Aftershokz Trekz Titanium - Headphones for Runners

  Black Friday came around and I put my name on a list for a special offer from Aftershokz.  Aftershokz ran a special “BOGO,” meaning you Buy One set of Aftershokz Trekz Air or Aftershokz Trekz Titanium, you can Gift One set of Aftershokz Titanium for free. 

The Aftershokz Box (look, Priority Mail!)

Outside

  Aftershokz’s headphones are not the normal kind of listening device.  They don’t go in the ear; instead, the headset wraps around the back of head and the speakers sit in front of your ears.  They produce vibrations that travel through the cheekbones to the inner ears. This design allows for uninterrupted sound for your enjoyment WHILE you are still able to hear your surroundings.  As I write this, I currently have music playing and the people sitting next to me cannot hear a thing coming from the headphones, while I on the other hand, can hear everything they say.

  I first experienced Aftershokz’s products when I attended the Cooper River Bridge Run Expo earlier this year.  I found the bone conduction technology fascinating, but didn’t buy a pair then for two reasons: 1) I still run almost exclusively with my Microsoft Zune (if it’s not broke, don’t fix it) which is not Bluetooth compatible and 2) the Trekz Titanium retailed for 99.95 USD and the Aftershokz Air for 149.95 USD.  As long as my Zune stayed as my primary form of running entertainment, I couldn’t justify paying for a set of headphones I would use occasionally, no matter how great the Titanium headphones were.

  Fast forward to Thanksgiving time, and I seriously contemplated getting a pair.  My Zune has lasted almost a decade now and Microsoft stopped making that MP3 player several years ago.  At some point, it will die on me, but I’m still amazed at its battery life and functionality.

Brand new in box

 When I received an invitation from Aftershokz for their BOGO #GiveGoodVibes campaign, I signed up.  Aftershokz set the initial limit to the first 2,000 orders, and just because I registered for the event did not mean I had to commit to the deal.  Well, during Black Friday, or rather Thursday evening before Black Friday, we casually went shopping and the window opened for the BOGO offer.  I thought and thought, and after an hour, I looked at their website and saw that not only did the BOGO offer was live, but Aftershokz ran a discount on the Trekz Titanium and the Trekz Air.  The Aftershokz Titanium went from 99.95 to 79.95 USD and the Air went from 149.95 to 119.95 USD.  With a discount AND the BOGO offer looming over my screen, it didn’t take much to place my order.  Aftershokz later extended the deal for additional 2,000 sets on Friday.  

    Less than two weeks later, I received my order in the mail.  A nice blue, decorated box with the Aftershokz logo and priority mail postage sat at my front door.  I opened it and there sat two pairs of Aftershokz Titanium: one in a normal box and the other in a gift bag marked with the #GiveGoodVibes tag.

  As much as I wanted to rip into the box, that particular set was reserved for someone else in my life, and I had no problem with taking the gift bag set.  The gift bag held the Titanium headset, a pair of earplugs, a USB charging cable, spacers for the headphones in case someone has a smaller head, the warranty card, a quick start guide, and a multi-language maintenance and support sheet.

  Aftershokz sends out its headphones with half a charge, but I wanted to charge mine all the way before I played with it. 

the multi-function button

the volume buttons

The Titanium has a multi-function button on the left side of the headphones and two volume control buttons along with the charging port on the bottom of the right side.  

    To turn on the Trekz Titanium, you hold down the volume up, or “+,” button.  Seems pretty simple.  I also keep finding out my Titanium’s battery when I press the “+” button as well.

  I’ve tested the Aftershokz in several different environments: leaf blowing, a phone call, music from my laptop, a game on my cell phone, and general wearing.  While I worked on my backyard with noisy equipment, I could easily hear my playlist with no distortion from the leaf blower.  As for the phone call, I honestly did not know the Titanium worked as a speaker and listening device; I thought I purchased just a listening set.  I tapped a button on the headphones and amazingly, the call picked up.   This also threw my brother off as well, since as much as I love technology and trends, I am slow to actually buy things for myself like that.

How the headphones sit on my head

  After doing yard work, I went inside, synched the Titanium with my laptop and listened to music while I worked on some other things on my laptop and later around the house.  The bass on the Titanium is even better than I remembered from the running expo earlier this year.  And when I paired the headphones back to my cell phone to play a game, I heard subtle sounds the game programmers put in the game; sounds I couldn’t pick out on my phone’s own speakers.

  I will say that you shouldn’t set the audio volume to full on the Titanium when playing music.  I listened to a particular Krewella song with some good bass that vibrated a lot on my cheeks due to the Aftershokz’s bone conduction method.  It felt very weird before I finally turned the volume down. 

  It’s really amazing how I could listen to my music and hear my surroundings every time I used the headset.  They stayed firmly on my head with no bobbing or bouncing around.  I presume the spacers will do the same for people with smaller heads, if they are properly placed on the headset.

  These headphones are great for hearing whatever I want to listen to while also letting me stay aware of my surroundings because I can hear noises that would otherwise be drowned out by normal headphones.

  If you are on the fence about getting a set of Aftershokz’s headphones, any of them, I suggest checking out a store that sells them because quite a few have a demo pair nearby.  Also, Aftershokz does run the occasional sale and discount.  Amazon sells Aftershokz products and if you have a gift card this Christmas, birthday, or any other occasion, they would make a good choice.

Saddam Hussein Made Me Run the Fastest in My Life

  Having been in the military for over 25 years, I’ve done a lot of running.  My fastest recorded time was 13:20 for a two mile run during the Army’s Physical Fitness Test.  I used to hover between 14 minutes to 14 and a half on those tests after basic training, but managed to get under the 14 minute mark a few times afterwards, most noticeably before graduation at the Warrant Officer Candidate School, and once in Iraq (with a time of 13:51 and I had a bad upset stomach that whole day which might have helped motivate me to finish sooner).

 However, none of those compare to what should be the fastest I ever ran when I went more than half of a mile back in 2003 because a certain dictator ordered his forces to launch SCUD missiles into Kuwait.  Missiles that Iraq wasn’t supposed to have, and missiles that were rumored to have chemical payloads in them, which was later proven to be false.  But when you hear warning sirens and don’t know that at the time, you don’t take chances.

  From the moment we got orders to move out to Kuwait, we constantly received briefs and warnings that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and based off historical data of Iraq fighting Iran and their quelling of the Kurd uprisings, and they wouldn’t be afraid to use them.  So we had to have our Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) gear with or near us once we got in country. 

  Before all that, however, it was December 2002 and I was still in the beltway getting ready to head out to my next assignment.  Coming from the D.C. area, I got an ear full of the buildup that would be happening; not from the military, but from the news because Washington was pretty plugged into international affairs obviously and they loved talking about subjects like this.  So when I showed up in Kentucky, rumors were already flying around on when we would depart.  My buddy talked me into coming into the unit to say hello while I was still on leave (military term for time off aka vacation time) and we met up with our chief, who upon learning about my background and skills, wanted me to sign in early.  After talking with my wife about it all, we decided I needed to get into the unit quickly and help out as much as possible.  We prepped equipment, went through pre-deployment training, and sat through a lot of meetings and medical preparation appointments.  Through it out, someone determined that I would not go with the main body but head out two weeks later and escort a bunch of follow-on equipment. Yea. 

  Once I got out there, the higher ups kept trying to figure out which team to put me on.  Since I trained in several languages, I was considered a boon to either team, but either way, I would be with a great group of guys.  I did physical training with the first team I was supposed to be a part of. We ran between three to four miles every other day, which was supposed to be at our own pace but I think I got up late so I would have to hurry to get to the chow tent after physical training and personal hygiene.  I got a tour of the gym up on “the Rock,” which was where the majority of the permanent party Air Force stayed and most didn’t seem to care that a bunch of Army people were hanging out on “their” base. Friendly rivalries and what not.

  After about two or three weeks of being on the ground, we started to get pretty comfortable with our routines, but knew the decision to cross would come at some point.  We started relaxing a bit but kept abreast of the latest predicament.  And almost of us kept our NBC gear in our tents.  You would spot the occasional guy carrying his gas mask everywhere.

 One morning, I’m eating a late breakfast with some buddies and the chow tent was kind of full of people.  Suddenly we overheard the Giant Voice system.  Now normally, we only heard the Giant Voice when the Air Force did their weekly tests. It would say something like, “Attention. Attention.  Attention. This is the Giant Voice. This is a weekly test of the Giant Voice.” Or something very similar. 

  Not this time. 

  I’m in a dining tent surrounded by people who looked like they taught Arnold Schwarzenegger how to lift weights when the Giant Voice goes “Attention, attention, attention…” and we’re still eating as usual. 

  Then we hear “this is NOT a test. Incoming, incoming, incoming” and all those musclebound guys got up so quickly, left their trays on the table and started rushing for the tent exit.  I looked around and figured that there was no way I would be able to squirm my way through all these people in the rush to leave the chow tent, so I end up eating a couple of more bites of my food as I wait for the exit to get somewhat cleared and I would run as quickly as possible to my tent and don my NBC gear while simultaneously rushing to the nearest bunker.  As quickly as I eventually moved this was not the fastest I ran.  But it was damn near close.

  We eventually ended up getting these alerts 13 more times in Kuwait and they became so erratic and annoying that during one particular rocket warning in the middle of the night, I just rolled over on my cot and muttered that I wasn’t leaving my sleeping bag and if I got hit and killed, at least I would have some rest.  Between the rocket attacks and the Harrier jets taking off several times between midnight and 3 in the morning, I was pretty tired and sometimes crabby first thing in the morning.

   When word finally came down that we would finally cross the border and head into Iraq, the call was made that I would go with the first supply train up since one of the teams was still short a member and he was bringing additional equipment and training for me to go over.  I wasn’t thrilled with the decision especially since I missed out on the main body movement into Kuwait from Kentucky, but even as a somewhat senior staff sergeant, I was pretty low on the rank totem pole in the unit and just went with the flow.  

  We had a couple of missile warnings happen after the main body initially pushed into Iraq, but it was the final rocket attack that I experienced which would make me metaphorically outrun any animal in Kuwait. 

  One morning, I headed out to the motor pool to look for any special gear the team would need before I arrived at their location (it was finally determined which team I would be a part of by this point. I think one of the captains realized it was silly to have two teams broken down by one language set a piece, so the other guy, who was only trained in Farsi, and I would officially swap teams.  Now, both teams could cover both potential language sets while out in Iraq).  I went rummaging around in our group’s ISU-90 storage container.

  I picked out and sorted batteries, cables, and various mounts when it happened.

  I heard this thunderous "BOOM" behind me and I immediately looked up.  I saw this Patriot missile flying over my head and it looked about 50 to 100 feet above me.  The funny thing about seeing the missile was that it looked nothing like the news footage I remembered seeing during Operation Desert Storm; back then any Patriot missile launches looked like they were aimed straight at a target.  This missile canted at roughly a 45 degree angle while flying in practically a straight horizontal line over me.  It didn’t even out and start climbing until it cleared the other side of the side of the runway, which looking back now, it is a good thing no aircraft were taking off at that time.

  But once I saw the Patriot missile shoot over my head, I felt my heart bursting and I needed to find my NBC gear. But it was all in my tent, and with no hesitation, I sprinted like a gazelle all the way back to my tent.  I took off so quickly while trying to keep an eye on the Patriot’s trajectory that I barely realized that I didn’t hear the Giant Voice had not gone off.  I also bolted out of the motor pool so hurriedly that I left our storage container wide open with all the picked out gear strewn around.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I stumbled over a cable when I initially took off.  I ran and stayed on the streets for as much as I could because common sense did eventually kick in and I remembered that running on top of Kuwait sand would slow me down, especially since I was sprinting for my life in Army boots.  When I got to the compound, I made a bee line towards my tent.  By now, most people were in the bunkers, most likely hunkered down.  I, on the other hand, tore apart my bags because I had everything packed for the convoy, all while trying to catch my breath.  By the time I got my NBC gear and donned the over-garments to be in MOPP level 2, I was still heavily panting.  I was so out of breath from all the running and rushing that it took me a good 2 minutes once I got in my tent to finally get my mask on.  If you haven’t worn a gas mask before, you can only really breathe normally in that thing; the filters work in a way that you cannot suck in extra air quickly.  It also didn’t help that I was gasping for air so badly that it took a while for me to clear my mask in order to create a good seal around my face. 

  Once I got my NBC suit fully on, I made my way to a nearby bunker and sat with the rest of the people inside.  My heart was still pounding, but at least my breathing was manageable. I remember clutching my atropine injectors in my mask carrier in case a SCUD missile would hit near us.  Fortunately, the SCUD missiles that Iraq had were pretty inaccurate.  That or the Iraqi Army did the whole “point, fire, and forget” method of rocket launching.  We eventually got the all clear signal and I headed back to my tent to drop my NBC gear and get back to the motor pool, especially since I left the container wide open with stuff laid out all over the place. 

  I don’t think I can ever run that fast again, but I know adrenaline does wonders in a high stress environment and can help carry you over time and distance.  Considering I usually ran a seven minute mile back in those days, I would guess I was pushing a six minute pace because of the fear and excitement. But at least now I had one of those funny war stories to tell people back home, even if I had the fright of my life at the time.

Private Murphy Gets In the Way Again

  In the military, Murphy’s Law is something we always think about when making plans.  If you weren’t familiar with this adage, it’s “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.”  In the Army, some of us have taken to calling Murphy’s Law “Private Murphy,” because it would usually be a private or someone low ranking who doesn’t pay attention to the details of the mission and messes up the scenario.  Well, Private Murphy decided to come along for a trail running race with my wife and I, and it cost us more than being able to cross the finish line. 

  Several months ago, I received an invitation to run in a brand new half-marathon race due to my video recording abilities.  This past April, I ran in the initial True to the Brew Trail Run/Hike, a 6.5 mile trek through a part of the Palmetto Trail.  In usual fashion, I ran with my GoPro Hero 6 to record the course as I ran and augmented it with the Karma Grip to keep the camera stable while recording.  The highlight video I created from that race impressed the Palmetto Conservation Foundation, the organization responsible for the promotion, care taking, and maintenance of the Palmetto Trail and Grit Endurance who organized the race.  I felt very ecstatic about all this and wanted to provide the same type of video with the half marathon.

  But I haven’t run a half-marathon in almost three years from the start date of the True to the Brew Half Marathon.  I don’t count the Bad Rock Ultra, even though I complete 13.1 miles because I had 12 hours to complete at least three laps totaling the half marathon distance and I had (almost) all the time in the world to rest between laps. 

  So in typical military leadership fashion, I decided to do use the “backwards planning” technique to figure out what all I needed to do and prepare for some kind of success with recording and running in this race. 

When I initially got the race invitation, I looked up Croft State Park, the location for the True to the Brew half marathon and saw some steep hills in this section of the Palmetto Trail.  This made me think that I would be going a lot slower than I would want.  It would require me to get new running gear, expand my electronics capabilities, and keep myself going the whole time.

  I knew my time has significantly slowed down since the year before I retired from the Army, but that I was also going a little slower than normal on the two half marathons I participated in back in 2015.  My average times back then for a half marathon were about an 8:40 mile with an overall run time of 1 hour and 55 minutes.  I wanted to run the True to the Brew in about a 9:30 mile to even a 10 minute mile pace pitting me in the range of around 2 hours and 10 minutes.  Considering I am normally comfortable running between a five and 10 kilometer distance, I didn’t need to work on short, fast distances but focus on a slower long distance pace.  I commenced on running my training runs at a 9:30 pace while just running whatever time I could on a regular race before the True to the Brew happened.  I built a plan to implement longer distances as race day and race week got closer with the help of backwards planning.

  When it came to recording the footage, I knew my GoPro Hero 6 would need an upgrade in SD cards.  I run with a 32 Gigabyte card.  With most GoPro settings such as Pro Tune turned off, I get 1:50:00 to record.  Looking my best time for a half-marathon, I would be short at least five minutes if I just ran with my equipment as is.  So, I had to shop around for a 64 Gig SD card that could handle the taxing requirements of a Hero 6.  There’s a big difference the SD cards that work in the GoPro Hero 5 and older iterations and the GoPro Hero 6.  Anyway, besides the race itself, I try to record the before and after scenes of the race.  That meant I definitely need to get the bigger card, so after searching Amazon, Best Buy, and Target, I got one on Ebay for about ten dollars cheaper than anything in stores.  And a 64 Gigabyte SD card brought my recording time to three hours and forty minutes. 

  But I had another problem and one I couldn’t simply upgrade with an SD card.  The GoPro Karma Grip has a battery life of one hour and 45 minutes.  I figured I need to do one of two things: either select times to turn on the GoPro for recording or come up with a plan to charge the Karma Grip during the race.  Since I hadn’t run that trail before, the first option didn’t seem reasonable to me, so I went with the latter.  To do that though, I research if it was possible and it was with a portable battery charger, but I couldn’t find anyone showing how long using a battery charger would prolong the GoPro Karma Grip’s power usage.  I ran my own tests and came up with two hours and 30 minutes.  That worked for me, but I would need to have a means to carry a battery charger during the race. 

  I determined that I would have to wear a trail running vest for this race.  I have never worn one for a run before so I reached out to several YouTubers who were very familiar with running vests and went with a very inexpensive but usable trail running vest sold on Amazon.  I tested it out a couple of times and would adjust its fitting periodically.

  I also determined that while I usually don’t carry additional water or supplements during any runs or races, I figured I should have a couple of my Science In Sport gel packs, especially since this was a trail race with hills and water stations would be placed three to four miles apart.  I could carry them in my new trail vest, too.

  I also had to get new running shoes for this race.  When I ran the 6.5 mile race back in April I skipped on wearing my favorite running shoes, my On Cloudflyer and used a normal looking New Balance Vazee because On’s shoes are notorious for picking up rocks, acorns, and anything small that would get wedged between the cloud pockets.  Fortunately, a local outdoors store had a great sale on shoes and I spotted a pair of Altra trail shoes for about sixty US dollars.  However, Altra shoes are known for their “zero drop” style shoes.  “Zero drop” means that your toes and heels are on the same level in the shoes as opposed to most shoes where the heel is slightly higher due to increased cushioning built into the shoes.  My Altra Lone Peak 3.5 shoes had great grips for trails but I would need to wear them for the better part of six weeks to get used to how they felt and how to run in them without injuring myself.

  After I went through and did a PCI, or Pre Combat Inspection, of all my new gear and checked my training, I felt more prepared to do this race.  We drove up on Saturday morning to do the race and got there in plenty of time for packet pickup.  A little after 7:30 AM, the True to the Brew Half Marathon officially started and I was feeling good.  150 of us went running down the street and into the entrance for the Palmetto Trail within Croft State Park.  I had a nice pace of 10:30 a mile due to the bunching of several runners resulting in a lengthy single file line of runners for over a mile. 

  I hit the first water station, located about 4.5 miles into the race at about the 50 minute mark.  Not my best time and definitely slower than I anticipated from all my training and studying of the race course, but if I kept that pace, I would finish at the 2:15 mark and be good with recording everything before I lost power.  But as I started to head out, I got a text from my wife that she fell along the course and heard a loud crack.  A fellow runner saw her and told her that she was near the four mile mark.  When she relayed all that information to me, I took off in a dead sprint back to the four mile mark.  I got there but saw no sign of my wife so I range walked (fast walking, that’s all that is) for a bit before picking up a jog and continuing on.  I kept checking my phone to see how far back I had gone and finally saw her sitting on the side of a hill at roughly the five kilometer mark.  Her ankle was incredibly swollen, almost the size of a grapefruit.  I sent out a message to the race organizer, Erin, and let her know I needed help with my wife.  A little later, a first aid person showed up and triaged her and a little later that, another came by with an ATV to move her back to the starting line.  The first aid guy, Brendan, and I trekked back to a collection point and eventually made it back to the start line.  Once there, I drove my wife to an urgent care facility and that pretty much ended our race.  We got home, elevated her foot, grabbed pain medications, and scheduled a follow up appointment with her doctor.

   So while I had prepared everything I would carry and implemented a training plan for myself, Private Murphy still showed up and managed to FUBAR what should have been a good race for my wife and myself. 

  I did manage to put together a video onthe first leg of the race, though.   


(Disclaimer: the links in this blog that go back to Amazon through an affiliate program)

Crunch Time - Last Week Before My Half-Marathon

  In less than a week, I will be running in my first half-marathon in over two years.  I’ve always been comfortable running 5k distances and most of the time can relax while running 10 kilometers, but any distance over 10 miles involves some thinking and preparation, no matter the activity.

  I still remember the time that I went off on temporary duty (TDY) for five weeks while my Soldiers prepared for a 12 mile ruck march.  For those who don’t know, a ruck march is a “favored” military activity in which you walk quickly with some weight in your backpack.  My male Soldiers had at least 25 pounds in their rucksack while my female Soldiers carried at least 20 pounds.  Since their training and the execution date for their ruck march would occur while I was gone, I didn’t train at all, and instead focused on my running.  However, the last week of my TDY, I got word that their scheduled ruck march was delayed a week and not many of the unit’s leadership would be able to be out there to do it with them; this event was at the company level, and I was in charge of a platoon at the time.  I didn’t have to participate, but I passed word to my squad leaders and platoon sergeant that I might do it with them.  Now, for over about two years, I had special ruck; I took a rucksack frame and mounted a radio boombox on it with several bungee cords and little the necessary weights to make the 25 pound minimum (I know some units say that the ruck should weigh at least 35 pounds, but when you’re at post that likes to ride around in vehicles, I don’t think “they” cared THAT much to keep up with the lighter units).  Rucking involves a different pair of footgear and for me, which includes a different stride and gait.  And I had not prepared at all to do a ruck march, much less a 12 mile one.

  After I got home from TDY, I prepped my ruck by replacing the batteries and checking the cords to make sure the boombox wouldn’t rattle if I go fast.  The next day was the ruck march and I met up with my platoon to do it with them.  There were several mid-level NCOs (non-commissioned officers: staff sergeants and regular ole sergeants) from the other platoons out there in addition to my NCOs and me.  In fact, I was the only officer to be out there with the company for some reason.   We start our march, and I start up my boombox.  I had a playlist already built for an occasion like this, so we marched off to Army band music, because I wanted it to sound serious in the company and battalion area, but once we hit the last road, the music changed to songs associated with Hollywood war movies. 

  At the two mile mark, one of the NCOs from another platoon quit.  That really chapped my hide because I didn’t get to prepare for five-six weeks and here’s this one guy who was supposed to be setting an example and he just ups and quits.  Went back to the company.  His feet weren’t even hurting.  That made me even more determined to finish this with my platoon.  So we continued on the ruck march, probably to Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower.” 

  I finished that ruck march tired and a little sore, but amazingly with no blisters and just the slightest heat spots on my feet.

  This Saturday is the True to the Brew half-marathon at Croft State Park.  I have trained some, but nowhere near to the extent that I wish I had.  I have my equipment for this race, to include new trail running shoes and for the first time ever, I will be wearing a running vest.  I need one to carry a battery charger since I will be recording the race with my GoPro and the Karma Grip (for stable footage to keep people from getting motion sickness).  I’ve tested my electronics.  I’ve worn my new trail shoes for almost a month to make sure I’m familiar with how they feel.  I’ve adjusted my running vest to (hopefully) make sure it doesn’t jingle around while I’m running.  Let’s hope that this preparation, to include getting in several six mile (ten kilometer) runs in and an eight mile run will help prepare me than that time I rucked without six weeks of practice.

When Weather Destroys Your Running Schedule - Hurricane Florence Cancels Three Races in One Week

  This week, besides my half-marathon training, I had three races that I would participate in: The 9/11 Run for Our Troops 5k, the South Carolina Tunnel to Towers 5k, and the Splash and Dash Adventure Race.  But, apparently Mother Nature had other plans.  However, Hurricane Florence will make its initial impact on the Carolina coast late Friday. 

  I started to wonder how training would go on Friday when the internet, social media in particular, became abuzz with word that Hurricane Florence was coming this way.   Monday was the start of things getting serious though, when I got two emails from the CWC Jaycees.  The first email from the Cayce West Columbia Junior Chamber said that they would monitor the news and that the South Carolina governor, Henry McMaster, had issued a mandatory coastal evacuation order for 11 September, the day of the 9/11 Run for Our Troops 5k.  The CWC Jaycees sent out their second email just a few hours later stating that the race event was postponed and they would send word on the future date for the race.  The next day, I got an email from the Run For Our Troops stating that the race was rescheduled from September 11^th to November 11^th, Veteran’s Day.

   With the Tuesday race postponed until later, the next word I got concerned the Splash and Dash Adventure Race.  I was looking forward to this one because it was not a typical type of race that I do.  I usually run in 5k to 15k races, or participate in the occasional duathlon (run-bike-run).  The Splash and Dash Adventure Race had us set up as a team of two, run two miles together, bike four miles together (on separate bicycles if you are asking), and kayak one mile.  The Splash and Dash organizers were the first ones to initially send an email out regarding the weather and warning people that they would be watching the weather.  So, a little before noon on 11 September, they sent an email out stating that the Splash and Dash race was cancelled.  Based off of the weather models that I’ve seen online, the Saturday race would be in consistent rain throughout the entire race, and considering there is a kayaking portion on the river, it’s good that this one is cancelled.  The Splash and Dash probably would have used the least amount of resources from the county and city in terms of police and paramedics, but it’s still a good call.

  The final race event to send out information on their event was the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5k in South Carolina.  I got the email on Wednesday, 12 September, at 2:30 PM and my wife send me social media posts stating that the race originally scheduled for 14 September was cancelled and that while no refunds would be issued, we could still get our shirts on 21 September and there would be a limited amount of time for free registration for those who signed up for this year’s race.  That limited time would be announced later in 2019. 

   This week was building up to be a pretty busy time for me with three races and the need for a long endurance run, but with Hurricane Florence barreling down from the Atlantic, plans can be wiped out in a short amount of time.  I was really looking forward to participating in two races I haven’t done before and running amongst the crowd with the Tunnel to Towers race, a race I truly love being in while supporting a great cause.

See the links below for the races and more information regarding the events:

The 9/11 Run for Our Troops 5k

The South Carolina Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers 5k

The Splash and Dash Adventure Race