Tuesday, August 12, 2014

New Partnership with Sundog Eyewear!

Wow where has time gone! It's been months since my last blog. In fact, I never ended up blogging about my last race. I started it, but never finished it. I will recap very briefly. 

At the end of May I headed over to Ottawa for the Lowertown Brewery Ottawa 10km as part of the Ottawa Race Weekend. This was my second year at this race and I had the goal of trying to hold off the guys for longer than 5.5km this year. We had a 4:10 head start over the men and when they caught me at almost the same place as the year before (and even threw a few elbows as they swarmed me) I knew I was not having the greatest race. 

Basically, my legs were not there. My legs would not turn over and my stride felt off. I ended up finishing 5th Canadian behind Lanni Marchant, Rachel Hannah, Lindsay Carson and Kate Bazeley in a disappointing time of 35:38, which was actually SLOWER than last year. The weather was slightly different though, last year being cool and this year being very humid. I was initially super bummed about the race; however, I have determined that a few factors likely lead into the results of this race, which I will get into those details in a future post. Nevertheless, it was a fun weekend. Results can be found here.

Now onto the BIGGER and more important news! On the way home I ended up in the very last row. Initially I was bummed about it. Having sat at the back before, it tends to smell like the washroom and you always get the washroom lines. When I headed towards the back, I noticed that the man beside me appeared to be a runner so that lifted my spirits a bit. What I didn't expect, is to spend practically the entire flight home chatting to this man. 

It turns out this guys name was Oliver and he worked for Sundog Eyewear. If you know me, you know that I am wearing sunglasses 95% of the time. The only time I do not wear sunglasses is when it's raining or dark. Even on cloudy days I am generally still in sunglasses. I had previously been wearing Ryder glasses that I had won as my age group prize at last years St. Patrick's Day 5km. While they weren't ideal for my face, they were free so why not. 

By the end of the flight, Oliver had pretty much offered a sponsorship with Sundog (who also sponsor Ultra Runner Ellie Greenwood). A few days later I heard from Gary and I was set up to receive some new sunglasses. In fact, I received 5 pairs of glasses, 4 pairs for running and 1 pair for everyday wear. Let me tell you, I LOVED all of the sunglasses. Sure I had my favourites as each pair fit slightly different, but overall I think I would wear all of them at some point. 

Here is how I would rank them if I actually had to:

#1- Bolt (bonus that they match my black/pink Asics Race Kit)



#2- Dialed
 

#3- Pace
 

#4- Prime

All of these glasses have the TruBlue lens, which by their website states:

"The human body naturally produces melanin and ocular lens pigment; together these substances are nature’s way of defending the eye from invisible and visible light.
The TrueBlue™ lens is the only non-prescription sunglass lens in the world to incorporate both melanin and ocular lens pigment, to provide ultimate eye protection and vision performance."

So basically by partnering up with Sundog Eyewear I get the most optimal protection for my eyes. What else could I ask for? I don't know about you, but my eyesight is pretty important to me so thank you Oliver, Gary and Sundog for this opportunity. I cannot wait to represent your company and show off my wonderful new sunglasses in my future races! 


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