About every couple of months I get asked to review a product. In the majority of cases I decline the offer, either because it is not a product I would consider using (I just don't use a lot of stuff) or because I don't like something about the company or the offer. I do review goods if I think there is a genuine chance that I would end up using them but I always warn the company in question that I will say it very clearly if I don't like the product.
Anyway, when I got an offer for an anti-chafing cream towards the end of April from a chap called Robert, I did agree. It was shipped from New Zealand, but they sent it for free and it arrived some time in May. With the Cork marathon just a couple of weeks away, it was good timing. I usually use vaseline, which works reasonably well, even for 24 hour races, but has a few drawbacks - it's greasy and it leaves stains on your clothes. I find bodyglide too expensive in our local shop but I would certainly consider an alternative.
When opening the container, the first thing that hit me was the smell. It was much stronger than anticipated and reminded me of bees wax. Niamh was a lot less kind, however ("more like horse sh*t!"). Looking at the label proved me right, it is made of manuka oil, beeswax and lanolin and there is no mention of horse dung.
The consistency is more solid than vaseline and it is not greasy at all, so that's a plus. However, the one and only fact I was interested in was how it work against chafing.
Apart from the Cork marathon I had an immediate need for an anti-chafing product in a rather unusual area. After wearing my HR chest strap for 24 hours in Turin I was left with a big red itchy stripe across my chest as if a tiger had caressed me with some tough love. Subsequent runs with the same HR strap were rather uncomfortable at times and my skin just would not improve. Vaseline was not the answer and plasters did not work either, and on a couple of occasions in previous years I ended up running without HR for a couple of weeks, something I would prefer to avoid as I do use my HR data for training feedback a lot.
The instructions on the tin say "apply liberally to all chafe prone areas". Actually, I found that a liberal coating left a strange white residue on the HR strap after the run, which does not happen if I only use small amounts. Apart from that (and I managed to wipe that residue away), it worked extremely well, my tiger stripe got immediately better and had more or less disappeared within a week or two.
The Cork marathon was run in heavy rain at times, which makes the skin very prone to possible chafing, and the cream came through that tough test with flying colours. I had no problems whatsoever, though to be fair I would have expected vaseline to work just as well.
I got used to the smell very quickly, and in fact quite like it by now. As a product it works very well, definitely the best anti-chafing product I have used so far. The one thing that would put me off is the price, a look at their website says one container costs a whopping €22.90! I would expect 100g to last me for maybe a year, so it's still affordable, but still.
But, you know, if you get a kindly offer like I did I strongly suggest you say yes.
A couple of months I was contacted by a representative from a company called Airia, which I had not heard of before. They had been developing a new kind of running shoe, which they hope will be revolutionary. At first they asked if they could put an article on my blog, which I rejected out of hand, but the alternative offer was to send me a pair of shoes and I would use them and give a review. They agreed that I could write whatever I want, even if my review was negative.
Their claims sure are ambitious. The shoes are supposed to make 8 out of 10 runners run faster, and potentially by quite some amount as well. The price of the shoes is rather ambitious as well, for $190 you can call a pair your own. By contrast, I tend to buy all my shoes in a sale and generally spend no more than €60 per pair. I'd need some serious persuasion to spend so much on a shoe; I admit I was a bit sceptical from the outset (my parents didn't call me Doubting Thomas for nothing) but at the same I was also intrigued. I'd love to get a pair of shoes that automatically make me run faster - who wouldn't!
Anyway, when one pair was delivered to my house, I had two initial impressions: 1) they look very nice. 2) They sent me the wrong size, the shoes looked much to small.
The first impression still stands, though to be honest the looks are my least important consideration. The size turned out to be correct after all. The shape of the shoes means that the sole at the toes curls upwards, giving the impression that the shoe itself is shorter than it actually is. I had gotten a pair of the same size I always get and the fit was perfectly fine.
The telling feature about these shoes is the curved sole with a few bumps, the most noticeable one at the outside, beside balls of the foot. They do warn you that the shoes are strictly for running only, and you immediately know they mean that, standing around and walking in them feels really strange as the shaped sole pushes your feet into a sloped position and subsequently your legs are kind of x-shaped.
You can watch the video and have a look yourself. The unusual shape of the sole immediately becomes obvious.
Luckily, as soon as you start running it feels a lot better. Again, they do warn you that it might take a while to get used to those shoes as they are so different to other pairs. They advise to start with a short run, but I'm an ultra runner and a short run for me is 8 miles, so that's what I did, in the full knowledge that they most likely had a different distance in mind.
The first run didn't go all that well; while I had no real problems with the pronation the shoe's shape forces you into, my right foot kept brushing against my left calf, feeling rather uncomfortable. I sometimes do that with "normal" shoes when I'm very, very tired and my form gets sloppy, but here it happened right from the outset. Interestingly, this did not repeat itself on any other runs, so either I was tired on that run or I somehow adapted subsequently.
While much of the shoe, especially the sole, is heavily engineered, other parts are surprisingly close to a minimal shoe. The shoe features a zero drop (meaning there is no height difference between heel and toes), which could cause problems for runners used to a 12-mm drop, which used to be de-facto standard a few years ago until the minimal shoes came along, but is something I already have experience with. There is also next-to-no cushioning, again something that could cause issues for some runners but again something I am fine with (in fact, I prefer my shoes that way).
The upper feels nice and airy (and good quality), but the shoes are heavier than my usual Brooks and Saucony trainers (about 250g per shoe against 190g, as Niamh's kitchen scales just told me [don't tell her I used her kitchen scales for running shoes!]). Mind, I barely noticed the extra weight.
In short, the shoes have plenty of things I like in a shoe, so I should have felt perfectly comfortable with them. But unfortunately, it did not turn out that way.
I am an ultra runner with (I think) excellent biomechanics and I am used to having very light shoes under my feet that don't interfere with my running pattern. These shoes, however, do not fit the bill. They try to force you into a certain pronation pattern and nothing else will do. That may work for others. If a runner has bad running form, maybe these shoes will indeed improve it and enable the same runner to run faster as if by magic. However, it does not work with me. I tried to run as relaxed as possible and just let the feet follow the pattern that the shoes dictate but I never felt comfortable.
When I initially got the shoes I had the mad plan of maybe wearing them for the Dingle Ultra. That would be a real acid test. However, after realising that I did not feel comfortable in them, I had to abandon that idea. The clincher came in a long run last week when I had to run up a very steep climb that forces me onto my toes. The curved sole of the shoes basically threw me off-balance with each step. Try running on a rocker and that's what it felt like. There is no way I could make my way up the steep 5-mile climb up Conor pass in those shoes, it is just not feasible.
I do have the subjective feeling of the shoes not being comfortable, but I also have cold hard numbers. My runs in those shoes are not faster than in my Saucony or Brooks shoes, and the HR isn't lower either. Add to that the high price and for me, personally, it quickly becomes a no-no.
I wanted to like those shoes. They look good and they are screaming good quality materials and manufacturing. I felt excited about being asked to review a pair of shoes, but unfortunately, they do not work for me. Maybe they do indeed work for others, I cannot say. But I definitely get the impression that ultra runners were not on their potential list of clients when they started the design process.
