Your Skratch Labs Ambassador

Thank you to every one of you who read my musings about Skratch Labs and redeemed the promotional code.  It has been such a success that two things happened:

One, they are deactivating the code after September 30th.  I want to think it’s because I’m cleaning them out, but in truth it’s being turned off in order to allow Skratch to maintain favorable terms with dealers.  This is essential to getting the product to your corner of the universe and keeping it there.  We all want this.

Two, they have selected me to be one of a handful of ambassadors nationwide for Skratch Labs.  I came home from work the other day to a box loaded to the seams full of Skratch merchandise.  At every ‘cross race in the greater NH/MA area I can get to this season, I’ll have loads of samples, plus I’m planning to work in product and merchandise for race primes and prizes.  Whoever wins the pound of Pineapple, you are the luckiest individual alive.  It’s the greatest flavor so far.  I’m trying hard not to swipe it for myself.

Skratch is one of those companies that was so easy for me to really believe in.  As some of you know, I was sponsored by nuun for several seasons, but as my interest and awareness of food began to develop at the same time, it resulted in an unavoidable moral collision for me.  That product, I now understood, was not the embodiment of how I select foods and how I try to eat.

Food preservatives, artificial sweeteners for example are absolute red lights as I read labels.  Kristen really started me down this path when she read Jillian Michaels’ first book, Master Your Metabolism.  She espoused the values in the book and convinced me to read it, which culminated in other books and films and a general consciousness of the kinds of shit we as Americans put into ourselves.  I encourage you to go down this road yourself.  The film Food Inc. was probably our single greatest catalyst for change.

Skratch embodies the kind of whole food values we try to maintain in our household.  In developing drink mixes and recipes grounded not only in science, but in simplicity, without introducing the additives found in mass-market products, I as an athlete can feel like I am giving myself the very best chance to succeed, with the most sensible ingredients possible.  Ingredients that have been not only tested at a professional level, but preferred by those professionals over their own sponsored alternatives.  Think about that.  Allen Lim’s drink mix was used by teams, in covert fashion, where riders were supposed to be using some other sponsored beverage.  That tells you everything you need to know.

Lim is a purely inspirational business owner.  You need to watch this video of his TEDx appearance from last
April.

So for the near future, that’s what’s going on with me, and Skratch Labs.  Enjoy yourselves out there, and if you see me at a race, insist I give you a sample or two.  I’ll usually be carrying around a musette full of ’em.  When I know more good stuff worth passing along, you’ll read it here.

ALLEZ