And the Winner Is

We have a winner for the first week of the every week Dave Jewell Zoot Contest. It's a simple contest, submit your workouts and your story and you stand a chance to win.

This weeks winner is: Brandon Wilson from Jacksonville FL. His training for the week and store are as follows:

This is my third week of training building up to IMCDA.
Monday-swim 2500 yds
bike 1hr 25 min

Tuesday-swim 2500 yds
run 50 min

Wednesday-brick 1 hr 15min/30 min

Thursday-swim 2000 yds
rainy, no cycling

Friday-bike 3 hr 30min
run 30 min

Saturday-swim 2500 yds
run 40 min (short run, I'll explain...)

I'm not sure if this is the story you were hoping for, but here it goes: On Saturdays "long run," I had to turn around at 20 minutes because my stomach was telling me it's time to pack it in. Well, I'm back at the house, in front of the driveway, when my bottom drops out. I've gotta go. NOW.
All the doors are locked, everyone's inside eating dinner and watching TV, so they don't hear me screaming and nearly banging down the door.
Well, I'm not gonna make it, so I sprint around the side of the house, well, more like waddled like a penguin, and just as I pull down my shorts to ease my suffering, the floodlights come on. Oh, crap! So I hike up my shorts, and run around to the hedges in the front, and those lights come on too. At this point, all that I'll say is that there was no point in trying to hurry to the bathroom anymore.
And now you know my worst day of running. Ever.

Good training efforts and what a story. Give it up to Brandon for letting me post it. We've all been there one way or another. Maybe not that extreme.

Now the winning prize: Zoot Ultra Kapilani - Available July 2010

The Name. Naming shoes is not the easiest thing. My favorite name that I came up with is still the Supernova Sequence. You know how running is sequential. Well Kapilani has a story. There is a park in Honolulu named Kapiolani Park. It's the finishing park for the famed Honolulu Marathon. No way I was getting Kapiolani through legal so I dropped the o and made it up. But that's not the story. The Honolulu Marathon is special to me because it's where I met Tom Carleo. Tom and I spent many hours over Beer the week leading up the the Marathon a few years back, planning out the Nike Technical Running Line. That Line eventually in a much refined way became what we all know as Nike Bowerman. Since that time Tom and I have remained friends. It was a great time in the world of shoes. Tom moved on to Saucony and created that great Saucony stuff you know and has since moved over to New Balance. All I can say is look out for NB.

But for now, look out for Zoot. The continued story of the shoe is this. In August of 2009 I spent weeks talking to athletes wearing the Zoot Tempo+, the same shoe Brandon uses for Racing. I asked "What do you use the shoe for?" The response was racing and some training. Next Question "What do you do your long run in?" The response, Asics, Brooks, Saucony. Then I said if you had a shoe that performed like the Tempo+ but felt like more shoe would that be good and would you buy it? Resounding yes, we love your brand. So the Kapilani was born. The same low profile go fast construction with a more substantial workhorse feel. No holes, and regular laces. It still has the ultra comfortable BareFit system that just makes Zoot feel so good internally. It has a few other things Zoot. My favorite comment so far on the shoe was this "It's a great shoe but there's nothing special about it" - Zoot employee Germany. Exactly, it's a workhorse running shoe and that's the best comment for a workhorse. No flash just substance.

I also sent my sister Cyndi a pair. She's trying really hard and getting to the gym at 4:45am. To me that deserves a Kapilani.

Thanks Brandon, I hope you like them. Good Luck with your Ironman training.

It's a good life...

Dave