Never forget essential running gear again with Packing Pro!

Several years ago when we developed Tribal Running we put together a checklist which we made available to all of our members for downloading which helped runners pack all that essential running gear so they didn’t go to a race and realize the charging unit for their Garmin watch was sitting home on the dresser and their watch currently had limited power. Now with the invention of apps for all our tablets and our smartphones the paper checklist has been made a thing of the past and replaced with fairly versatile computer checklists that can be easily modified and used over and over again.

There are a number of apps on the market and being a frequent traveler I have tried many but the one I settled on that has helped me extensively in packing for my trips is Packing Pro by QuinnScape. It currently appears only to be available for the iphone/ipad but if you are running one of these two items you may want to check this out. The app costs $2.99 in the App Store. National Geographic chose it as one of the best travel apps for the iphone, CNN lists it as one of the 10 best travel apps ever.

There is so much running gear that runners can take with them on a race it is easy to forget some essential item and a packing list geared to runners can really make a difference. What we did was took our runners checklist of a few years ago and created a packing checklist that works with Packing Pro. If you are interested in receiving our checklist template for free simply sign up for our monthly newsletter at this address: http://eepurl.com/vrB9j and  we will send you the file in our next monthly newsletter(note you must purchase Packing Pro from the app store separately for the checklist template to work). The checklist is fairly comprehensive but was developed with all runners in mind, so once you download the template and install it in Packing Pro you can choose to delete items that are not applicable to you. The list also gives you the ability to change the quantities. In our template you will see we only list 1 of every item but if you travel with three pairs of socks you can easily change that to three in your list.

Installing our Running Gear Packing Pro template

Once you have installed Packing Pro on your iphone or iPad simply open up the email sent from RunGoddess. There should be an attachment called Running Gear.packinglist, simply click on it and your iphone/ipad should show you the apps you can open the list with. Choose the one that says “Open in Packing Pro.”  You should then receive a message that the import was successful and whether to go there now, then press OK and our Running Gear Checklist will be installed.

Using our Running Gear Checklist and Some Quick Customizations

Packing Pro is extremely versatile and you should learn about its many features to get the most out of it. In our list you will see a number of triangles to the left hand side. By pressing on a triangle opens up the list below. As an example, if you look at the Clothing category you will see 0/17 next to it. This means that in the sub-list for clothes there are 17 items and you have not checked any off. This will help you keep track of what you have packed and what you have not. Clicking on a triangle opens up the list. As you pack items simply tick the item off by pressing on the square box to the left. Try it now click the square box next to the item that says arm sleeves, did you see a green check mark appear, did you see the number above of 0/17 now go to 1/17. To remove the checklist simply press on the check mark again

Deleting running gear that you don’t own or would never pack

So as an example in my case, I don’t own or wear a running skirt. While they look quite fashionable most men don’t fair well in them. So using the Running Skirt as an example, if you slide your finger from left to right over the quantity of 1 the Delete button appears. Select Delete to get rid of the item. Your list which was previously showing 1/17 now shows 1/16. So you can go through our Running list template and delete all the items that are not particular to you. Another thing you can do, is choose another item from the clothing list, lets choose “tights” Simply press lightly to the right of the words “Tights” and the List Item Detail screen appears. Here you can change the name if you would like to call it something else or make it more descriptive.You can increase the quantity number if you pack more than a single item. When you have made the necessary changes click the Save button in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

If you go through our list and believe their are items that we have not included please leave us a note in the comments section below so that we can add to a future update. All updates to the Running List will be detailed in our monthly newsletter.