Black Friday 500th Post Blowout Giveway Extravaganza?!?!

A few months ago we realized that iRunFar.com was quickly approaching its 500th post. We briefly toyed with approaching companies to provide product to giveaway in honor of this milestone, but noticed that we already have a huge stash of gear here at iRunFar world headquarters. As luck would have it, our 500th post coincides with Black Friday… a day on which we had a huge giveaway last year. We guess we’ll have to call this a tradition. Whatever we call it, there’s a ton of gear to giveaway and some of it could be yours. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment with your name and the items in which you’re interested in winning. Below are the Rules and the Prizes!

The Rules
Really, there are no rules to speak of. To enter, just leave a comment as described above. If you’re comfortable leaving your full name, go for it. Otherwise, a first name along with a final initial and town should be fine. We’re not trying to collect your confidential info, we simply need a way to identify the winners. We are afraid that we’ll have to limit this contest to American and Canadian shipping locations only.

We ask that you please note in the comment only the gear pieces in which you are most interested. The specific requests add to our work, but mean the gear goes to the folks for whom it would be most useful. There’s no limit to the number of items you can enter to win, we just ask that you are thoughtful in entering the contest.

The drawing for each item will be random … for the most part. One caveat of this giveaway is that you’ll only walk away with one item with the exception of small smaller prizes. (A good reason to only enter for the items you want most.) With that in mind, there may be instances where we will deliberately divvy up prizes so that more people walk away happy.

To be eligible, you need to enter by 5 p.m. PDT on Friday, December 4. We’ll post results on Monday, December 7.

The Prizes
You’ll notice that some of the products listed below note light use. All that means we briefly tested the product. We wouldn’t be giving you anything that’s heavily worn or that we wouldn’t accept if we needed that type of gear.

Gear

• Rab Quantum Top Bag AR (very light use) – Folks, this is a top of the line, ultra lightweight sleeping bag. It weighs all of 19.4 ounces (550 g) and would be a great addition to a stage racing or fastpacking kit for use in places with moderate nighttime temps.

Hydration/Packs

• Black Diamond BBEE (orange) – If this 12-liter pack were any more minimalist it would cease to exist and yet is still has internal pockets, hydration capability, and an adjustable sternum strap.
• Body Bottle – A 10-ounce water flask that Velcros to an arm band. Yeah, you heard us right.
• HydraCoach Intelligent Water Bottle (light use) – This water bottle isn’t the sort of bottle you’d run with, but it does monitor your fluid intake.
• Leadville 100 Totebag/Backpack – This jack-of-all-trades bag has a cell phone holster and water bottle holder, too. This is NOT for running!
• Nathan QuickDraw Plus (black) – You can’t go wrong with Nathan’s excellent handheld bottle carrier.
  
• Polarpak Flowjo (light use) – The waist belt hydration bladder uses Polarpak’s Moflow technology to shoot water into your mouth once the system is pressurized.
• Salomon Ultra Twin Belt (used once) – Not available in the US, give this Salomon double bottle belt (with Salomon’s triangular bottles) a go. As a bonus, we’ve already trimmed down the lengthy waist belt strap. ;-)
• Water bottles – If you need water bottles, just let us know… they don’t hurt your chances of winning other prizes.

Apparel

• Rab Drillium (medium size – light use) – eVent fabric makes this shell a game saver on cold, wet runs.
• Gore Running Wear Mythos SO Jacket (men’s medium – light use) – A highly technical soft shell with W.L. Gore’s Windstopper fabric. It’s black, but has excellent reflective features for your night runs this winter.
• Saucony Polartec Thermal Pro Hoody (men’s medium – gray) – Looking for a “technical sweatshirt” to keep you warm this winter? Look no further than this full-zip sweatshirt made from Polartec’s Thermal Pro fabric. (Blue version of sweatshirt here.)
• Original Buff (2 in green) – Other websites might list a Buff under hats, we know better. We’ve previously reviewed the Original Buff and the Merino Wool Buff.

Shoes

• Merrell CT Converge II (men’s 9.5 – light use) – A high mileage, neutral road shoe.
• Montrail Hardrock 09 (men’s 9 – light to mild use, more scuffs than anything) – The final model in Montrail’s legendary Hardrock series (look for the forthcoming Sabino Trail).
• Teva CT-140 (men’s 9 – light use) – A trail/road hybrid that’s never going to see the light of day now that Teva has stepped out of the running shoe business.

Shirts
[Note: Winning a prize in the “Shirts,” “Hat,” or “Other” categories does not preclude one from winning other prizes.]

• Mountain Hardwear Duration s/s shirt (men’s medium – light use – khaki) – A solid (performance and color) tech shirt with chitosan for odor control.
• Annecime (men’s medium – worn once – white) – cotton short-sleeve hand-imported from France.
• Blue Ribbon Run (men’s medium – white) – Old school graphics on a cotton short-sleeve T from Silverton, Colorado’s Fourth of July Run this year.
• Leadville Trail 100 (men’s medium – black) – A technical, long-sleeve T from this year’s Leadville Trail 100 mile run.
• Pocatello 50 (men’s medium – blue) – cotton/poly blend short-sleeve.
• Rudy Project (men’s medium – gray) – cotton short-sleeve.
• Shoe-Odometer (men’s medium – yellow) – technical short-sleeve.
• Vasque “Run in sync with nature.” (men’s medium – gray) – cotton short-sleeve T made by American Apparel.

Hats
[Note: Winning a prize in the “Shirts,” “Hat,” or “Other” categories does not preclude one from winning other prizes.]

• First Endurance Cycling Cap by Hincapie Sportswear. Just a simple cycling cap… we prefer helmets!
• GU Energy Gel-branded Headsweats SuperVisor (black) – We wouldn’t give this one away if we didn’t have another… three. The SuperVisor rules.
• Headsweats Race Hat (red – light use) – It’s the hat on which we based this Outside Online review. Wait a month for a much cooler version of this hat.
• Mountain Hardwear (tan) – A mesh/fabric mix with a longish brim. We can’t figure out the model.
• Smith Optics Endurance Hats (two – 1 white, 1 black) – Smith, the sunglass manufacturer, knows heads. These are two of the highest quality tech hats we’ve ever seen. Trust us.

Other
[Note: Winning a prize in the “Shirts,” “Hats,” or “Other” categories does not preclude one from winning other prizes.]

• Darn Tough Run-Bike 1/4 Sock – Cushion (Large) – Well-cushioned merino wool socks.
• Jimi Wallet (orange) – A minimalist, splash-proof wallet.
• Nike Running/Cycling Non-Cushion Sock (unisex, but sized men’s 9-11 – black) – Winner get’s 3 pairs of these simple 1/4 cut Dri-Max socks.
• Salus Muscle Relief Gel – We’re a skeptical lot… but call use convinced. This stuff takes our pain away.
• Vasque Bandana – A badass, black bandana.

A Favor
We don’t make you “do” anything to enter this giveaway. No need to fill out a form, sign up for this, or subscribe to that. However, if you appreciate iRunFar and what it does, we just ask that you spread the word. You could share news of this giveaway with others or tell them about the website on your next run.

While you’re at it, consider further embracing the iRunFar community through one of the following options. Not only will they keep you better informed (we share different news on the website, the Facebook fan page, and Twitter), but you’ll help us out, too!

• Subscribe to iRunFar via RSS or via email
• Become a fan of iRunFar on Facebook
• Follow iRunFar on Twitter

Also, anyone looking for an iRunFar bumper sticker, please use our contact page to request one. We’ll need your full address for that!