where I finally met race director Greg Weber in person. I also got to meet Liam, who was one of the race team members that facilitated the interview with Meb. I was otherwise a little too exhausted–why does flying make me soooo tired??–to be social, and since so many of the guests seemed to be catching up with each other, I didn’t want to intrude. (Translation: rats! Missed a selfie with Bart Yasso!) Dad enjoyed the Mile 27, a beer brewed only for the Buffalo Marathon, and I had a glass of wine, before we headed out to dinner. (There were snacks at the reception, but nothing grabbed me as dinner.)
Dinner. I fixated on the idea of getting a burrito, and Dad and I set out to walk over to the burrito joint. I somehow missed the turn, and we ended up walking through the historic theatre district where just a few of Buffalo’s gorgeous building live. Once I realized my mistake we circled back, and as soon as I saw Prima Pizza Pasta I wanted pizza. I had a more than sufficiently large calzone. Dad ordered “two tacos” which was really like “two burritos.” Basically we weren’t carb-loading, we were everything-loading.
Crashing. After the somewhat obligatory “flat me” photo and otherwise setting out race stuff, Dad and I were both asleep at record speed. This is what happens when I get up for a 6:20 a.m. flight on the west coast.
Morning came to early, as it always does on race day. We aimed to be picking up bibs before 7, so we would have plenty of time to walk back to the hotel, stash our shirts, and eat a little (and drink another bottle of Nuun) before the race. It was already heating up, and I started to sweat on the barely-two-blocks walk to the convention center. The pre-race emails had warned that Buffalo was expecting unusually hot weather for race weekend, and since heat knocks me down pretty quickly, I was worried about overheating and dehydration.
Pre-race. There was a single corral, with runners self-seeding into what seemed to be the appropriate areas. I saw a lot of kids, which made me happy–not only do I love the idea that a kid could find out they love running early in life, but pretty much all the kids running were there with their parents. There seemed to be a good mix of newer runners, walkers, Team RWB, marathon and half-marathon runners doing a shake-out run, families, and charity teams.
Race! The race started at 8:30. While the lack of corrals meant we all started in a clump, because the runners were pretty good at self-seeding, there wasn’t a lot of shuffling or down time after crossing the starting line.
For those familiar with Buffalo, the course started on the Pearl Street side of the Convention Center, eventually crossed to Franklin Street, went to Barker St., and turned down Delaware, eventually cutting through Niagara Square and finishing on the Franklin Street side of the Convention Center. There were plenty of people out cheering, and a crowd of volunteers directing traffic and doing the usual race day things.
For those NOT familiar with Buffalo, the course makes a big ol’ box around a portion of downtown. The course runs by a bunch of the beautiful buildings in Buffalo, the kind that make you look at the architecture and think, “Wow, they do not build buildings like this anymore.” The trees are lush and green, too!
There was very little elevation. Basically there was a low-grade up-hill on the way out, and a low-grade downhill on the way back. The course was suitable for even the most non-technical runner. The 5k also provided a nice preview of the marathon finish, as the downhill piece leading to the finish line was the same for both races.
Like most 5k races, there was one aid station. Given the unusually hot weather, it would have been nice to have two, but it was only a 5k so it wasn’t a big deal. When I finished the race, everything I was wearing was drenched, and it wasn’t from dumping water on myself!
Breakfast/Brunch at the Hyatt. A shower was NOT optional prior to eating. (Seriously, I could smell the other runners at the finish line. It was gross hot.) My room rate included breakfast (though not all do), which was either from the menu or the buffet. The buffet had the usual buffet-type breakfast foods–cold cereal, yogurt and Greek yogurt with toppings, pastries and bread, fruit, cheese, eggs, potatoes, bacon, waffles, sausage–and also included cooked-to-order omelets, pancakes, and hot oatmeal (with toppings!). Despite having only run 5k I was really, really hungry and made full use of the buffet, plus an omelet!
Expo. Packet pickup was a breeze. The layout had bibs and shirts behind one set of registration tables, with several stations (sorted by bib number) staffed by volunteers. I love that each race has a different shirt, and that the half marathon shirt says “half marathon” on it. (As a mostly half-marathoner, I love it when the race treats the half marathon as its own event. Most of the time the shirts say “race series” or “marathon and half marathon” or sometimes just “marathon.”) Race bibs had attached timing chips, and the ID sticker indicated whether the volunteer should hand over a wooden nickel which served as the pasta party ticket.
Given the size of the race and the venue, the expo was a decent size. I’d estimate there were 40 booths covering race sponsors, other races, and running-related products. There were also multiple tables with information on upcoming races in the area which made me a little jealous since I can’t exactly fly across the country for races all the time–plus there were multiple races over the border in Canada! I’m sure the opportunities dry up in winter, but I could easily have planned an entire summer and fall of races based just on the booths and flyers.
While I always look at the shoes (you never know when you might score a deal on your favorites), sadly there were no Brooks waiting for me to find them. I picked up an extra tube of Nuun, since I had started slurping it on Friday and only had a few tablets left. I was glad to find HB Tune, as I was well on the way to wearing out my second HB Tune, plus my new iPhone was a tight fit. Turns out there is an updated design that can switch between right and left hands AND has a quick release so you can whip out your phone and snap pictures. Win! New to me is the TreadBand, a non-slip sweatwicking headband that ties (kind of like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle headband, only not intended to go on your eyes). TreadBands have a strip of yoga-mat-like material firmly attached, positioned so you tie that piece on your forehead before you tie the band. Since I always run with a hat and a half-Buff this won’t be a running accessory for me, but I’m excited to see if that strip also helps keep sweat out of my eyes during hot yoga!
Oh, and the Expo also had a stellar speakers line-up! Appearing live at the expo were Bart Yasso (Chief Running Officer, Runners’ World); DeAnna Bennett (an MMA fighter!), Misy Diaz (a Spartan Race runner whose cause is spina bifida), Molly Barker (Founder of Girls on the Run), and Lisa Howard (an ultra runner who is also a coach with Team RWB). The one and only Meb Keflezighi also appeared by livestream, complete with Q&A! If you have any doubt this was a world-class event, that should banish it!
Tour. One of the neat things the Buffalo Marathon has to offer is an open-bus tour of the course. I had hoped to do this but it didn’t work out–in part because I didn’t figure out how to get tickets until the day of, and in part because they only had one bus so it sold out! I’m hoping that next year there will either be two buses or two time options. One of the things that is so cool about Buffalo is that all sorts of history happened there–the War of 1812 (which, it turns out, was really fought in 1813), the assassination of president McKinley–and there are monuments and historic sites everywhere. That’s in addition to the magnificent architecture in every style (a little Victorian here, a little Beaux-Arts there, some Art Deco here, classic brick work over there). Next year, I’m on that bus.
In lieu of the bus tour, Dad and I took the streetcar down to Canalside, along with John (co-host of the Runner of a Certain Age podcast). Canalside is a newer development in the Buffalo scene, and includes the Liberty Hound brew pub and restaurant, a military museum, and three museum ships. There is a place to rent pedal-boats and remote controlled model boats, and a large park that was filled with a carnival while we were there. It was super hot, as I think I’ve mentioned, so we took a quick look around and then headed back.
Pasta Dinner. For most races I skip the pasta dinner. I’m really glad I didn’t skip this one! Dinner was at the convention center and consisted of food service catered salad mix, pasta, meatballs or chicken, rolls, and cookies. The pasta sauce had a nice zing to it without being overly spicy, and since I don’t eat meat I was able to talk them into a slightly bigger pasta serving. The meal also included beverages (various soft drinks, ice water with citrus slices, and Mile 27 beer). There were 600 seats, and Team RWB was out in full force.
The evening also included a welcome by race director Greg Weber (one of our guests on the Runner of a Certain Age), a raffle to win a Buffalo Bills jersey signed by Meb (proceeds to Meb’s charitable foundation), and a course preview.
The course preview was reason alone to attend. Steve Gonser, physical therapist and founder of RunSmartOnline.com, gave the presentation. (If you tuned in for any of the pre-race webinars on training and injury prevention, Steve hosted those too.) Most course previews are just a quick-speed film of the course with a few comments on the elevation. Not this one. While Steve did show video, he really focused on giving
