Five Heroclip Uses for Runners

The Heroclip (Medium and Small versions)

  I first learned about the Heroclip earlier this year while looking for carabiners, or D-rings most of us called them in the military, for some of my camping gear.  I saw Heroclip on Amazon and their product immediately intrigued me.  I bought one and got it a few days later.

The Small Heroclip: Backed with an Indiegogo campaign

  I later backed their expansion campaign on Indiegogo in which they wanted to create and offer smaller sizes and test out a variety of colors.

  I also took advantage of a Black Friday discount code and picked up a regular one on Amazon as well.

  So both came in within a few weeks of each other and I tried them out with some of my running gear to see what additional purposes a runner could use them for.

The Swiveling Hook

  The main feature that separates Heroclip from other carabiners is the swiveling hook.  This hook is very handy to have since it creates a hanging spot almost anywhere.  And it is this feature that makes the Heroclip a great asset for my training runs and post-race antics.

The Heroclip: Hanging up a wet, stinky shirt

  The first way that a Heroclip helps me is I can hang some of my running attire to air and dry after a long run.  My running shirts get soaked with sweat if I run more than four miles so while I’m wearing my after-run shirt, yes on most races I keep an extra shirt in my car, I hang up my used shirt to dry and keep off my seats.

Hooking my trail shoes

  This can also apply to hanging shoes if you hook the carabiner through the shoelaces on top of the tongue or even use the back tabs of running shoes.  This comes in great if you do a trail run and the route is muddy or if you do an obstacle course race and you don’t want to track race mud in your vehicle.

A good sweat towel

Setting up the Heroclip

  Just like the shirt and shoes, you can use the Heroclip to hang up a freshly used towel.  This would have been very handy after my obstacle course races that I’ve done in the past, and you can bet I will use it at the Rugged Maniac OCR in Charleston next year.

It holds water bottles very well

  I also found having the Heroclip on a water bottle to be useful.  I can hang my water bottle in a variety of places and have it waiting for me with easy access.

Using the Heroclip on my backpack

  The carabiner works phenomenally to keep water bladders up while you wash your gear or yourself after a mud run as well.  Just attach the Heroclip to the bladder or a backpack and then hook the ensemble to a high spot such as a tree branch, a pole, or even a ridge on the roof or trunk of your SUV and you’re set.

BONUS:

  And one added bonus of the Heroclip comes with its versatility on running vests.  Just clip it through a loop and you have an emergency hook or carrier with you.

Check my YouTube video here: 

You can purchase the Heroclip at one of the links below:

Heroclip (medium)

https://amzn.to/2rV2KmL

Heroclip (small)

https://amzn.to/2Va3MsA

Disclaimer: this description contains affiliate links, if you click & make a purchase then at no additional cost to you this channel earns a small commission, which will go to support the production of the content I make.

My Beginnings...From Little Kid to Retired Army Guy

I started running when I was eight year old.  That day was my first race, the MidSummer Morn 5k, which I learned has now been renamed to the Woodstock 5k.  My parents always joked about that race.  Not because it was my first time running, but because I finished... dead last. In fact, I was so slow that the announcers were calling my name over the speakers and a trail ambulance offered me a ride because I was walking after hitting mile two.  But at the last quarter mile, I got out of the vehicle and finished the race, with a time of 45 minutes.  Most people probably would have quit but after a couple of weeks, I jumped back into it. You see, my dad was a career Army guy and was in pretty decent shape and he liked to run; my mother was getting into running as well, and I watched her rack up trophies and medals at the local races.  From the time I first raced until four years later when we left Alabama, I would join my parents in any 5k race they did, and even attempted a 10k but only finished four miles of the 6.2 total.  When we moved to Texas, I pretty much stopped running.  Sure, there was P.E. and joining the high school basketball team, but as far as races and doing anything over a mile was not going to be a part of my childhood any more.

  Fast forward five years, and I join the Army.  I go from a scraggly 17 year who ran a 17:50 2-mile time to six weeks later where I could run a 13:20 2-mile time in Basic Training.  From that point on, I loved running but I never thought of running in a race until almost two decades later when a tragic gun shooting happened the day after I got back from my fifth deployment and Fort Hood hosted a memorial 5k race one year after that shooting.  While the event sought to have people remember those who lost their lives to Major Nidal Hasan's actions, it made me realize that I missed that feeling of being in a crowd and running alongside other people.  Running in Army formations do not count, though I loved doing that as well.  Throughout my Army career, I was consisting running between 14 and 16 minute two mile time but I  was getting the bug to run further and among a bunch of people.

  A few years after the Run to Remember race, I ended up doing a few obstacle races in Texas before we moved to South Carolina (Army commitments).  The first race I did in South Carolina was the Jailbreak 5k, which was a two person event; you and your partner had to do each obstacle together and cross the finish line as a team.  It was pretty much at that point, I would run races with my wife.  While I'm more comfortable with 5k runs, I do like 10k races, and I will occasionally dabble in the 15k, 10 miler, and even a half-marathon or two.  The Cooper River Bridge Run is a fantastic, memorable run and I suggest anyone and everyone do it at least once in their life.

  In my last assignment, the Army sent me on my sixth deployment to the Middle East, and while I was in Kuwait, I would run in the base's monthly 5k or 10k races.  They even had a color run and an obstacle course race out there. Yes, we carved time into our schedule out there to do a fun obstacle course race that service members from multiple countries participated in.















I left the Army after a 25 year career, and running will be a connecting factor to in my life. While living in South Carolina, I joined Team Red, White, and Blue and the Columbia Running Club. Team RWB is a great group of people who are or support veterans and want to give back to the community. The Columbia Running Club is a group of runners who enjoy... well, running.  These past few years have been a big transition time for me, not only in run time, but life in general as I said good-bye to the military lifestyle.

  I may be a bit slower now, but I will be writing about my exploits, adventures, and mishaps here. Join me as I go running... after the military.