On Saturday I headed down to Oaks(Near Valley Forge, PA) to check out the Endurance Sports Expo. I have to admit I had these fantasies in my that I was going to find a pair of Zipp Firecrest 404 race wheels for under a $1000. Of course when I go there reality set in quickly. It is always fun to dream though. I also quickly realized that I wouldn’t have missed too much by saving the gas and staying home either.
I made my way up and down the aisles scanning the goods while also trying to avoid any confrontation by any overzealous recruiters of my time. I felt I did that pretty successfully. No eye contact is the key. I did spend a few minutes at the Endless Pool area watching some guy try to swim. They were supposed to analyze his swim but he seemed to have a hard time getting started and all he could do was some modified sculling doggie paddle and splashed tons of water on everyone around the edge. Pretty funny. I felt like saying “dude…just put your head under and swim.”
One of the trends that I was pretty stoked to see emerging was more whole food and plant-based nutrition items. There was the the Zukay Live Foods stand with their Kvass Raw Veggie juice drinks. I enjoyed the beet flavor sample which can give you a bit of a nitrate boost and tastes pretty good. They actually do not contain much sugar do to their fermentation process. They sell these juices at Wegman’s and Whole Foods so I will definitely be picking up a few of these.
Another plant-based item that caught my eye was the Amrita Health Foods stand. They offered several flavors of their “endurance bars” that contain real, whole foods such as dates, raisins, cranberries, sunflower seeds, sesame, and chia seeds. They have a bunch of different flavors too. The guy at the stand seemed to be founder as he to have a lot of detailed information about the making of them. I think he is Arshad, whose story is mentioned on the website. The bars are currently 60% organic, but he is working towards 100%. They are fairly local too, based in Hudson Valley, NY. Check ‘em out.
There were a couple other whole foods type stands that I fail to mention as well. The worst part of the expo was that the SlyFox brewery was giving out free samples of their IPA, but I somehow managed to push past. Whew!…That was close! I made my way back to the EMS stand after completing the tour. They had a nice Pearl Izumi cold weather cycling jacket that caught my eye. It wasn’t on sale or anything, but it is something that will get me out of the basement sooner than later. I like the fact that it is fitted for cycling and there is a nice big pocket in the back like cycling jersey. The jacket is also florescent yellow, so it should be pretty visible to cars. It was $120, but I think I will get some use out of it.
All in all, not as bad a day as I expected. They also have seminars every hour or so on different topics, but none of those really caught my eye. The expo is still going again today so if you are in the area check it out. If you are looking for unrealistically cheap carbon race wheels though, don’t bother.
Time to get moving here, long run today!
