Rokit Fuel Review and Giveaway

Before I even tried the product, there were a few things I really liked about Rokit Fuel:

1) Their products offer wholesome, portable nutrition options that are intended for post-workout or mid-trail refueling,

2) They were more than willing to provide sample packs as giveaways for my readers (always a plus), and …

3) They have an official blogger/outdoor enthusiast on the payroll, which provides a glimmer of hope for all of us other blogger/outdoor enthusiasts toiling in poverty and/or anonymity.

Truthfully, as far as the review is concerned, only the first point above is immediately pertinent – so before getting to the giveaway, allow me to tell you a bit about the product.

All photos from Rokit Fuel website

Rokit Fuel is the creation of Bernell Taylor, a Utah native and lifelong outdoorsman who began experimenting with different cereal concoctions in his kitchen as a hobby before the demand for his product from friends and relatives prompted him to market his products in larger quantities. He began marketing to like-minded outdoor enthusiasts, putting samples in goodie bags at endurance events such as the St George Marathon, Breckenridge 100 Mountain Bike Race, and the Leadville 100, whose race director Ken Chlouber eventually became a spokesperson.


The appeal of the product is its back-to-basics simplicity. Rokit Fuel is made with all natural products that were the nutritional building blocks of a few generations ago: simple ingredients such as grains, nuts, seeds and fruit, with no additives and minimal processing, in a variety of flavors that appeal to different tastes.

There are two types of products the company offers: a 2.3-oz energy mix that comes in a soft rectangular packet, and 2.7-oz cereal cups with a sealed lid for portability. Each product comes in 4 flavors, and can be mixed with either water, juice, or milk. Complete ingredient lists for each product are available on the company's nutrition page.

I honestly wasn’t terribly impressed by the energy packs – mainly because of their relative user-unfriendliness, and partially due to taste. I found a few problems with using the packs: the tops tear off with kind of a ragged seam, and it’s fairly difficult to actually mix water or milk together inside the packet without some spilling out of the top. I also found it awkward to eat the mix directly from the packet; it’s a much wider opening than an energy gel or other products that you squeeze directly into your mouth. And one of the flavors, spice cookie, I really didn’t like – but that’s probably just a personal preference.

After some trial and error, I found that I like the energy mix much better when I just cut the top with a scissors, pour the contents into a bowl, and mix with some milk instead of water. Of course, that’s much easier to do when you’re at home, so you lose the portability appeal. So I guess I’d recommend that they tinker with this product just a bit.


On the other hand, the cereal cups were pretty tasty, easy to use, and all four flavors taste great – especially the cherry almond, which is my favorite. These aren’t as easily packable as the mix packets, but I got into the habit of stuffing one in my workout bag for whenever I stopped into Starbucks, where all I needed was a plastic spoon and some nonfat milk to have a convenient healthy breakfast. Like the mix packets, all of the cereal cups can be mixed with plain water, but I found that they all tasted much better with milk.

So my experience with Rokit Fuel was something of a split decision: I’d give a definite thumbs up to the cereal cups, but I’m not quite as crazy about the mix packets until they improve the convenience of use. The cereal cups are offered in a 4-cup sampler pack for $12.99, or in single-flavor six-packs for $17.94. Energy mix packs are also sold in sampler packs for $8.99, or single-flavor six-packs for $11.94. All of these are available on the Rokit Fuel product page – but if you’re feeling lucky, you can take a stab at winning some sampler packs for free.

Leave a comment below this post, and I’ll select three winners at random to receive the same Rokit Fuel sampler packs that I tested for this review (well, not the exact same, because those are empty now. You know what I mean.). Check back this weekend to find out if you won, and very big thanks to Rokit Fuel for providing this giveaway.

*Products provided by Rokit Fuel
**See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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Random Shots of Beauty

A belated RSOB this weekend, as I had a rather long day today. Part of it was spent here:

The Bear Gulch aid station spot on the Woodside 50K course.

Notice that there's nobody and nothing around. That's significant. As to why ... you'll have to wait to read the race report next week.

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Charlie Engle: Running In Place

From a journalistic standpoint, this is one of those situations that got a little bit out of control. What’s worse is that I pretty much knew it would happen, but decided to tiptoe through the minefield anyway.

The story of adventure runner Charlie Engle is well documented across the Internet, but full details of the story may not be entirely known for certain yet. My fellow ultra-blogger Scott Dunlap created a bit of a beehive with this topic a few months ago, so when my writing partner Mike suggested an article about Charlie for the Monterey Herald, I was more than a bit reluctant. Mike happened to be a longtime friend of Charlie, and I was concerned that our retelling of the story would come across as overly compassionate for someone we knew personally.

Our version of Charlie’s story follows below as it appeared in the newspaper – but I’m the first to admit that there’s some discrepancy as to what Charlie is guilty of. For our column, we worded the accusation exactly as federal prosecutors did on the record during Charlie’s trial, but the claim that Charlie financed his movie with money that was fraudulently obtained is quite likely false. The documentary was funded by Matt Damon’s production company, which makes you wonder why Charlie would need another $150,000 or so to add to the project. [UPDATED: See end of column for a New York Times article describing the strange circumstances that led to Charlie's imprisonment.]

It turns out that our concern for being overcompassionate was unfounded; in fact, as soon as the article was published on the Herald website, we received an angry e-mail from Charlie’s father, which he’s given me permission to reprint here below the original article. I also told him that I would direct readers to the upcoming article that he mentions (which Charlie also referred to on Scott’s website in January) that promises to clear up some of the facts. Through his father, I reached out to Charlie for direct comment as well, and I’ll include that in this post if and when I receive it.

As for me, I have very mixed feelings about Charlie’s plight. There’s no question that he’s a remarkable athlete and humanitarian who has done far more good for the world than most of us put together. But I’ve also seen firsthand how endurance or adrenaline junkies can be so focused on their next great adventure that they’re tempted to bend the rules to fuel their passion, sometimes with tragic consequences. (I wrote a somewhat meandering three-part series about this very experience a few years ago if you’re interested.) Whether the money in question went to his movie or not, if Charlie acquired it by breaking the laws that the rest of us abide by, he deserves a sentence that’s appropriate to the crime. But I sincerely hope that’s not the end of his story.

**
Running Life 3/24/11 “Running In Place”

It’s never easy to watch a friend go to prison – but that’s exactly what we experienced last month with a training partner named Charlie Engle, a former Salinas resident who began his running career as a member of the famous Big Sur Marathon “centipede” team in 1991, before becoming one of the most admired and accomplished adventure racers in the world.

Last month, Charlie was sentenced to a 21-month prison term after being found guilty on 12 counts of bank and mail fraud, and possibly using that money to help fund his ambitious adventures. The story of how Charlie went from that first marathon to running in place inside a jail cell is a cautionary tale about how our passions can sometimes overwhelm us.

Charlie always had an intense fire burning inside him; his ongoing struggle was how to channel that fire into something constructive rather than destructive. Although he was seemingly healthy during that Big Sur centipede run, he was battling a 10-year addiction to drugs and alcohol that started when he was only 17. He went “cold turkey” on July 23, 1992 and has been clean ever since – he simply found a more legitimate outlet for his energy and compulsive behavior. He traded in his drug use for excessive adventure running.

He eventually moved to North Carolina and immersed himself in the world of ultrarunning, continually looking for harder and harder challenges. He did the Badwater race, 135 miles from Death Valley to Mount Whitney, where it is common for the soles of your running shoes to melt from the heat. He ran the 130-mile Amazon Jungle Marathon in Brazil, and won the 155-mile Gobi Desert Marathon in 2006. He competed in several Eco-Challenges, involving running, hiking, canoeing, swimming, climbing, and lots of all-around suffering, and became a charismatic star when those events were regularly televised.

Along the way, Charlie also became a very sought-after public speaker, using his life as an example of overcoming challenges and living life to its fullest potential. Anyone who’s heard him will tell you that Charlie lights up a room: he’s charismatic, funny, entertaining, self-deprecating, and above all else, inspiring to listen to.

Charlie’s next ambition was to be the first person to run across the Sahara Desert. He dreamed of the run serving a humanitarian mission to raise awareness and money for the clean water crisis in Africa. Part of his outreach effort was creating a movie called Running The Sahara, which documented the journey of Charlie and two other ultrarunners as they successfully ran for 111 days across 4,300 miles of the African continent in 2007. Although it was an extremely noble accomplishment, this is also where Charlie’s ambition apparently began to get the best of him.

According to federal prosecutors, Charlie partially financed his movie by money obtained from real estate loans and mortgage fraud involving properties in Virginia, as well as exaggerating his income to become eligible for these loans. When the financial downturn hit, no matter how far he ran, Charlie could no longer stay one step ahead of his collectors and prosecutors.

Charlie tells his version of the events and describes his life in prison on his personal website at www.charlieengle.com – a fascinating blog fittingly called “Running in Place.” He views his situation as just another physical and psychological challenge to overcome, and vows to get through it and back to serving the public as he did before. For everyone’s sake, we hope he’s able to succeed.


**

Here’s the e-mail we received from the senior Mr Engle in reply:

I am Charlie's father. I am sure you meant well with your article today, however, you have done a great disservice to Charlie and you have become another journalist goon who simply doesn't fact check. Matt Damon's production company put up $3 Million to make the documentary, Running the Sahara. Charlie did not put up one dollar. In fact, he was paid money by the foundation to make the movie. To imply that Charlie lied to get loans to make the movie is totally false and even the federal prosecutors have retreated from that position. You do an injustice to the Foundation that put up the money for the movie in an effort to raise money for water for Africa. So far, they have raised over $6 million. And you do an injustice to Charlie.

Charlie pled not guilty to the fraud charges and he still maintains his innocence. I will not waste my time with you on that front. You know nothing about it. There will be a major article in a major publication in the next two weeks that actually will report his story in an accurate and fact filled manner. You will see it if you are remotely current. You owe Charlie an apology, or please publish your facts relating to any money he used for the making of the movie. Being spoon fed information from federal prosecutors, wouldn't make you much of a reporter anyway. I am sure you had no contact with them either.


[**UPDATED: Here's the New York Times article that makes a strong case for Charlie's innocence]

[**Also check out the May 2011 issue of Trail Runner magazine for a full-length feature on Charlie, and the strange circumstances of his prosecution. Unfortunately, it's not online, so you have to get it from the newsstand.]

I'll continue to post further updates here, including any word from Charlie, as I receive them.

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S.W.A.

Remember back in school, when you used to come back from summer vacation and renew acquaintances with everybody that you hadn’t seen for a few months? And how every now and then, somebody showed up with a different sort of look to them that was more than just getting taller or wearing a new wardrobe; it was more of a sense that they were a slightly different person now – like they’d done something since you last saw them which impacted their attitude or personality in some small way that you couldn’t quite put your finger on yet?

That’s exactly the feeling I got when seeing all my sheep friends again for the first time this spring.

(click to enlarge any of these)

I’ve previously written about how it’s always a pleasant surprise to see the herd of sheep roaming the fields of Fort Ord for grass control, and for the past few weeks, I’ve encountered them in various locations on the open space. Sometimes you see them meandering across a hillside …

… or drifting across a wide valley as you crest the nearby hill. Other times you can hear them (or worse, smell them) before actually seeing them, but that’s neither here nor there. However, during each of my last few encounters there’s been something of a different look to the sheep this year. In particular, I’ve noticed …


… that they’re pretty well spread out all over the place, and they don’t hesitate to station themselves right in the middle of the trail on which you’re approaching. It’s a noticeable contrast from last year, when the herd typically looked like this:


Because they were tightly managed by a group of three sheepdogs on a regular basis. This year, although I’ve seen the sheep several times already, I’ve only seen the sheepdogs once – and that was when they were hanging around in the shade underneath the shepherd’s trailer, very passively observing their charges on a nearby hillside.



Consequently, the sheep are free to spread out wherever the heck they want, and it’s almost like they’ve had a taste of empowerment now. They always give up the trail once I get close enough, but lately they seem to actually consider the possibility of holding their ground. It’s like they've got a slightly different attitude this year - and while they can’t completely overcome their timid nature, they’re clearly a little bit less … sheepish, I guess.



This is the first year I’ve had the distinct sense that as I’m standing there checking the sheep out, they’re equally interested in checking me out as well. And this could just be my paranoia talking … but I get the distinct sense that they’re comparing notes with each other. Or maybe plotting something for the next time we cross paths. Who really knows?

As to what any of this actually means, I have no Earthly idea. Maybe the sheep are doing what all sheep do if left unattended for a while, like kids acting a little crazier at recess when they know the playground monitor is off duty. Maybe they attended some sort of self-help seminar since the last time I saw them. Or maybe these are Limitless sheep who got access to some sort of illicit drug that gives them supernatural abilities. (OK … that last one’s just my paranoia again.)

One thing it means for sure is that I’m already looking forward to running across them again, to see how they’re going to surprise me next. That means, of course, that I need to spend some more miles out here in the near future – which works out great, since that’s just what I was planning anyway. And anything my wooly companions can do to keep things interesting out there will always be appreciated.

So if these sheep really are concocting some ingenious plan to spring on me the next time I come across them … so much the better for both of us.

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Big Sur Marathon Re-Route; Book Review: Long May You Run

Admin note: two separate topics today, with no relation to each other except that the timing seemed right. Sometimes that's the way it goes.

*

Over the weekend, a few people asked me to comment on a local breaking news item that’s had ripple effects across the running community: the status of this year’s Big Sur International Marathon.

If you haven’t yet heard, here’s the short version: the marathon normally traverses 26 miles of what’s perhaps the most ruggedly beautiful stretch of road in the world on California’s Highway 1. Unfortunately for runners and drivers alike, as of last week a 60-foot chunk of that road now sits in the Pacific Ocean after unexpectedly crashing down the face of a coastal cliff.

Highway 1 landslide; photo from AP

With the race less than 6 weeks away, the race committee had no choice but to come up with an alternate route, most likely a down and back affair starting from Carmel, similar to what was done in the wake of yet another landslide just before the event in 1998. Truthfully, with Highway 1, the surprise isn’t that landslides happen frequently – it’s that they can even maintain a road there at all. When people say this coastline is rugged and unpredictable, they mean it.

(For more details, this video from our local TV news station has good coverage of the landslide and its implications for the race.)

Almost immediately, discussion reached fever pitch on the marathon’s Facebook page. Initially there was a fair amount of questioning about whether the race might offer refunds, as well as griping from folks who were disappointed to not do the “official” course, before cooler heads prevailed with the vast majority of people seemingly trying to make the best of it.

Since I’m not personally involved in this year’s race, I’m not emotionally invested one way or the other, so I’ll refrain from weighing in on what the right way to handle the situation should be. I do know what it’s like to have your dream race go up in smoke at a moment’s notice by the fickle hand of Mother Nature, and that feeling pretty much sucks. And for all those runners traveling here from very far away (including many from overseas) who have just found out that they’ll only see half of the scenery they’ve heard so much about, I can definitely sympathize.

However, I know that if I had an option to do a full-length race using an alternate route that still included half of the original course when my goal race was cancelled 72 hours prior to start time, I would have jumped at the chance. I also happened to run the Big Sur Marathon in the one other modified course year, and the experience was as memorable and rewarding as any of my other BSIMs. The race board is a first-class organization that will do everything in their power to ensure that runners have the best experience possible under the circumstances. Whether that’s enough to ultimately satisfy thousands of disappointed marathoners remains to be seen.

**

This winter I was contacted by Chris Cooper to do a review of his book, Long May You Run, which was published last October by Simon and Schuster. It actually turned out to be kind of a strange experience – because in reading Chris’s background and going through his book, I was struck by a lot of similarities between the two of us.


Chris is a lifelong amateur runner with some pretty-good-but-not-fantastic accomplishments on his athletic resume. He’s been a writer for many years and has a blog where he writes on a variety of running-related topics. His book is a collection of essays, stories, and observations generally written in a lighthearted tone with ample bits of humor thrown in. And every single one of those descriptions could just as easily apply to me.

So I was more than a little bit curious to see what his book had to offer. Long May You Run is an informative and well-researched overview of virtually every aspect of running you can think of. It’s an extensive advice manual for new runners looking for ways to improve, energize or revamp their running. The format is such that it doesn’t need to be read from start to finish; the 200 various subjects each stand alone as separate articles, so you can pick and choose subjects from the table of contents that look interesting and jump right in. The articles are also interspersed with snippets of training advice from 19 world-class runners that can be applied to everyday runners.

One main characteristic of Chris’s writing is brevity: none of the articles here exceed three pages in length, and several are nothing more than lists such as favorite running songs or famous quotes about running. It’s almost designed as a coffee table book that you can pick up and thumb through for a few minutes at a time until you eventually manage to see every page. His subject matter is historical – with brief profiles of many of the most famous runners through the years – as well as timely, even including a brief assessment of the barefoot running movement.

Taken on the whole, Long May You Run is a quick and easy read, and makes a very useful guide for beginning runners, with a few items that experienced runners may learn from as well. It retails for $16.39 from Amazon.com as well as other online vendors.

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ZYM Tablet Winners; Random Shots of Beauty

Before our usual weekend photo, let's take care of business for the ZYM electrolyte tablet winners:

Mikey, Andy, and Captain Suburbia: E-mail me your address - you've each won a tube of ZYM Rival tablets. To everyone else: thanks for playing, and stay tuned for my GU Brew tablet review and giveaway within the next few weeks.

**

In honor of the recent St. Patrick's holiday, I decided to make this weekend's offering a random shot of greenness:

(click to enlarge)

The hills of Toro Park, where I've been spending an awful lot of miles lately. This time of year, when winter rains turn the normally brown and yellow landscape into an emerald Eden, is probably the second prettiest season in Monterey County.

So what, you ask, is the first? That would be wildflower season, which is right around the corner.

It's a wonderful time to be an ultrarunner.

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Mr. CLIFstone

Admin note: If you haven't done so already, there's still time to get in on my ZYM electrolyte tablet giveaway; leave a comment on that post to enter, and I'll announce three winners this weekend.

And now on to today's post ...

*

"I used to do a little but a little wouldn’t do it –
So the little got more and more and more –
I just keep trying to get a little better –
Said a little better than before."
- Guns ‘N’ Roses, “Mr Brownstone” (video after post)

A couple of weeks ago we were pleasantly surprised to find the following gift from our local Safeway store in our mailbox:

Inside were two samples of CLIF Builder’s Bars, which I’ve reviewed here and have a great fondness for. The gesture would have been even nicer, if it weren’t for another box that arrived at our house that same week:


A massive supply of Builder’s Bars – as in 12 cases worth - purchased from the company in an attempt to keep pace with our rapid consumption. To say that my family is a fan of CLIF products is a tremendous understatement; more accurately, you could say our interest is bordering on obsessive.

Our predicament might fairly be considered the dark side of doing product reviews, because our fixation with nearly every one of the items we’re now collectively hooked on started with reviews and giveaways on this website. Remember the ROKS review? They go in our kids lunches as a healthy protein snack. How about the BLOKS? They’re a staple of our family hikes. The CRUNCH bars are also great lunchbox material, and CLIF C makes a healthy midday or post-dinner snack. And of course, there’s the Builder’s Bars, which are my wife’s favorite portable breakfast when she’s rushing out the door to drop off the kids before jumping into her own work day, and my preferred way of getting a midday protein boost without having to hunt down a deli sandwich.

As to why we buy these particular bars (Builder’s) directly from the company – that’s because our two favorite flavors are lemon and vanilla almond, neither of which are carried by our local stores (but trust me, I’m working on it). And in case you weren’t yet convinced of our devotion to this company: what do you suppose we use to open all these CLIF boxes that come to our house?


Have I mentioned that we have a lot of CLIF items around our house? Or that my 9-year-old daughter wants to have her next birthday party at CLIF headquarters? Sometimes I wish I were making this stuff up.

Not to be overlooked in all of this, of course, is the product that started it all: original CLIF Bars, which continue to be my favorite items from the whole product line. I use them for post-workout nutrition if I’m away from home, and they’re a favorite lunch item for my kids if we’re traveling or spending all day outside the house on a hike or bike ride. They’re also the products I use to share the CLIF love with lots of people around my community.

The storage compartment of my driver-side car door

Since the CLIF company makes so many charitable contributions, it seemed fitting for me to carry a stash of bars in my car and give them away to homeless people I encounter on street corners or in front of stores. This practice started as a whim, but has grown into a somewhat sizeable expense from month to month. We’ve even had the kids participate in making CLIF Bar distribution runs to our local homeless population. It’s one of those situations where everybody wins.

Handing out CLIF bars makes sense on a lot of levels: I feel much better about giving healthy food away than I do giving money to people, and there’s something rewarding about being used in the greater scheme of things to help provide daily bread for someone who needs it. From a practical standpoint, the bars are convenient enough to stuff in your pocket for later, have a weather-proof wrapper to keep them safe from the elements, and provide reasonable sustenance if you’re not sure when your next meal will be. The fact that they taste pretty good is a nice bonus as well.

So yeah … it’s no secret that we’ve gotten somewhat carried away with our CLIF infatuation, and that a little just doesn’t do it for us anymore. But I’m also quite certain that our lives, and perhaps to some small extent the lives of those around us, are a little better than before we completely went off the deep end. (At least that’s what I tell myself to justify all this.) And as I have further opportunities to review their products throughout the year, I’ll be sure to share the love with my readers as well.

Finally, if my daughter somehow fulfills her dream and ends up working for CLIF one day, I’m pretty sure we can look back and say we know how it all started.

**

At first, the thought of a song that is mainly a tribute by a strung-out group of addicts to their favorite substance of choice seemed a little excessive here … but re-reading what I just wrote, maybe not so much.

Guns ‘N’ Roses, “Mr Brownstone”, live at the Ritz (click to play):

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