StrideBox – …and she runs.

This is a classic case of “it’s not you, it’s me.”

I’ve had a StrideBox monthly subscription since last August. That’s when I received my first, exciting both. Since then, I got charged $15 for the box of goodies to come to my mailbox at the beginning of every month. My loot from my July box, which I received late last week, is above.

Last week, I went into the payment module and cancelled my August box and all future boxes.

StrideBox, you’re great, but it’s time we break up.

It’s not that I want to try other services or don’t believe in the value of what was sent. It’s that I picked the wrong 12-month period to be a subscriber. I don’t think I need to explain, but I will.

I received my first StrideBox the same month we found out we were expecting Cecilia.

My running went down tremendously my first trimester of pregnany. I only had “morning sickness” that involved throwing up twice. I felt horrible, generally all day, the rest of the fist 14 weeks or so. I ran so little that not even my stash of favorite Vanilla Bean Gu got used.

So I wasn’t up to trying out new products.

I can’t recall what exactly was in that first StrideBox, but I know I actually tried to use most of the contents. I ate the energy-type bars, which I normally do, but I gave away most of the other stuff, especially stuff which caffeine, which I was avoiding.

The problem is, I kept doing that as the months went on. When my friends stopped taking all the stuff, I ended up with a surplus of StrideBox goodies. A good problem to have? Not necessarily.

I feel bad that for $15 a month, I basically started a collection of running “stuff” that I wasn’t using because I wasn’t running much of anywhere.

When my energy can back during the second trimester and I started running again, though not far, I was still very conscious about what was going in my body. StrideBox never sent me anything I thought would harm the baby. That’s not it at all. I just didn’t want to experiment as I would have likely done if I wasn’t pregnant.

So I tried some things here and there, but generally things started ending up in a nifty shoe bag StrideBox included in one of my orders.

I considered cancelling the subscription in January when I realized, with all the pregnancy complications, that my running time would likely be more limited in the following months.

Then I, essentially, forgot about it.

Every month when I got a box, I’d stack it on top of the previous month’s box.

I had the February, March and April boxes all stacked together when the May box came after baby girl was born. When she was napping in one of those first two weeks after my C-section, I opened them all. I then asked friends if they wanted specific things. I put some away to give to people I knew would benefit from them.

Basically I ended up only using and appreciating 10 percent of the stuff I’d received in the past year.

The rest is still waiting for me.

That’s only a fraction of what I need to get through.

StrideBox sends a mix of really useful and not so useful stuff, depending on the month. (That’s a personal critique. What is useful to me may not be useful to another person and vice versa.) I have arm protectors for the sun from June. I had a running belt from a previous month that I just gave to one of my running buddies.

So when I received my July box and I saw that I received a nifty little water bottle and a bunch of hydration items, which I knew as very similar to last July’s StrideBox, I knew my run had ended.

It was time to cancel, mainly because I had so much stuff that hadn’t been used in he past year.

The $15 a month wasn’t the issue at all, though that does by me two 50 packs of the diaper’s Cecilia is currently wearing. Parent priorities I guess.

I was always impressed with the content of the boxes, but with pregnancy and my slow-going comeback, my happy days of receiving a StrideBox in the mail every month are now over.

It really is me StrideBox. I love this month’s box. I love the cool items that I have got to try. I love that I discovered some new things though you. I’m just not into you as much as I thought I’d be.

Let’s not make it awkward around mutual friends, OK?

Don’t laugh, but I love getting things in the mail. I used to love it as a child too. Anytime something came for me in the mail, it felt like Christmas. There was a very excited moment where I would open it up and check it out.

I’m still that way. Except I usually get bills now. Lots and lots of bills.

Adulthood is a bummer sometimes.

So when I get running-related items in the mail, I am usually just as giddy as I was as a child. One of my particular favorites is getting my Runner’s World magazine every month. I recently stopped my Running Times subscription, just because I was never getting to actually read both magazines, so Runner’s World is my one predictable “prize” in the mail each month.

Or at least it was. In July, I signed up for StrideBox, a monthly subscription box that sends different items that are of interest to runners. There’s usually a gear item, a fueling source and some snacks. And stickers. You have to love the stickers. Plus, it’s only $15 a month. It seemed like a good deal, so last month I signed up and kind of kicked myself for not doing so earlier this year at the Rock ‘n’ Roll Portland Half Marathon.

Earlier this week, I got my first shipment.

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The package fit inside my small-ish secured mailbox, which is already a win. I’m always worried that the mail person will just leave stuff on my doorstep when I’m not home and someone will take it.

The box included a lot of goodies.

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Behold the “loot” upon my first opening. There’s much more jammed into the box that’s not shown, including StrideCool towel, which I have yet to try out. It’s been getting cooler again here. I even wore a long-sleeved shirt on my 6 a.m. run, so I’m hoping to have a warm-run day and be able to use it.

The box for August included:

Package of Island Boost Passion Fruit flavored
Gatorade Lemon Lime Endurance Formula
Gatorade Endurance Chews in Fruit Punch and Orange flavors (two packs)
2nd Surge Ultra Energy Gel in Expresso Flavor
Maple-Glazed Pecan and Sea Salt Kind Bar
Apple Cinnamon Chia Bar
StrideCool Post-Run Cooling Towel

All of that for $15. I added up the price list and saw the towel was valued at $10. The Island Boost is somewhere around $2.50. The Kind Bar is anywhere from $1.50 to $2.

So you get a lot of goods for a really inexpensive price.

I tried the Chia Bar first.

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It was actually really, really good. I’ve never tried a Chia Bar before. I wasn’t too keen on the texture, but I generally have issues with certain food textures. Plus, it was only 100 calories.

Yesterday, I ate the Kind Bar.

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I’m familiar with Kind Bars. I really love the apple cinnamon ones. I started purchasing them earlier this year because for some time I couldn’t digest certain foods thanks to the missing gallbladders. The Kind Bars were just that, kind on my stomach.

I’m most excited about the different fueling options. My stomach has started to act up again, especially since I’ve been running in the morning. Last week during my half marathon, I suddenly had a very upset stomach with my usual Vanilla Bean Gu. I didn’t feel better after the race for hours. It just made for a very uncomfortable day.

I’m hoping to try the Island Boost during my long run this weekend. It’s supposed to be good for sensitive stomachs.

Since I ran out of my Gatorade powder, I’m glad to have the pouch for my long run too.

But who am I kidding, I’m most excited about getting a new little box of goodies to try out every month. I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to get involved in “swaps” on different blogs. I think I just have bad luck, but both that I signed up for didn’t come to fruition. (And one of the blogs was one that had done swaps previously, I just signed up in a month where hardly anyone else did. I don’t know.)

At least for now I’ve have a box of goodies waiting for me in the mailbox as well as my Runner’s World magazine.

Tag: StrideBox

Breaking up with StrideBox

A runner’s mailbox full of goodies