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| My Zoot Icefill arm coolers, Headwear bandanna, Spyder sunglasses and Solatek cap |
For my T2N adventure, I used the following :
- Solatek cap
- Mountain Hard Wear short sleeve tee (with the First Balfour logo)
- Hanes Cool DRI® TAGLESS® men’s t-shirt (with the runnin8 m3n logo)
- Zoot Icefil arm coolers
- New Balance 2-in-1 Shorts
- SLS Compression race sleeves
- New Balance 880 shoes
- Balega socks
- Spyder sunglasses
- Headware bandanna
- Amphipod Runlite Breeze hydration belt
- Polar insulated water bottle
- High5 energy gels
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| My hydration and nutrition kit |
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| My NB 880 shoes, Balega socks and SLS Compression race sleeves |
I guess the first question to answer is : how did my new pair of NB 880 perform in its first ultra?
The answer is pretty straight forward – the NB 880 performed as expected and then some. I expected the NB 880 not to give me trouble with my feet and I never had any complaints (no blisters, no pain in my calf) during the entire 50kms. Yup. You heard it right. I did not change running shoes in my running of this year’s T2N.In my first T2N in 2010, I changed from my Newton to my Mizuno. In the Mayon 360 ultra last year, I changed from Asics Cumulus 12 to Asics Cumulus 13. For the BDM 102km last March, I changed thrice (all Asics). The NB 880 made my feet feel comfy and cool that is why I did not change pairs at the 2012 T2N.
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| Dirtied but standing tall, my NB 880 |
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| More than 60 kms worth of wear and tear |
Another new item I tried out is a couple of pairs of Balega socks. These socks are produced in South Africa and the ones I have were purchased from Riovanna and A Runner’s Circle Manila. A Zulu word, Balega means “to move with speed.” Although I did not get to run with impala-like speed in these babies, the socks contributed to the comfortable run despite the long distance. They are made of soft fabric.
The blue thing I wore on my head in the latter part of the race is a Solatek cap which I bought last month from one of the duty free stores in Subic. At Php 500, I think it is a good buy. It protected my head and neck from the heat of the sun. My Solatek cap has the Bicolano Penguin logo at the back.
I got to use 2 running shirts for the T2N. The first one is the Hanes Cool Dri shirt which Bitoy gave the Batch 83 ultrarunners as pasalubong. We had these shirts printed with the runnin8 m3n logo and it will now be the unofficial shirts of the 83neans who have finished an ultramarathon. I better ask Bitoy for a few more Hanes as this particular model is not available locally and we would be needing one as Ghibz just finished his first ultramarathon. I started the T2N with this shirt and by the time we left the confines of Tagaytay, I changed to the second shirt.
The second one I wore is the Mountain Hard Wear short sleeve tee. This shirt is my favorite and it has served my running adventures for more than 3 years already, from my first marathon to my latest ultramarathon. I bought it at a good discount in ROX Bonifacio High Street never expecting that it will last this long. It feels and looks cool. This shirt is now embossed with the First Balfour logo.
Another product that is turning out to be a running favorite of mine is the New Balance 2-in-1 Short . It combines the comfort of a well-loved gym short with the muscle-engaging support of compression gear. Lightning Dry® fabric wicks away moisture to keep me feeling great in the long distance running events (BDM and T2N) I have used this shorts.
Overall, the running kit I wore in this year’s edition of the T2N served me well. I got to improve my finish time in the T2N from 7 hours 41 mins in November 2011 to 7 hours 32 mins in May 2012. This certainly brings a smile to my face.
Slowly but surely, the Bicolano Penguin is getting itty bitty faster.
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