In partnership with Jaybird and as an Ambassador for the Mesa-Phoenix Marathon

It was August of 2015—the last time I ran a marathon with headphones. Seems like yesterday that I was making playlists and deciding which songs were going to help push me through 26.2 miles. That particular day it was a compilation of Jay-Z’s library (and likely some Kanye West sprinkled in there).

A month or so ago, when Jaybird reached out to see if I was interested in trying out the latest addition to their headphone line: “RUN—a true wireless sport headphone,” I was intrigued. After that race in the fall of 2015, I had been working hard to pay attention to my stride, how my foot was hitting the ground, how I was breathing, trying to “listen” more to my body.

 

What’s Different?

 

What intrigued me about this opportunity was that Jaybird had designed a line of headphones that were wireless (works off Bluetooth technology) and earbuds that also had the ability to be used in only one ear. The latter is what really got my attention—the ability to listen to music and hear your surroundings was the perfect middle ground. With the Mesa-Phoenix marathon coming up, my training having suffered a little (and likely running it solo), it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

 

 

Presentation is Everything

 

When they arrived, the packaging was done well and the size of the charging case and accessories were nice. It wasn’t this big, bulky thing I needed to carry around and it looked pretty sleek. I charged them up and took them to the mountains to give them a test run.

NOTE: a 5-min charge equals 1-hour of playtime. For all those times that you forget to charge something and need to use it NOW.

 

The Perfect Fit

 

I tested a couple of different ways of using the single earbud. The obvious way is to simply put it into your ear and go. It held in place, was comfortable, and the sound was great. This option will likely work for the majority of people. For me? I’m not a huge fan of having something completely in my ear—I tend to leave it slightly out and not have the music on full blast. When running with music (headphones or speaker), I use it as an assist to what I am doing, rather than to solely rely on it to motivate or push me. This option worked perfect for me and I was excited to give it the full 26.2 test a couple of weeks later at Phoenix (recap below).

I’ve also used the dual earbud option when running on the treadmill, and not having any wires needing to be connected to the phone is HUGE. I always worry I’m going to whack the cable and my phone will go flying off the treadmill, then me next.

NOTE: The below list was compiled after rocking these at the full marathon, so basically RUN-tested and approved.

PROs:

• The compact, and easy-charge carrying case is a huge plus.
• Two earbuds are nice, but I enjoy the single earbud option to stay aware of my surroundings.
• The dual earbuds provide better sound than the single option (obviously), but through the jaybird app, you can customize the sound for that extra bass, or improved treble to your liking.
• The 5-min charge equaling one hour of playtime is amazing—I may use this feature more than I care to admit.
• Phone calls – yep, you can answer/receive/ignore with a tap on the earbud
• It says it holds 4-hour playtime on single charge, but these stayed on for the entire (spoiler) 4:42 it took me to run the marathon.

Room for improvement:

• Volume adjust on the earbuds would be nice, rather than needing to adjust on the phone.

 

 

The Mesa-Phoenix Marathon

 

This would be my 4th year in a row running the Mesa-PHX Marathon and year 3 of collecting the 5 C’s of Arizona (copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate) that form a star once all the medals are placed together. In the past, I have run with @carleemcdot and @runemz, but with EMZ dropping down to the half and Carlee running with her husband for his first full marathon, I would be rocking the race solo.

We did our annual meetup at the PRO Compression booth at the expo on Friday, chatted with familiar (and new faces), and got ready for the really early wake-up call on Saturday. This year they pushed the start time a half-hour earlier, which was nice. It can get warm once the sun comes out and I’ll take an extra 30 min of running before the sunrises any day of the week.

 

 

At the top of the mountain, before the race, we huddled around fires and stayed below heat lamps to keep warm. I was cold at the start and I ended up running the first 2 miles with my throwaway sweatshirt on. I probably could have kept it on for a few more miles, but I didn’t want to get too warm or sweaty and shock my system with a sudden change.

The goal was to have fun at this race, as I wrote earlier, the end of my training suffered a bit from some wonkiness in my knee, but I was hoping to come in around 4:30. The early miles flew by and I was keeping a really consistent pace up to the half way point.

First Half: 2:12:58, 10:09 avg. pace

Doing math while running is hard. I knew I was on pace and had picked up a few seconds on the downhill part of the course. In my head I was thinking: if I run the same pace, 4:30, perfect! The reality part of my brain was more like: keep the same pace and if/when you slow down keep moving forward. Don’t start walking because that is what happened when your knee started to get wonky.

Ok. Onward we go.

Miles 13.1-20: 10:16 avg. pace.

Numbers never lie, but this one is fibbing just a little. I felt good going into mile 18, but around mile 16, I could feel a change coming. The knee was starting to slightly raise its hand and say “are we sure about this?”

From 18 on, the struggle bus arrived as my form started to fall apart favoring the knee. Still trying to do math in my head, I knew that if I could keep the miles between 10-12 mins, I could salvage a 4:45. I just needed to keep moving forward and avoid the 15-16 min mile.

Miles 20-26.2: 12:25 avg. pace

26.2: 4:42:17

I’ll take it. There was some walking the last few miles, but it was a strong race all things considered. Even though I slowed at points, I always felt like I was moving forward. It was nice to have the music playing when I was feeling a bit down… I was glad to have it with me and I think it would have taken me longer without it.

 

 

 

This lady here is amazing. Forever grateful for her friendship and willingness to put up with me.

 

 

The who, what, where:

 

Jaybird RUN—TRUE WIRELESS SPORT HEADPHONES

2019 Mesa-Phoenix registration is open (see you there!).

Keep running strong.