The Badwater 135 race kicks off today… For those of you who are unaware of this unique torture, the race takes runners on a 135-mile journey through Death Valley in the heat of the summer. There’s a lot of different stuff happening this year compared to previous years after last year’s event couldn’t even go through the park as it usually did. Some of the significant changes this year are: a new night start instead of a morning start so runners are running through the night hours so runners are above 2000 feet elevation by 10 am (to avoid the highest heat), runners can only have one support vehicle and the event has to take place during a full moon. [Change details]

Another change this year is the addition of title sponsor Nutrimatix. And since I owe you (and Nutrimatix) a review of their product, I figured the timing to coincide with Badwater was as good of time as any!

Disclaimer: This means I was a sent a product for free to review.

Nutrimatix is a vitamin drink packet.

When combined with a glass of water, it turns into a tasty orange beverage. Kind of like Tang. (Mmmm…. Tang. Like the astronauts drink!) Okay, I haven’t had Tang to drink since sometime in the 1980’s… so this is based on my vague recollection of what Tang tasted like.

That makes it sound so simple, huh? But it’s pretty much WAY MORE than that.

So while yes, Nutrimatix is a vitamin drink packet, it’s also a CUSTOM blend. And how is that blend determined?

The user downloads the Nutrimatix app. (iOS and Android) The first step it offers is to connect a tracker/platform/app to share your fitness habits with the app. This step can be skipped if there is no tracker available. But the services you can connect to as of this writing: Strava, RunKeeper, Dailymile, MapMyRun, Fitbit, Jawbone, MapMyRide, Withings.

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Next step is to add your basic measurements of gender, age, height and weight.

Then we move onto a questionnaire. It asks about your dietary habits/preference. It asks about your smoking/alcohol/caffeine habits. Do you have joint discomfort? Are you training for an event? Sleep, mental energy, physical energy, stress, and more… The questionnaire covers a wide range of topics, but it’s very easy to answer as the interface is easy to use, and the answers are all multiple choice.

So after all this, it evaluates everything and spits out results just for you. The app even took into account my location to determine that I probably don’t have a Vitamin D deficiency due to my “location below the 37th parallel” and it adjusted my formula to account for that. It gives explanations for why the questions were asked and how that can play a role in your health. And it delivers a list of nutrients that are to be placed in your blend, complete with an explanation of why that item was included, uses, and possible side effects.

 

Honestly, the whole thing fascinates me. Both the sports nutrition nut and the geek sides of me are satisfied with this experience. I mean… it’s a drink that uses an APP to make a blend that is designed for an individual. And that app ties into other apps to gather a more complete picture. That just really makes my inner-nerd-girl giddy!

Once you’ve got your blend, it comes time to order. The packets are dairy, soy, nut, artificial sweetener and artificial coloring free. They are made in a pharmaceutical-grade facility in the US. They’re vegan, non-GMO, gluten-free… pretty much everything people might look for.

The price? $48 for a 4 week supply. But the more weeks you buy, the more you can save. (12 week supply, you save 6%, 24 weeks = 12% savings, 48 weeks = 24% savings). Although, my shipment came in a fancy-pants box. If they could chop some of the price off by sending the packets to me just loose in a box, or shoved in a zip-top bag… I would be fine with that! The box loses its WOW factor after the first couple openings.

I’m very tempted to purchase more… but my inner cheapskate is fighting that. I’m sure if I add up all of the costs of taking supplements and replace it with this it would balance out or possibly be more cost-effective. Also, it seems that perhaps you wouldn’t want to order too many weeks in advance in case your goals changed. What if you were training for a marathon, but then in 3 months you were going to be done with that and wanted to focus on weights? I’m sure the nutrients it recommends would change.

That said, I’m fascinated by this approach, and they’ve done a great job with their app, as well as with their product. With their new title-sponsorship for the Badwater 135, it appears they’re moving up in the industry and want to make themselves known with endurance athletes, especially those tackling the BIG stuff.

Check them out, download the free app and play around with it. It’s fascinating to see what is recommended and why!

Final Disclosure: I was sent a box of Nutrimatix drink packets for free to review on the site. The words posted here are, as always, my own.