Another downside of the headphones  was Sony’s choice of colour, they were orange which made it easy for muggers to see you coming as in their day the Walkman was a highly prized piece of hardware ! On the upside the Walkman could also double as a weapon, used for protection purposes only mind you, (remember my previous analogy reference the resemblance to a brick.) and it at least made the battle between the jogger and  mugger an interesting one with many a mugger coming off second best. Also, because the sound quality was so bad, it was still usable after it had been in battle as the sound was still likened to listening to music under water.

As you can see below the headphones of Jaybird have come on recently and with the new 2017 ‘run’ versions you can now feel comfortable as you run past your local neighborhood mugger as he will have no idea you have an expensive piece of retail hardware hidden in your inner ear, Jaybird even made them black, probably learning from the Sony Walkman’s mistakes.  As the name suggests with these bad boys in your ears you can actually run and still listen to your music/podcast of choice, no more jogging.  As well as fitting snuggly in your ear they are touch sensitive and perform a variety of functions. On both my runs so far I have had no issues with these headphones slipping out of place and you wouldn’t know they were in your ear, how technology has moved on.

Right, the test run(s).  I did mention to the Jaybird rep that I normally don’t use headphones or listen to music when I run but was willing  to give their product a try. As I’m currently struggling with a bad dose of Plantar Fasciitis at the moment  I am forced to run around  in circles on grass ovals to protect the foot and these runs are challenging to say the least, listening to music or podcasts would  seem to be a perfect solution to the boredom of running slow laps. With this in mind I decided to also up the ante, so to speak , and run at the night with just a head torch for company, making the run even more monotonous.  I decided to start my 10k run with a marathon talk podcast ( https://marathontalk.com/ ) of Steve Way’s top three Comrades finish. ( If you’re an ultra-runner you need to run Comrades, it really is that simple… http://www.comrades.com ) I plodded along for 5k listening to the interview and was pleasantly surprised how the time and distance passed by, a lot better than just me and my thoughts. Next I thought I’d spice things up a bit and selected a podcast of running music. I download an episode called ‘Between Us- Progressive Trance – 128 bm’s Throwback Thursday Mix,’ from ‘Running to the beat’ podcast.  This proved a mistake as I am certainly not a ‘trance’ fan, whatever that is (I am assuming it sounds better with drugs and I would also assume you would need a shed load!) but the quality of the music was superb. The headphones themselves were excellent, great sound quality and a snug fit, all you could ask for really. I couldn’t fault them, the music I chose , well that was a complete disaster,  I think next time I shall be selecting a few Sprinsteen songs with ‘Born to Run’ an obvious choice.

The Jaybird Run wireless headphones fitted snuggly in my ears straight out of the box but they do come with a smorgasbord of accessories to tailor the fit to the many different sizes of ear.  The ear, and nose, as they are made up of cartilage, continue to grow throughout your life thus if you intend on keeping your run wireless headphones for some time I would suggest you keep all the accessories because over time you are going to need them.

The charging case is very, very cool and compact. A good thing as the headphones are so small and certainly have that ‘these will disappear very easily’ look about them. On one of my test runs I was running in the dark and at the finish had to walk to the car in virtual darkness, I was very aware of making sure I held the earphones tightly as dropping one could prove expensive. (I notice they do sell them singularly on the website so it looks like they do go missing…)

So, to conclude, am I a convert, yes I think I am. For solo runs where the beauty of the scenery is not there, or for monotonous loop runs, these headphones can make the running experience a lot more enjoyable and, with the right music choice, maybe even faster. I remember I ran the Melbourne Marathon in 2012 with my friend Dan ‘man with a plan’ Macey who downloaded a soundtrack with 90 beats per minute, he used this to run his first sub 3. He swore the soundtrack helped him keep his pace right to the end of the race. I’ve never tried this as when I’m racing I’m also talking to people around me , and the crowd, but that’s just me. If you do intend to use the Jaybird Run wireless headphones in a race make sure you check with the organisers that they are allowed, normally you are fine but better safe than sorry.

If you need more information check out their website for more information and cool videos .. https://www.jaybirdsport.com