Endurance Shield Sunscreen

Last month I was asked by Endurance Shield to test out their SPF 45 Sunscreen. I was unfamilliar with the company and product however I was thrilled. I can't deny that there have been times that I go out for 2, 3, 4 hour runs without sunscreen on my face. I know! I know! It's terrible, awful and I should never do that. It's just that all the "sport" sunscreens I have tried all get on my nerves during long runs. There is always a smell to them that will never go away so then I'm stuck with this annoying sun block smell the entire run. My other problem is as I start sweating, I can feel the lotion dripping down my face. Not only is it literally sweating off my face but then it ends up in my eyes as well. Sometimes I still end up with sunburn in addition to the burning eyes. I can't stand it! After reading the Endurance Shield website, I was very excited to give it a try. Their sunscreen is made from ingredients such as aloe, cucumber extract, grape seed extract and sunflower seed (see full list here) Their products were also created by professional triathletes so I was thinking that they probably had most of the same problems I had with sun lotions and would have created their product with those issues in mind.

Lucky for me, Endurance Shield arrived in my mailbox the day before we were leaving for California to run our first 100K. Even though I know it's not recommeded to try something new on race day, I just had this feeling that I would not regret using it for my race. And I was right! I put the Endurance Shield sunscreen on my face, shoulders and arms around 5:30am as my race was to start at 6. As soon as I put some in my hand to spread around, I caught a whiff of light, airy, crisp niceness. It smelled more like a refreshing moisturizer than a sunblock but a very light airy one, not very strong at all. I noticed the consistency was fairly thin and easy to spread and rub into your skin. I felt like I was moisturizing my skin rather than the typical super thick goupy sunblock that tends to dry skin out. It absorbed into my skin quickly and very nicely, there was no residue on my hands at all. Honestly after that initial application, I completely forgot that I had it on the rest of the day. During almost 13 hours of running, I never once smelled it, I had no stinging in my eyes and no sunburn or evidence that I had been out in the sun for almost 13 hours. I was literally in shock since temps had risen to the 90s that day and I was definitely sweating for the majority of those 13 hours. If I had been wearing any of my other sport sunblocks, I definitely would have had to reapply or have had some type of evidence of sun exposure. Of course, being the nice wife that I am, I did share it with Emir who was equally impressed.

After my experience at the 100K, I actually get kind of excited to use Endurance Shield before heading out on all my long runs (nerd!). It's so important to protect our skin in the sun and even though I wasn't doing a good job of that, it wasn't because I didn't care. It was because I just didn't have something I was comfortable using and that I felt was effective enough that it was worth the discomfort. Endurance Shield is not only extremely effective but there is no compromise, it is something that feels so nice when you put it on. It makes me want to just use it all the time even if it wasn't protecting me from the sun. And because it is so non-irritating and so protective, I have also felt confident using it on my kids as well. It might be a bit more expensive than some other sunscreens out there, but it's definitely worth it. And during the course of my testing I have found that just a little bit of Endurance Shield sunscreen goes a long way. It doesn't take much to get good coverage therefore a bottle of Endurance Shield will last much longer than some other brands.