2Toms - A Product Rave and a Cautionary Tale

Disclaimer: I received some samples of 2Toms Sport Shield to review as part of being a BibRave Pro. Learn more about becoming a BibRave Pro (ambassador), and check out BibRave.com

The dreaded chafe.

I don't chafe easily, but when I do, I do it in spectacular fashion.  After spending my first relatively high-mileage summer a few years back training in blissfully low humidity, I woke up on the morning of my first marathon to record heat and humidity.  It was the kind of humidity that fogs your glasses and makes you gasp for air.  It was ugly, but I thought I was ready for it:  I had purchased Body Glide earlier in the year - everyone loves Body Glide, right?  I decided it was time to give it a try.  I applied it to all of the necessary areas, I ran 26.2 miles, and I chafed badly.  I'll spare you the details, but let's just say I didn't even know that women could chafe there.

Yeah.  Please don't think about that too long.  In fact, let's never speak of that again.

Needless to say, ever since then I've been very interested in finding an alternative to Body Glide.

I first heard about 2Toms from the guys on the fabulous Ten Junk Miles podcast.  They absolutely rave about the 2Toms line.  Their commentary piqued my interest, but I was never able to find it in stores and I wasn't quite ready to pull the trigger on buying it online.  But when BibRave gave me an opportunity to review it, I jumped at the chance to try it.

I totally should have bought 2Toms Sport Shield ages ago.

I received the women's 2Toms Sport Shield in two forms:  a roll-on bottle, and a few individually wrapped wipes.

I couldn't wait to try it.  I've spent a fair amount of time this winter putting in miles on the indoor track at the Pettit Ice Center.  While I love having the Pettit as an option, its extremely dry climate combined with the relentlessness of long track miles (oh look, a left turn...another left turn...hey, I think I'll turn left up here...) wreaked havoc on my feet.  I started getting blisters for the first time ever.  Blisters are not an option for a streak runner.

Fortunately, my 2Toms arrived just in time.  I started using the roll-on Sport Shield on my toes, and the blistering issues went away.  I've logged six runs longer than thirteen miles at the Pettit in the past few months, and the blistering issue that I was struggling with is totally gone.  I'll spare you a picture of my feet as proof (I'm rocking two black toenails right now, so my career as a foot model is on hold for the time being) but the piggies have never felt happier.

My Pettit bag:  headphones, water bottle, cash, GUs, and 2Toms.

And 2Toms doesn't seem to sweat off, either.  I'll own up to the fact that my feet get pretty sweaty, but the 2Toms didn't seem affected.  I've only ever needed a single application for a run.

The 2Toms Sport Shield single use wipes are great too - without getting too PG-13 in my descriptions, the wipes are great for getting at all of the nooks and crannies that can chafe and blister.  I was a little worried the first time I opened the wipes - they felt a little dry.  I think because they are packaged like wet-naps, I expected them to be as moist as wet-naps, but they aren't.  They aren't supposed to be.  But they work wonderfully, and are a must-have in my race bag.

And now, my cautionary tale.  2Toms is slippery - good news for your body, but potentially bad news for other things.  For instance, if you lube up your feet and then walk across your hardwood floor before putting on socks, the 2Toms may leave a slick residue on your floor.  It won't be visible, but it will be there waiting for you.  And this residue may be so slippery that, days later, when you are in a haste to get ready for work you may find yourself skidding comically across your floor in a fashion usually reserved for cartoon characters stepping on banana peels.  And in doing so you may fall on your ass in such a spectacularly noisy fashion that you wake everyone in the house.  I'm not saying that happened to me, but...well, just be careful.  This stuff is slick.

Want to try 2Toms for yourself?  Here's the deets:

Find them at 2Toms.com

Check MediDyne's Facebook page.

Follow 2Toms on Twitter.

And best of all:  get 20% off of your order through the end of April, 2016 by using the code "2Toms20"

Santa Hustle 5K - Milwaukee

Santa Hustle Milwaukee, December 5, 2015

This was a last-minute add-on to my race schedule, courtesy of Bibrave (I am a new Bibrave Pro, and received a comped entry to this race).  I had no intentions of racing this one, as my "goal" 5K was the following day, but I did want to enjoy it as a fun run and from what I could tell from the Santa Hustle website, this looked like a perfect race to just go and have a good time.  The Santa Hustle promised aid stations with cookies and candy, and Christmas music along the route.  Plus, it offered some of the nicest race swag for a 5K:  a really cute red half-zip jacket (plus a Santa beard and hat).  I can't say enough about the jacket - it is really adorable and I'm quite frankly amazed at its quality.  It is a huge step up from the usual race t-shirt.  Based on the promises made about the course itself and the apparent quality of the swag, I went in to the race looking forward to a fun time.

Of course, things don't always go as planned and I ended up running late the morning of the race.  I was really worried about parking and packet pickup, and I thought I might actually miss the start time.  It turned out that I didn't need to worry about either:  there was plenty of free parking around Veterans Park, and packet pickup was incredibly smooth.  I got from my car to packet pickup to the start line in less than ten minutes.  Not bad for a race with over 1000 participants!

I put on my race swag and my number, and was ready to go.  Most runners wore the race jacket and hat for the run and it was fantastic to see this sea of Santas lined up to run along Milwaukee's lakefront.

There was a costume contest too, so aside from a few very well-dressed Santas I saw some people dressed as gingerbread men, Christmas trees, and a very enthusiastic Buddy Elf.  He was adorable.

It was chilly at the start:  the temperatures were in the 30s and being right next to Lake Michigan the air just felt cold.  But the sun was shining and overall the weather was nothing to complain about for a December day in Wisconsin.  The pre-race set up was great:  a giant inflatable Santa and other fun props for photo-ops, real reindeer, and some fun Christmas music.  All we needed was a little snow!  (Just kidding - go away snow!  I'm loving this non-snowy December).

The race had a corralled start, and because I planned on taking it easy and enjoying the run, I lined up with the 9:00 mile corral.  However, in spite of the corrals, my first few blocks were spent pushing through a crowd of walkers.  Oh well - this was just a fun run.  Eventually I made my way out of the crowd and settled into a 9-minute pace.  This was my first race with my new Garmin, and it was nice to actually know my pace rather than just feel it and hope for the best.

And because I'm never one to say "no" to a cookie, I did grab a cookie at the first aid station.  Do you know what it feels like to eat a cookie while running?  It feels like choking.  But I tried.  And I even took a mid-run cookie selfie.  Please appreciate it - I had to take off my mittens, hold up the cookie, hold my phone still and keep running.  It took a lot of work to get that picture.  :p

So obviously the Santa Hustle was more of a fun run/walk than it was a race, and the results definitely showed it.  My 9:10 pace merited me 4th place in my age division out of 139.  Huh.  I'm a little bummed on that actually - they had age group awards that went three deep, so I missed out on an age group medal by 10 seconds.  Judging by how cute the race swag was, I would bet the medals were adorable.  Who knew?  My time was 28:29.

I'd recommend this race as a fun thing to do with a group of friends before brunch, or as a first race for someone who just finished Couch to 5K.  This isn't a place to PR, it is a place to have fun (and there's nothing wrong with that!)

Interested?  Check out the Santa Hustle website for the various events in other cities around the USA and even a virtual event.