Winner - Mizuno Running Shoes Giveaway

Per random.org, here's the winning entry for the Mizuno shoes:

Congrats to will1494!  Can't access your Blogger Profile to get your email address, so please email me at cwstallman@gmail.com so we can get you setup to order your shoes.  The offer from Mizuno expires 7/15, so please send me a note quickly.

Mizuno Shoes Giveaway - Last Day (and a half) to Enter

Entries end Thursday (7/12) at noon Eastern, with a winner announced later in the day.  Click this link to go to the post and get your entries in:

http://evolvingthroughrunning.blogspot.com/2012/07/giveaway-mizuno-running-shoes.html

Good Luck!!

Giveaway - Mizuno Running Shoes - Mezamashii Project

You’ve probably seen a few Mizuno Giveaway blog posts in the last few days.  Here’s another.  I was recently invited to be a founding member of Mizuno's Mezamashii Run Project.  Mizuno’s goal for the project (aside from marketing) is to help runners have a more brilliant run, hence the name Mezamashii, meaning "eye opening" or "brilliant" in Japanese. Harnessing the power of real-world experience and social media to spread the work about Mizuno and their products.

I was offered a free pair of their shoes to try, and I took them up on their offer.  This is no small step for me since I’ve been running in Asics Gel Nimbus for at least 6 years.  I went with the Mizuno Wave Creation 13.  I’ve only done one 10-mile run in the shoes, so I’m not yet ready to put together any sort of review.  My initial impressions are good.  They are decidedly more stiff out of the box than the Asics, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing.  Once I break them in and put them through their paces I’ll put a review together.

In addition to my free pair of shoes, they’ve given me another pair to give away to help another runner find their ‘brilliant’ run.  The offer from Mizuno expires fairly soon, so this will be a quick giveaway.  I’ll take entries through Noon Eastern on Thursday (7/12), and announce the winner Thursday afternoon.  There are multiple ways to enter, each earning an individual entry.  You must add an individual comment below for each way you enter … each comment equals and entry and one more chance to win:

1. Follow this blog, or let me know that you already do (leave a comment)
2. Add a comment below letting me know your current ‘go-to’ shoe, and how long you’ve run in that make/model – curious if others are as overly loyal as me
3. Follow me on twitter - @EvolvingThruRun – or let me know you already do (leave a comment)
4. Link to this Giveaway from your blog (leave a comment)
5. Share with me @EvolvingThruRun and @MizunoUSA in a tweet saying why you want to give Mizunos a try (leave a comment)
6. Like the LoveAllTennis page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LoveAllTennis).  Unrelated to this post - this is a new company my wife is launching, and ‘Likes’ make her very happy (leave a comment)

Entries close Noon Eastern on Thursday (7/12) – Good Luck!!

Serendipity and Scorched Earth

I’ve been writing about a possible departure from my beloved Asics Gel Nimbus on this blog for quite some time.  I’ve taken small steps in that direction … Brooks Ghost as my everyday shoes, Brooks Cascadia 7’s for trail running … but haven’t really committed to make the jump away from the Nimbii as my go-to shoes.  However, the good folks at Mizuno may be inadvertently providing the push I need to test the waters away from the calming shores of Asics.

As part of their Mezamashii Project they let me pick out a free pair of Mizuno shoes to try and spread the word about, so these guys showed up in the mail last week while I was fueling up on rum punch and sloth:

Mizuno Wave Creation 13 in retina-scorching crimson.  I just picked up a pair of Superfeet green insoles for them, so hopefully I’ll be giving them a test run this weekend.  I’ve got 18 miles on the plan for Saturday, so that’s a bit too much for a maiden voyage, but I might try a short recovery run Sunday night just to give them a spin.  Supposed to be going out for a 25-ish mile ride Sunday morning with a couple friends, so we’ll see how willing my legs are.  The other mitigating factor ….

I’m no meteorologist, but I believe that is referred to as a heat wave.  The good news is I love to sweat when I run – the more sweat, the more it feels like work, so I say bring the heat.  All the hours of standing on the hood of my idling SUV in the driveway blasting aerosol cans skyward and taunting the ozone layer have finally paid off.  If I’ve plotted the weather trends correctly, we should be hitting around 250 degrees by the end of July.

Do they make SPF 800 yet?