Mmmmm… lube-y.
I’ve been a runner since sophomore year in college. It was easy to take up and easy to do — just go in a straight line and don’t fall — and aside from a few years of Kenpo Karate and some bouts at the gym I did very little else in terms of real exercise. I felt happy that I could run two miles, come home, shower, and get on with my day. But I felt something was missing, and it was the challenge.
I live along the opening stretch of the New York Marathon and often watched the runners chugging down Fourth Avenue here in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, still fresh and relatively unscathed by their run. I always wanted to join them, to prove that this ex-fat kid and current slovenly poppa could make it to the end of the line and not keel over, nipples bleeding and bowels evacuating all over the finish line. Well, I’m giving it a go this year and am running the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in June. Here is a brief description of the gear and gadgetry I’m using to train.
I have the iPod in an magnesium case by Pacific Rim that has thus far survived rainy evenings and enough of my salty sweat to drown a horse. I listen to audiobooks during my runs, mostly because music is more unpredictable and jarring than some guy droning about Osama bin Laden and actually much less interesting.
I’ve also tried out the UpStage and the Nokia Xpressmusic 5300 for the music features but eventually started carrying them as a back-up phone during my run. Both of these phones are extremely small and extremely light but the Nike+iPod features are too good to give up.
I used to wear my mechanical watches when I ran but suddenly realized that hitting mile 20 in a beautiful, handmade timepiece was probably not the best idea. Instead, I picked up a Casio Sea Pathfinder SPF70T-7V . It’s a $169 solar watch, which means it’s charged by light, and has a compass, barometer, and depth meter along with a temperature sensor. It also has timing functions.
This has become my de facto running watch although I did try the Garmin Forerunner 305 but I found it a bit bulky. The 305 is a real GPS watch and can plot your course over time, allowing you to replay courses and record your routes for posterity. It also has a heart rate monitor, which I used for a bit but never really found necessary.
I wear Ray Bans when I run — these black ones I bought a discount store in Brooklyn for about $40 — although I also wore HiDefSpex for a while as well. They were alright, but I prefer polarized lenses.
HiDefSpex
I got a few pairs of special running socks and this little lifesaver as well: Body Glide. It’s a personal lubricant that comes in a stick and is great on chafey places like between your legs, on the edges of your feet, and — garrrrr — the nipples. If you’re lucky, I’ll shoot some video of me applying it with a Barry White soundtrack in the background.
UPDATE - When it’s cold, I’ll wear a ScottEVest fleece that has a Napolean pocket at the breast and two central pockets. I keep the iPod in the upper pocket and everything else in the lower pockets. I was able to hold two water bottles, a phone, and my iPod during a half-marathon last weekend without even noticing the weight. When it’s warm, I’ll clip the iPod to my shirt or an armband I had left over from an old Creative MP3 player I had.
While this may sound like a shopping list, it isn’t. This is essentially the gear that I settled upon when researching this run and found it to be the most useful gear for my particular running style and milage. Shop around and find gear that’s right for you and happy trails.
So San Diego will be your first? Awesome! My first was also a Rock and Roll, the one in Phoenix January 2006, they are great runs especially for newbies. Afterward I swore I would not do another one and then ended up doing 6 before the end of the year. I swear it gets addictive. :-) Anyway, best of luck to you. I hope you have a fantastic time.
How do you run w/your iPod? arm band? in your hand? Would be interesting to know. Thanks.
Getting the iPod/Nike+ helped me train for my first marathon in LA. If you don’t like the Nike shoes, get a little plastic holder from Switcheasy.com, which will accommodate the sensor in any shoe. I used the official Nike+ armband. It chafed a little bit after mile 18.
Nice, I too should be running my first ever marathon at the San Diego Rock ‘N Roll marathon…and I will also be geeked out.
I’ve basically settled on carrying the nano with the nike+ kit, and my garmin 305, using the Marware Sensor+ on my shoe.
Anyhow, good luck, if all goes well, I hope to be doing the ole 10 min/mile pace (just started running in december of ‘06).
Good luck!
FYI: you probably won’t be able to wear headphones during the race because “USATF rules prohibit the use of headphones and similar devices on the racecourse”
Good luck! I’ll also be running the San Diego Rock ‘N’ Roll Marathon; this will be my second time. Body Glide is key to running comfortably! I use the Garmin Forerunner 305 and love it; while it is a bit big, it does the job and has held up well.
I’ve run in a few marathons and they always tell you not to wear headphones. Thats just to cover their own asses. They don’t want sued when you run into a motorcycle singing Eye of the Tiger because you couldn’t hear it. Wear the head phones. Everyone else will.
You should give the Nokia Sport Tracker a try: http://research.nokia.com/research/projects/SportsTracker/
I have run 5 marathons and I also use an ipod. I bought an arm band from the nike store for around $20 and I put the headphones under my shirt out the sleeve. It works pretty well.
I love to run with maui jim glasses. (they are very light and almost like you’re not wearing glasses at all. . .) Good luck!
I’m on third different watch… tried the Nike Triax Pro, the Garmin 305 and now the Polar RS800sd.
Do any of you run in Central Park with a Garmin? I can’t get a good signal lock. Does it work well for you? Wondering if it’s the trees or the watch.
Anyway, good luck in San Diego!
Just as an alternative, try band-aids for the nipple thing.
you are a tool. the beauty of running is that all you need is your shoes. you have missed the point and masked the flavor.
A couple things:
One good reason to not wear headphones in a race is so when you and your friends are running 3 abreast, you can hear the runner behind you saying “On your left!” as he tries to get around you. Admittedly much more of a problem in a trail race with narrow trails than on a road race though.
A drawback of bandaids is that they require shaving the chest hair around your nipples. If you have any (chest hair that is, not nipples)
Bodyglide works for me, but I’m told that nipguards work well (although expensive)
I started with the Nike Triax and bumped up to the Suunto T4 over Christmas. Both have served me very well, though the Suunto has a lot more features.
On the apple/nike nano…I’ve tried a few cases…this one’s the best! And…it comes with a little pouch for the sensor.
http://www.marware.com/s.nl/it.A/id.298/.f
PS - The Nike case is worthless…it covers the screen.
The San Diego Rock and Roll marathon was my first marathon too. I did it back in 1998. Good Luck!
I also run with the Nike+IPod and I love it. I wear Asic shoes and bought a little holder for the attachment that clips onto my shoelaces. It works well and I too love the encouraging words of Lance.
As for wearing earphones during the race (my race of choice these days is a half marathon), I do it all the time, I just don’t crank the volume so high that I miss out on what’s happening around me.
Re: BRR - Marathoners - watch out for a naked, angry little man running a marathon near you. At least he won’t be a tool, though. He runs for da FLAVOR!
The Nipple Thing
Fabric Medical tape works best for me. It doesn’t pull hair (if you take it off gently), it does a fantastic job protecting, and no amount of sweat makes it come off. (I’m not talking about that department store tape for ankles, wrists, an such. Just the thought of putting that on makes me shudder). You can check your pharmacy for the good stuff. I got mine from my father after his open heart surgery.
Ray Bans? “discount store in Brooklyn for about $40″? Funny.
Try the Garmin 205 - same GPS, but no heart rate monitor. I have been using the older 201 for years and love being able to create my own running path on the fly. Also try using just plain medical tape instead of band-aids for nipple chafing - much cheaper and just as effective (bloody nipples sure can ruin a good shirt)
@Ray - Century 21, baby. Only way to fly.
Hey, Has anyone tried Sony’s phone’s with pedometers. I am really interested in these but haven’t actually found a review of the phones from a runner. It would be nice to have pedometer, music player, and phone all in one device if it would actually work out.
I’ve gone through 3 timing devices for marathon training and am currently using the Nike+/iPod nano combo. I briefly used a Garmin 301 and 305 but found them a little bulky and the signal kept dropping, even in wide open areas. Very annoying to hear it beeping to let you know it lost / regained signal.
I prefer Nike+ since it works really well, integrates music and tracks your runs online. You can also use it to challenge people to virtual races, compare times, etc. It’s also quite accurate after you calibrate it; I’ve run 1/2 and full marathons and it’s within 1.5% accurate, which is good enough for me.
Or for a cool semi-lo-tech solution (still have to have an ipod) try the Runner’s Playlist Generator which takes your playlist and adjusts the end times in order to help with interval training.
For those who want a PR or to qualify for Boston, I strongly recommend getting a Polar 625X and strongly recommend people running by heart rate and not by pace. My times improved dramatically, my splits were basically even.
For people who want to know when running shoes go on sale, check out
http://www.shopittome.com/running
Very useful.
I’m on my second timing device. I started with the Fitsense FS-1 which had to be the best watch I’ve ever used. It was angled so you could clearly see the display without turning your wrist, tied into an HRM and had a footpod to track speed and distance. You could also upload your workouts to a web site and it would track mileage on your shoes. Unfortunately, the HRM stopped working and I haven’t been able to find a replacement. It’s also very accurate.
I switched to a Suunto T4 and I’m close to getting rid of the thing. It’s not accurate at all and will often report 3 different distances for the same route. I also find the display somewhat dim.
At the recent Boston Marathon Expo I showed it to the Suunto reps and they appeared to be confused stating that theirs are extremely accurate yet myself and a friend with a T3 cannot get it to report correctly.
The last thing you want is your watch telling you that you ran 15.3 miles when you really ran 17.5.
I thought about the Polar S625x but can’t bring myself to spend $370 on a system where I can’t replace the batteries (the HRM is not a user replaceable battery….how stupid is that?).
I can attest to Bodyglide being one of the best solutions for friction problems, though. It works great!!
My running MP3 player of choice is a Creative 512MB Muvo TX FM and I’m working my way through Stephen Kings ‘Dark Tower’ series.
The Nike+ is a great idea but if you don’t wear Nikes…..
race tip: i have a reasonable pair of headphones i got for free, and i cut off one of the headphones so i only have one of the earbuds. that ensures i have music and can hear what i need to hear (not so much “on your left” but more like my niece cheering me on)
I use a nano with nike and love it. I just velcro it to my shoe.