ClipE Winner

Quick Fanfare….

And the winner is Kirstie! Drop me a line with you address etc to quadrathon (@) gmail (dot) com and they will go out in the mail

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

RFP Book and Walkman Winners!

Ok so I am a day late (well three) in posting this but I did actually make the draw on Friday but then got distracted getting my family off on their vacation on Saturday morning and then there was the Tour to catch up on, some running, a bit of cycling and before I knew it is was Monday morning!

So without further ado here are your winners…drumroll…

Relentless Forward Progress goes to….Mike!

The other Sony Walkman W series goes to….Peter!

Thanks guys, email me; quadrathon at gmail etc, or DM me on Twitter your mailing address and I will endeavor to get them to you before Christmas!

Sony Walkman W Series MP3 Player – winners!

Sorry I have been hiding under a rock for the last week or so and nearly a week late here are the two winners of the Sony Walkmans:

Drumroll……..

Kristy and Timbeuax!

Drop me an email to quadrathon @ gmail.com with your mailing address and I will get them out to you!

Review; Sony Walkman W Series MP3 Player

If you have ever seen a photo of me chances are I have earbuds stuck in my ears, I would like to think I am an audiophile but the truth is that I like to have a solid bass and no hiss! Yeah it’s not the safest thing to do but…well 2-3 hours doing anything needs some musical accompaniment. Up until a couple of years ago I was happy with the out-of-the-box Apple earbuds, then I discovered Sony Mdr-Ed12Lp, not the catchiest of names but these babies pack a punch and you can pick them up online for around $10, but there downside is that are susceptible to water, sweat, Cytomax; yeah I dropped an ear bud into an open handheld once! So when Sony hit me up to review there latest reincarnation of the Walkman I was in!

Now the truth is I am a bit late to the party on reviewing these; there are some actually pretty thorough reviews posted by other blogging buddies of mine including,

Frayed Laces; “Perhaps I just have abnormal ears”

ChicRunner; “I love this little guy”

Gretchen; “an excellent player for the gym or other low-impact sports”

Aron; “I would definitely recommend this”

So I am going to spare you the basics about the features, suffice to say it goes forwards and backwards. There are some nice touches that have not been mentioned in other reviews:

• It is iTunes compatible just drop and drag your music easy peasy, you can create playlists through new folders and then scroll through from the earset
• It comes with three sizes of earbuds so you can get a good fit; they’re really easy to change and you can mix and match to get the best fit possible
• The sound quality is really good, way better than the Apple buds and as good as my beloved Mdrs, deep rich bass and clear top notes
• The magnetic touch turns them off so as long as you close them you can save the battery, they also charge up really quickly approx 80% in 5 minutes from flat
• No cords, needless to say this is a total bonus
• Water…well sweat proof, yeah it’s getting pretty toasty on my lunchtime runs, today hit 98f

Of course there are a couple of downsides:

• Changing tracks on the fly is a bit tricky, you get used to it but it is a bit tricky!
• The fit, this is one size fits all, kinda, the loop that wraps round you head is one size and ergo if you’re an XL or XS cranium you could have issues…I am erring on the XL side
• One thing missing for those that run with a cell phone, these would be great if they were blue tooth compatible
• The earbuds, well here’s the kicker they rubbed the inside of my ear and for me that’s the deal breaker

Now just because they do not work for me does not mean they won’t work for you and thanks to Sony I have two pairs to give away to two lucky readers…and listeners I suppose!

So by now you know the form right:

Show some Facebook love will get you an entry.

Post about it on your blog will get you another.

Tweet “I just entered the @quadrathon win a @SonyElectronics W Series Walkman competition you can too http://tinyurl.com/4352l6h” and you can have three.

Finally let me know how many you entries you need by leaving a comment on this post for your fourth and I will draw a winner on Friday! Otherwise you can have a rummage in the garage for your old cassette player!

Giveaway in LALA!

I was contacted by the folks at 13.1 Marathon again this year who asked if I would be interested in giving a free entry away for the race in Venice Beach on Sunday, January 16th. This is a series of 13.1 mile races, similar to the Rock’N’Roll series, from the producers of the ING Miami Marathon and Half Marathon®, ING Georgia Marathon and Half Marathon®, and the Chicago Half Marathon and 5K.

I ran it back in January and had a blast, this year they have changed the route to run more along Venice boardwalk in sight of the ocean! You can read my race report here.

So here’s the dealio, it’s along the usual lines:

Liking them on Facebook will get you one entry

If you post on your blog about this you can have another entry and if you Tweet “I just entered the @quadrathon LA13.1 giveaway, so can you http://bit.ly/cNMm59” there’s one more entry!

Now for the bonus, if you can donate a pair of used shoes I will give you 5 more entries, to do this you need to visit Top To Top, a specialty running store in Santa Monica to donate your used running shoes to Give Your Sole, a program which collects athletic shoes from races and donates them to men, women, and children in need between November the 18th and 21st. Top to Top’s location is 2621 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica, CA. I am working under the assumption that someone local will want to enter, win and run the race!

Now the donation has to be totally on the honor system, so I will leave it up to you to be well…honest!

Leave a comment telling me what you did out of the above and I will tally the entries and draw the winner next Wednesday.

Talking of winners the winner of Running Hot is, drumroll….Lauren! Email me your mailing address and it’s on its way to you!

Review; Running Hot (and giveaway)

A few months ago I was browsing through Amazon and I saw this pop up in the suggestions, there are not too many books about ultra runners and ultra running and so I threw it the old basket and checked out. It sat on my night stand for a while…most books do and then during the late summer I managed to start it and within a week it was done!

I would best describe this as the less flashy more down-to-earth and dysfunctional female version (hey we’re all dysfunctional in one way or another…but I digress) version of Dean Karnazes’ UltraMarathon Man.

The book tells the story of Lisa Tamati, a New Zealander who discovered ultra running by accident. An injury which resulted in a broken back and her doctors telling her she would never run again was followed by cycling through 20 countries in Europe, rafting down the Yukon and hiking through the Arabian Desert…you could say she’s a bit tenacious!

The running side came with her entering and completing some pretty tough races including The Desert Cup a 168km non-stop in Jordan, two stints at Marathon Des Sables; 242km in Morocco and two finishes at Badwater 135.

As you would expect there is plenty of adversity, troubling times, tears, blisters and snot and large portion of joy, laughter and success. She’s not a winner but she’s a finisher and I think this is the appeal of the book. You can empathize and sympathize, it’s written to be read without looking for the hidden meaning and simply to be enjoyed. She loves and lives life’s challenges.

So here’s the giveaway…I have one copy, my copy, to give away (my wife is on a Kindle bender) to one lucky reader. To win simply answer the following question and I will put all the correct entries in a hat and draw one next Wednesday.

The question is; by what nickname are New Zealanders often known?

Teaser post…

Well this will be the final post of October so I thought it might be fun to whet your whistle with a little bit of a teaser of some upcoming giveaways…

New Clif Shot gels and Seasonal Clif Bars

Running Hot…a damn good read

Entry into the 13.1 Los Angeles for next January

And I have a few others up my sleeve!

Lot’s of fun stuff…

Review; Clif Crunch

A ways back, I wrote to Clif asking them for a free sample of Clif Shot for a hydration review (to follow) not only did they send me some Shot they threw in a bunch of Crunch bars in various flavors. Having eaten my way through them, if you have been following my Daily Food Photo Diary you will have seen me post my fair share of them, it’s time to post a review and better yet give some away!

So in time honored fashion from Clif’s website:

CLIF CRUNCH ® is a new line of crunchy granola bars offering classic and original flavors made with all-natural and organic ingredients.

In addition to classic Peanut Butter and Honey Oat flavors, CLIF CRUNCH ® is first to make crunchy granola bars with creamy chips, and is bringing two all-new flavors -- Chocolate Chip and White Chocolate Macadamia Nut to the crunchy granola bar category.

I am sure you must have heard of Clif I am not going to get into a long description about Clif, you can find a ton of information on their website here and fellow Blogger Donald from Running and Rambling has actually been to Clif HQ in sunny Emmeryville, specifically to Crunch there is an excellent FAQ section on Clif’s website.

And so on with the review…it’s probably best to start with the entry level flavors and work our way up.

Honey Oat;. This is crunchy, naturally sweet with a really nice texture kind of flaky but with a hearty oaty taste, they actually go down really well dunked in tea (British tea that is)!

Peanut Butter; this is very similar to the oat flavor but has a distinct peanutty flavor, I am not a fan of things made to taste of other things, so peanut butter is ok and peanut butter flavor less so, but that’s my issue

Chocolate Chip; Similar to the Honey Oat bars taste this is sweetened by the chocolate chips rather than the honey, a nice compliment and a little bit of luxury

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut; if Chocolate Chip was a little bit of luxury then this one is a truckload! Simply delicious and without going overboard this is really, really good!

Nutrition wise they do vary from bar to bar, this is driven, obviously by the ingredients, this is a nutritional label from the Honey Oat bar:

Available in boxes of 6 through Clif for $3.49 or from other on line sources, I have seem the in Whole Foods and I am sure you’ll be seeing them permeate out into the marketplace in due course.

Now for the giveaway I have two boxes of mixed bars, that is one of each flavor to give away.

This is a nice easy win for someone and it’s simple to enter. So all you have to do is follow the following and you’ll be in the running for the prize which I will draw next Friday, there are several ways to enter and the more you do the better the odds:

Like, follow, become a fan of or whatever they’re calling it this week on Facebook of Clif

Follow them on Twitter gets you one entry

Leave a comment on this post gets you one entry, tell me you have done the above will get you one or two more, that’s three so far.

Finally all you folks on Twitter tweet the following will get you one more entry per day, this contest runs for a week so between now and next Thursday, that’s seven more for a possible total of nine, I will pick a winner.

I just entered the win a box of @clifbar Crunch giveaway on the @quadrathon blog

Pretty simple really, watcha waiting for? Oh and after you’ve eaten them all, why not write a review…that seems only fair right?!?

These products were provided free of charge by Clif. See previous gear reviews in the sidebar on the right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at quadrathon@gmail.com.

Sole entry…he’ll win!

Pardon the extreme punning!

Here are the results for the Toe Juice giveaway or should I say here is the winning entry from Josh.  Josh’s tired dogs look like they really need some lovin’. Not surprising really he’s has just piled on a 300 mile month, was pacing at Badwater the past few days and will be toeing the line at AC100 this August!

Seriously in need of some lovin’, a good pedi and a angle grinder!

So I have been using Toe Juice for the last two weeks, a fairly easy regimen, evenings before bed and after a shower, so that’s up to three times a day in total, just dabbed on with cotton wool, easy peasy!

And so for the results, drum roll please…

Before 14 days of treatment on the left and the after on the right

As you can see there is a significant improvement, the cracks have healed/repaired , there’s definitely more moisture and less dryness and an improvement overall, so I would say a success.

Josh email me your mailing address and I’ll hook you up!

A big thankyou to Toe Juice for providing the goodies! Check ‘em out and you could have hush puppies rather than rough dogs in two weeks too!

Off the beaten track…ultra cool shirts!

So if you’ve followed my blog for any time you’ll know that the Sunday or Monday post is usually a write up of my gallivanting from the weekend, usually along with some photos or video. This week I thought I would do something a bit different.

There’s a quintessential look that a trail or ultra runner’s shirt has; capped sleeves often with the name of an “outdoor” brand; Patagonia, Montrail, Sportiva or the ever popular Auburn Running Company. Conversely your typical road running has a look, Asics, Nike, Adidas and the like, often matching top and bottom, with some subtle trimming. I am not looking to stereotype anyone, these are just the facts, check out a copy of Runner’s World or UltraRunning and you’ll see.

So there’s a gap here for some out of the box thinking, allow me to introduce you to some folks that are filling it!

First up Atayne. I first heard about Atayne from Paige’s blog. Occupying unique space Atayne’s shirts are made from recycled plastic bottles! There’s a whole bunch of sciency stuff on their website. Eco friendly their mission is “One with People, One with Planet, and One with Performance.” Essentially the end product is an awesome technical shirt that works, they’re a little bit thicker and a little more fitted than you might be used so and they have a raglan sleeve which is also a little unusual. WRC offers several styles in addition to they’re own logo’d version all of which tie in the outdoors, running and recycling, Atayne have a few more available on their website for cyclists and triatheletes.

Second on the docket is Ink-n-Burn.com. They produce a line of tech shirts that appeal to the more outgoing runner someone who doesn’t mind saying LOOK AT ME and also someone who takes their running seriously but doesn’t take themselves too seriously! Their shirts have; from their website “unique slogans and designs are heat transferred (BURNED) directly into the fabric….graphics add no weight, attract no heat and don't wear off before a shirt is retired”. A traditional cut, their technical shirts work and if you want to get you psych on pre race, they offer many in a cotton versions too. With big graphics, smart designs and a technical shirt that does the job…what’s not to like!

Lastly and by no means least is PunkRockRacing. If like me you grew up in the 70’s you’ll remember the punk rock thing, now combine that with endurance sports; running, cycling and triathletes…you see what I mean. A brash start up from Northern CA, these fly in the face of convention with some catchy graphics with a big attitude! Their stated manifesto; The Punk Rock Racing revolution is simple: Like-minded people pushing the envelope against gravity today with the understanding that—win, lose or draw—they will be back tomorrow…They’re currently offering a few tech shirts with more promised in June as well as a line of non sports clothing, hoodies, hats and the like! Again a great tech shirt that does exactly what it’s supposed to!

Now with all of you in mind and ‘cos I am brash enough to ask! I managed to get a freebie from each company, I am going to spare you the join this, follow that hoopla, although if you want to they’re all on FaceBook, Twitter and the like. Nope this is a simple draw. One entry per person, state you name and tell me which one you fancy; I have shirts from Atayne via the good folks at Wilderness Running Company and Ink-n-Burn and a Hoodie from PunkRockRacing; it’s a large and is a bit small for me. I draw out names on Saturday.

So there you have it, three alternatives to take you off the beaten track!

Oh and if you like the shirt in the very first photo that’s a one off from my friend here…sorry!

Does this make my ears look big?

So a while ago I posted a competition that RaceVine was holding, post some race reviews and you get entered into a draw and you could win some pretty cool swag including race entries, nutrition products, clothing and the like. Never one to say no to swag, I wrote up three reviews and submitted them, a few weeks later I got an email telling me I had won….woot! I was to be the proud owner of a BondiBand! WTF are Bondibands I thought? Turns out that they are pretty cool head/sweat bands, the problem is is that my noggin is not really suited to these, you need a pretty regular sized head and lots of hair, me, well on a good day I look a bit like a wing nut! Check out Billy, now he can rock a BondiBand!

Anyways. I have eight to give away, so here’s the deal first eight to leave a “I want” comment gets one, first come first served oh and you’ll need to send me a stamped addressed envelope too…that seems only fair!

Ready steady go!