This is not sponsored it’s just a rave! After every runner buys sneakers their very next purchase should be road ID. It’s cheap, high quality, lasts a lifetime and might just help save your life. We all buy things we hope we never need, insurance (used the hell out of that already this year), smoke detector batteries and fire extinguishers (mine has a recall so I have to take it in) but I digress. Road ID is wearable, virtually undetectable while you’re working out and can relay tonnes of important information to those that need it most when you can’t. If you’ve been reading on here for a while you might have already noticed I’m a little on the cheap side, okay a lot, but this is worth it! Basically it’s wearable contact information that can link to pretty much your entire medical history it’s up to you! Since my ID’s have other people’s contact information on them I won’t be sharing unobscured pictures of them but there are lots from the site too. Seriously consider this and seriously read on!
How I got here
I used to be an idiot, there I said it, but weren’t we all when we were younger? When I took up mountain biking I often went on my own I had an analogue cell phone and almost no one else did. It didn’t really matter because there was no coverage outside the city. Sometimes I didn’t even tell anyone I was going, stupid girl right? Hey I was young and invincible then, at least I thought I was and really there wasn’t any saving me anyway. I did the same thing when I was running and never ran with my phone until … 2011 when I got an iPhone. I still didn’t run with traditional ID because I don’t want to loose it, read on.
Then I got older, I started to notice just how often someone almost hit me in a crosswalk, actually I once got hit in a crosswalk but I wasn’t running. My city gained infamy for car pedestrian collisions 1:1700 residents can expect to be hit by a car in a given year! I had to go to the hospital for the first time to get 7 stitches, again not running related but I realized that if I’m hurt even slightly I want someone there to hold my hand and wipe my tears. I noticed just how littered the ditches are with alcohol empties. Finally a cyclist was hit by a truck and seriously injured in my little town and the driver fled. He was left in a wheelchair and that REALLY freaked me out.
I started thinking about what might go wrong what series of events might conspire to leave me injured or worse and all alone out there. Would it be a drunk driver at night or first thing in the morning who would take off. That’s what I suspect happened to the cyclist. Would it be a drives where they look senior who was afraid of loosing their licence who would leave me. What if someone did call and I got rushed to the hospital no one would even know who I was, I would be a Jane Doe, no one would hold my hand, tell me it was going to be okay or buy me candy and flowers. Joking aside I was really, Really freaked out. I spend well over 1000 km running, at least that much cycling and swim most nights in the summer getting fit in the wide and suddenly scary world. I talked about it all the time for a while and of course I kept my emergency contact info up to date on my phone and watch. I even added my mom.
The always honest but not always reassuring fiancé pointed out that if someone was criminal enough to hit me and leave they would probably take my phone and watch too or they would get broken. Thanks for that honey. That being said he wasn’t as concerned with that as I was, but he wasn’t wrong and in all my googling I had found out about road ID at that point, but I didn’t buy it yet… First I made my own contact cards and laminated them with tape. Richard suggested no one would look under the insole in my shoe or take my bike in the ambulance with me, thanks again honey! So I put them in both hydration belts and made a rubber band bracelet. If they weren’t there all the time I knew I would forget them. And it worked great for exactly one run, on the second one I saw my card with other people’s personal info lying on the side of the road the next day, so that wasn’t going to work.
About Road ID
The pictures on here are pretty self explanatory its a K.I.S.S. product, keep it simple stupid. It’s wearable contact and medical information that you cannot help but take with you. It was actually inspired by a dad why was concerned about his marathon training kid. It’s visible, wearable, metal, custom contact info. That’s it, but it’s also genius. They have wrist, ankle, necklace and watchband options but I was most excited about the shoe tags. Should you move or get in a fight with your emergency contact you can just reorder the metal plate with updated information.
You can also order an interactive version which has a unique serial number and pin on the back. A first responder can then access ALL of that information online or by phone should they need to. The beauty of it is that you build your profile and it can have as much or as little as you want on there and edit it as often as you want. There are some crazy testimonials on the website you should check out. My stepdad has had some health issues and my mom is thinking about getting him one just for this reason. I do think that there is a nominal subscription fee for this interactive service though, it’s about $10 a year.
They pride themselves on amazing customer service and I had a funny occasion to test that out unintentionally. I got my mom to order it for me for Christmas and she somehow messed up her e-mail address for the order on her new iPad and the emails went to the wrong Jean, as it turns out an elderly mystery Jean. My phone picked up her email address somehow as my mom’s and it was like who’s on first for a while there. Google who’s on first if you don’t get it for a good laugh. I ended up having to contact the company to straighten it all out and they straight up rocked! Part of every sale goes to a charity and you get to choose which one, nice right!
How I Use Road ID
They have a free shipping cut off and I wanted three shoe tags one for both pairs of my runners and my cycling shoes but that wasn’t quite enough to get me there. Plus I rarely wear shoes while swimming. So I opted for two shoe ID’s and one bracket for biking and swimming. I listed my partner and mom’s cell numbers, my name and NKA (no known allergies) and no medical issues.
I leave the tags on both pairs on my shoes for running and the wrist band by the front door on the key rack for swimming and biking. I picked colours I felt would stand out and be noticed rather than colours I actually like. I literally never notice they are there for a moment. I hope to never ever need it but it’s one of those things if I do, I’ll be happy I have it!
Why You Need it
Reading the testimonial stories on the road ID website is absolutely nuts. It’s literally saved so many lives and much more needles suffering. I wrote a post a long, long time ago about why you should start your fitness journey slow and what can happen if you don’t. If you have any health concerns what so ever this really is a great idea. If you have serious obesity health concerns in particular you’re sort of between a rock and a hard place. If you do nothing, nothing will change and you’ll continue to have those concerns but in the short term getting moving can put you at increased risk. Imagine if you had this product with a full medical history before you ever stepped out the door. It does sound like it would work really well as an advanced or sportier version of a medical alert bracelet too.
If you have people that worry about you out there this might go a long way to putting their minds at ease. It’s one of those things that’s not all that expensive about $20 USD and potentially could last you forever, the new plates are a few bucks less should you want to update the information and new bands are sold separately as well. Even if like me you don’t opt for the interactive version and you have your name and the contact information for your closest peeps on there they can also tell emergency personal any pertinent information too. It’s much better to buy it and never need it than to skip it and wish you had one later.
Do you run, bike or swim with ID all the time. Do you even always carry it otherwise? I don’t always. Was there a time you wish you had a product like this?
Sweat Sweetly 