WS 100 endurance run observations: Product, privacy and sloshing packs

I was hanging out helping brain-dead runners summit the Devil’s Thumb climb in the Western States 100 last Saturday, June 27. It’s a nasty, rocky, 1,500 foot climb over 1.8 miles that comes for most in the hottest part of the day. And it was pretty hot, dry and dusty last weekend. As I escorted runner after runner from the top to the medical aid weigh-in, got their bottles and packs refilled, and made sure they were in OK shape for the remaining 52.2 miles, I found myself taking a look at the apparel, gear, food and product they all had. OK, SNEWS is sick. We are always looking at brands.

When it came to hydration, Nathan frankly ruled the day. After traditional hand-held bottles (mostly Nathan), the Nathan packs frankly came up the hill one after the other. We saw quite a few from the HPL series, especially the vest with just pockets on the front and a pocket across the back (HPL #028). But we also saw a few Ultimate Design’s, Amphipods, and just a teeny smattering of CamelBaks.

What struck me as an aid station volunteer filling bottles and packs was how much we all frankly cursed a couple of things:

>> the ancient Platypus reservoirs with a teeny screw cap opening AT THE BOTTOM of the pack that was impossible to get to and too teeny to get ice through. %^$))%&%*!
>> Amphipod curved bottles that wouldn’t stand up on the table to fill. ARRRGH!
>> antiquated reservoirs with small openings or even the totally out-dated UD roll-tops that were super difficult to fill (ultra runners do hang onto old gear, perhaps because they are just cheap?) GRRRRR!!

Between greeting runners, a few of us started nattering about our own dislikes while running and top of the list was sloshing reservoirs. We all had the habit of turning a pack upside down and trying to suck the air out of it so it wouldn’t slosh. I said aloud, gee, wouldn’t it be great if somebody came up with a de-sloosh or burping mechanism? (hint hint)

In other apparel observations: One runner, looked rather tattered, had on an a pair of long-ish shorts that had a great selection of low-set pockets. As I fetched his arm and looked him in the eye to see if he was OK, I said, “Great pockets on those shorts.” He popped to attention, turned to me and said, “Yeah! Patagonia!” Wow, that woke him up!

There was also a wide acceptance of electrolyte tabs that you drop into water, but not any tab --- rather, specifically Nuun tabs. They were fished out of packs and pockets and we obligingly dropped them into bottles. But in most cases not even a whole tab… Take note… Most wanted just a half-tab. Thank goodness they are easily split.

What else did we see that begged for invention?
>> Folks stick ice cubes UNDER their hats. Problem is, that melts too quickly. We’ve seen hats with pockets but often the rest of the hat kinda sucks and the pocket is too hard to get to. (Hint hint)
>> You can’t have enough pockets out there. And we need more shorts with nice big pockets that are low enough on your hips to accommodate also wearing a belt or pack. Too often the pockets are side-slit and that doesn’t work well or keep stuff in them. or they are teeny cute zippered things on the low of the back that are, frankly, pretty useless.
>> Better gaiters…With the dust and dirt, gaiters are mandatory but most are just not made for easy sleek wear and quick on and off… except Dirty Girl, which SNEWS has worn and reviewed. Forget systems where you have to have X shoe to go with X gaiter, since that’s too limited. We need ones that go with any shoe. Anybody?
>> Wicking shirts are dandy but in this sort of event you want to STAY wet and breathe. How well I know. I overheated in 2006 on my climb up to Devil’s Thumb, ended up with slight heat illness and nearly didn’t move on to the finish. I was wearing a nylon shirt that despite soaking it in the creek at the bottom had quickly dried. We need (heck, any gardener or others who go outside needs) shirts that have a high collar (or one that can flip up) with long baggy sleeves (perhaps with a mesh insert for venting) and the ability to leave it hanging or tie it up with a front that can be left open for more venting. How about it?

Of course, maybe we also need little privacy booths for some runners. I stumbled across a runner sitting in a chair behind the food tables and off the path when I went looking for my own water bottle. I asked him if he needed any help since he was sitting there with his shoes off and bandages and pins lying all around him. No, he said curtly. I said, well, if you have blisters, I bet the medical staff could help you out and get you out more quickly. “I want privacy,” he said glaring at me. Okey dokey then… I slithered away and wondered to myself how he managed to pee and take care of “other business” along a trail. Did he call his sherpas to set up a tent for him? After about 20 minutes we saw him still sitting and fiddling with his feet. Sadly, his number was not on the finishers’ list.

In other entertainment, local runner Bill Finkbeiner, 53, ambled in casually, looking tired but pretty together as he aimed for his 15th finish. Having run with him in the past, I knew he had a hidden talent: having memorized Pi to a few hundred decimals, which he will recite at a moment’s notice. For those of us who have better uses for quickly diminishing memory space, Pi is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space (I had to look that up). As he sponged off with his head dipped low over the ground, I walked up behind him and asked, “So, Bill, how many digits of Pi can you recite now?” Without hesitating the shortest of nano-seconds, he started rattling numbers as his head stayed low over the water bucket. At the end of a quick spew, he ended with a deep breath and announced for the gaping crowd: “…and that was 50.”

Not everybody is brain-dead when they get to Devil’s Thumb.

Note: In this year’s run, presented by Montrail, 238 of 399 starters finished for a relatively low rate of 59.6 percent. For those not in the know, the Western States 100 run starts at Squaw Valley and ends in Auburn, to the west and a number of valleys and mountains later. The trail ascends from the Squaw Valley floor (elevation 6,200 feet) to Emigrant Pass (elevation 8,750 feet), a climb of 2,550 vertical feet in the first 4½ miles. From the pass, following the original trails used by the gold and silver miners of the 1850’s, runners travel west, climbing another 15,540 feet and descending 22,970 feet before reaching Auburn. Most of the trail passes through remote and rugged territory, accessible only to hikers, horses and helicopters.

In memoriam: Dan Moores, owner of the Auburn Running Company store in the finish city of the race and a two-time race finisher, passed away June 24 after a seven-month battle with leukemia. Moores, who had opened the store in 2004 and whose face and business became a hallmark for area runners, finished the run in 2006 and 2007. He was feeling better after a bone marrow transplant but the cancer came back in late May. He will be sadly missed.

You are more important than “just a….”

Lately, in the course of phone calls to various companies and in emails, I have had folks respond to a question I’ve asked with, “I’m just a…” (fill in the blank e.g. intern, receptionist, sales rep, warehouse employee, stocker, cashier, delivery person, etc.)

“I am just a…” What does that mean, really? Isn’t everyone more important than “just a” something or other. Shouldn’t everyone, from a salesperson to a receptionist to a janitor to an intern, feel more pride in their job and feel more importance than to be inspired to describe themselves as “just a…” i.e. implying they have no power and aren’t important or knowledgeable enough to help us or answer a question?

I would argue that at no time should anyone ever say they are “just a” when referring to anything they do. Every job is important to a company, or they would not have the job in the first place. Henceforth, each employee (and, yes, intern) is important, just as the way each performs his or her job is, and each should take pride in that job since each carries just as much weight and import as the CEO’s – albeit on a slightly different pay scale.

We’ve witnessed many companies collapse under the weight of poor morale and weak employee performance, often because too many members of the team thought of their job as “just a…”

Next time you have occasion to describe what it is you do, swell your chest a bit, and say with pride, “I’m an intern,” or “I’m a cashier,” or “I’m on the night shift clean-up crew.” You are important to your company. You are, quite simply, important. And the sooner you begin acting like it, and believing it, and understanding why it is you are important, the better you will begin to feel about all of the things you do. And, your performance at work, and in life, will become a living monument to your contributions. Make every minute count.

SNEWS View: Industry needs to avoid finger-pointing, witch-hunting in treadmill tragedy

In the hours and days after Mike Tyson’s 4-year-old died tragically on May 26 by strangling on a cord hanging off a home treadmill, the industry seems to have decided that a frenzy of finger-pointing and witch-hunting is the best response.

Not only does this need to stop … now … the industry needs instead to use this accident as an impetus to band together and to educate the public about quality equipment, appropriate use and safety standards. It doesn’t matter whose machine it was. A child died on a treadmill. That singular fact affects everyone that sells treadmills unless we -- and by “we” SNEWS® means the collective fitness industry -- stand together to mourn a tragic loss, and find ways to ensure this kind of thing cannot happen again.

>> Forget finger-pointing. It does not matter what brand the treadmill in question was. It could have frankly happened on any brand. It was a fluke, a terribly tragic accident that could have occurred with any piece of equipment not appropriately locked-down to protect against curious kids. Any witch-hunting-like behavior is way below the industry. Let’s show we are more mature than that and work together to arrive at a solution that helps the industry....

>> To read the rest of this editorial on SNEWS, click here.
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Whatever happened to valuing time away from work?

There’s a long weekend ahead of us – Memorial Day. For me, it is three days of not answering my email, checking into the office, opening my laptop, or otherwise thinking about work.

I shared that with a friend today, after she told me she’d be able to get an answer to a question I had for a story I was working on by Sunday or Monday morning latest. While the key executives were not in the office on Friday, they were certainly checking their emails and computers over the long weekend she told me.

I told her not to worry about working the weekend…I wouldn’t see her email anyway as I was certainly not working myself until Tuesday morning. She appeared incredulous, and essentially told me she’d never be able to do that – not check the email or work over a weekend or holiday.

In fact, after I informed a few other colleagues to get in touch with me regarding various business dealings on Tuesday, not over the long weekend, each responded, in their own way, that taking time off for them just was not possible. Each had a litany of reasons – editors’ deadlines, work deadlines, boss pressure, etc. There just was not enough time to take leisure time, let alone enjoy a three-day weekend away from work each told me.

I beg to disagree. It comes down to choice.

This is one of the many things I learned from my father, though I’ve just recently been putting the lessons into action: No matter how much you do in a day, in a week, in a month, there will always be more for you to do and people who will be asking you to do more. Balance in your life is achieved only when you and you alone determine how you choose to apportion your time. And in so doing, realize that personal time and space, as well as time for your family are not optional minutes to play with. They should be carved out each day before making any decisions on how to spend the rest of your time.

Finding time to take time applies to us all. My long-term creative energies, passions, imagination, and health depend on it. I would suspect yours do too, whether you choose to acknowledge that now or not.

If your days are so full that you feel you cannot carve out time to listen to birds, watch a sunset, revel in the sound of a bubbling stream or the laughter of little ones, walk with a loved one, or simply sit and let your mind wander creatively, then your days are too full of things that don’t really matter in the long run.

This is not to say don’t work hard. I am often in the office at 7:30 a.m on weekdays, and frequently don’t leave until 6:30 p.m. or later. And this is definitely not to say I have not had to learn to let go so that I can take time. I have heard all the arguments for working instead of taking time to play. I’ve used many of them myself and at one time you could say I was the poster child for working incessantly with no time for anything other than a deadline or something to do with work.

But my father planted the seeds of change for me just a few years before he passed away in 2007. You see, instead of taking a day to be with my dad on a holiday, I felt I needed to work. So I begged off on a visit and on a promised walk. This was not the first time, and my father knew it would not be the last. Instead of lecturing or trying to change my mind, my father gently told me “No matter how much you do in a day, there will always be more for you to do and someone else asking you to do it…finding balance in your life is a choice only you can make.”

I’m now left with the memory of too many walks I missed with my father because I was, in my mind, too busy to take the time. Personal time and space, as well as time for your family are not optional minutes to play with. They should be carved out each day before making any decisions on how to spend the rest of your time. It took me until last year to learn that lesson well.

So, this weekend, you won’t find me on email or twittering and tweeting or otherwise working. Instead, I’ll be helping neighbors build some mailboxes, playing ball with my dog, going on walks, working in the garden with my wife, and, too, likely spending some quality time sitting quietly by our stream either reading or just letting the water flow by, filling my mind with creative energy. Sure, I have plenty of deadline work to do that could fill nearly every minute of my weekend,…but it will still be there Tuesday, no more or less important than before. It will wait. My life won’t.

Know thy media…please?

PR is tough! And, it is one job we at SNEWS® can state unequivocally we would not want to undertake. To borrow a few lines from one of our SNEWS PR Awards articles from 2002, “A good PR contact is worth his or her weight in gold to a journalist, and, of course, to the company he or she represents. We media admire all the effort and energy that good PR communication requires, especially when you have to deal with so many whiny, self-centered, ‘I need it yesterday’ people like journalists -- yeah, we're talking about ourselves, the collective media. Of course, we just as quickly despise those who waste our time with worthless drivel and reams of meaningless paper or useless promotions.”

But just as a writer needs to know how to tailor an article to suit a particular magazine’s audience, subject matter or interests, the same holds true for PR: PR agents must know the media, its audiences and needs where they are pitching story ideas. It is not one-size-fits-all. Forgetting this leads to very bad experiences for the PR agent, the publication, and quite likely, the writer very often caught in the middle. And could also lead to less good press for a company.

Recently, the SNEWS team had a new freelancer take on a pretty basic short story, highlighting two to three new and innovative products that retailers might be interested in for the coming year. She was new, but the PR agent for one company she was dealing with was not. However that agent appears to have forgotten she was dealing with a trade magazine, not a consumer one. As a result, the story came in with one of the featured products actually being nearly five years old and not at all new. After a few back and forth communications with the writer, who was naturally frustrated that she might have wasted her time writing up a product that was clearly not new, we decided to contact the PR agent.

When we asked her why she pitched an older product to our writer when she was asked for fresh information – and she of course must know who we were and what we’d want anyway -- we enjoyed the following exchange:

1. Instead of apologizing, she decided her best tact would be to defend her position by telling us, “I'm certain the X Product falls under this requirement…” Let’s see… We request a new and innovative product and we are a trade magazine that seeks details and technical information. So, you decide that a five-year-old product fits our requirements of delivering information retailers might care about as new and innovative? We were truly perplexed trying to figure this out.
2. Then, she raised the ante by deciding we as media clearly don’t know what we ourselves wanted and that we obviously had no idea about other media outlets. So she decided to lecture us a bit by emailing, “To remind you, these are the X that were just featured in USA Today, which is one of the leading news publications in the country.” Gosh, golly, bumpkins that we are, guess she thought we’d never heard of USA Today. And as for using that plug by USA Today to justify why that product should be important to us and our readers, we refer you to our April 24, 2009, editorial in SNEWS -- SNEWS View: But the New York Times gave it a great review…

End result? We have cut the product from the article. We paid the writer for work she completed, but basically we paid her for work that won’t be published. So we wasted our time and money too. None of that is great for the writer, ourselves or the company. But the kicker is, we will now avoid dealing with this PR person as much as possible. She obviously doesn’t understand our needs, nor has she tried. And we’ll just be forced to go around her anytime we need any sort of information from the company that is accurate, believable, and appropriate for our audience. Now that just isn’t good PR for anyone.

Platinum level customer service creates customer for life

How often do you deal with a store or retailer and end up wanting to holler from the rooftops how wonderful the place is? Yeah, that’s what I thought…likely far less than you’d like.

I had a rooftop-hollering wonderful experience recently with a non-sports retailer -- The Container Store, to be exact. I have been in and out of the store in San Francisco numerous times over about three years, sizing up closet systems and doing some casual planning but frankly had never spent a cent. Nevertheless, every single time I was helped most graciously by smiling, friendly and happy people who knew their stuff when it came to what was sold and how it functioned and were always ready to offer advice and tips. These were people who made me feel, one, welcome and, two, oh-so-special – even though all I was ever doing was pestering with questions, grabbing catalogs and taking notes about sizes and prices.

Then the time came to buy and, not being in an area with one of the stores, I went online to try the company’s closet design service. During the process I talked to four separate designers and customer service reps in the Texas office and all were delightful, funny, casual, relaxed, very knowledgeable and, again despite a zillion questions, were always patient and friendly in discussing my needs. I always hung up with a smile, feeling – here we go again – quite special.

The redesigns of my closet organization system were prompt and the answers to questions were invariably something prefaced with, “Why yes, no problem!”

The kicker for me was the final call on a late Saturday afternoon to actually place the order. My calls had always been answered promptly, but this one, likely being a weekend, had me on hold for about 10 minutes. Then “Bobbie” answered, sounding as cheery and bright as all the others had been. We had just started the process of confirming the order when I passed through a dead cell phone zone (my husband was driving, not me). DANG! The call was disconnected. Now I’d have to queue back up again! I sat staring at my phone and said aloud to my husband, “Now wouldn’t it be just so like the service I’ve had so far for them to call me back.” Right on cue, my phone rang. And there was Bobbie, saying cheerily how she didn’t want to have me wait on hold again so she called me back.

That’s me you hear on the rooftop yelling. My friends, this is customer service and this is why some stores earn customer loyalty while others just go on providing lip service to the topic.

The customer is NOT always right…. Wait, can that be true?

“The customer is always right” is a term that some trace back to Harry Gordon Selfridge, founder of London department store Selfridge’s in the early 1900s. That phrase has been bantered about to prove to customers that they will always receive stellar service and to encourage employees to, well, treat the customer like family. But, let’s face it – when are family members always right?

To me, the phrase "the customer is always right" really means it is up to businesses to discern what is right for each customer so they feel right -- either buying or returning product. That means, tweaking the phrase a bit to "listening to the customer is always right." No one likes to be wrong. But even worse, no one likes ending up with the wrong product, simply because a sales person was too afraid to guide or to disagree with a customer.

When I was living in San Jose and working as the general manager of Western Mountaineering, I had occasion to shop at men’s clothier Eli Thomas – a “purveyor” of fine suits (and they did use the word “purveyor,” thank you very much). Those who know me are already raising their eyebrows in amazement – Hodgson and fine threads are not commonly associated to be sure. However, every time I went into that store, which wasn’t all too often, and no matter what my purchase was, whether big or small, I always left feeling right about it, good about it, and happy with my time there.

On one particular shopping trip, I needed some dress pants. I wanted linen pants as I had tried some on a few weeks before at another store and they looked and felt great! I nearly bought them at the time, and the salesperson at that other store was clearly eager to ring up a $$ purchase. Instead, I decided to look at what Eli’s offered. And, once there, I told the salesperson what I was looking for. He smiled, and knowing a little bit about me from previous trips into the store, promptly told me I did not want linen pants. But I did, I assured him. He again said, no, you really don’t. “You want the look of linen, but the care of linen is very difficult,” he said. “You want pants that look and feel like linen, but you want to be able to throw them in the washing machine along with everything else and not worry about them if you are really going to enjoy them.” And he was right. I did not want the care and feeding that goes with linen, I just wanted the linen look. Had I ended up with the linen pants, I would have felt great about the purchase until the first time I had to clean them and iron them.

More recently, while performing my duties as a mystery shopper at a fitness store, I walked in holding the latest treadmill reviews from a Runner’s World magazine. I knew what I wanted, and it was right there in color on the pages inside the review. Armed with knowledge, I felt I was right about all the bells and whistles I needed. As a result, it could have been a simple sale to match me up with the more expensive treadmill I gravitated to in the store. Thankfully, the savvy salesperson was more concerned with listening to what I needed than in my being “right.” Click here to read the 2007 Mystery Shopper story in SNEWS®. If I’d been a real shopper, I would have ended up with a less expensive, more basic treadmill, sans all the flashing lights and features touted in Runner’s World, which were the one’s I thought I wanted. I suspect again I would have felt so right about being wrong. And I’m so glad I was told otherwise.

Sometimes, the customer is not always right, but it’s a salesperson’s job to guide the customer into a right decision – gently, assuredly. If a customer leaves your store feeling right about going in, then you’ve succeeded in the true meaning of “the customer is always right.” That’s what customer service is about.