THE INTRO
JOHN: Runners are always seeking the missing pieces to complete the running puzzle. With so many big mysteries (nutrition, hydration, shoes, and clothing) to solve, we deprioritize others we see as less important to the bigger picture. Before receiving the Mojawa Run Plus headphones, I hadn’t run with music or podcasts since 2018. Honestly, I was pretty angry at my headphone options. I got so angry at trying to make them work that in 2018 I punted on them, threw my last pair against a rock, and just decided to simply run with the voices in my head.
I became that guy who was condescending to runners who wore headphones. My girlfriend admits she uses headphones (but thankfully, she still likes me despite my bad attitude). Running with the Mojawa Run Plus has definitely been enlightening for me, and I’m glad to have had this opportunity to revise my stance on headphones.
I’m definitely no scientist, so I’m not going to even remotely pretend I understand how bone conduction headphones work. That said, Mojawa’s CEO, Robin Cao, is a scientist and also an avid user of headphones who, like me, knows the pain points and is highly motivated to make the best and bring people like me back to the fold. On the Mojawa website, the CEO does something that’s pretty impressive. He lays out all the things he disliked about headphones and explains that he wanted to make something for those who felt the same. I feel seen.
THE GOOD
JOHN: Since they arrived, I have run in the Run Plus headphones for about 41 miles and used them for other day-to-day activities as well. Being a busy caregiver, they have come in handy. The Run Plus straight-up sound incredible, living up to their claims of patented actuator superior sound. The headphones are ridiculously light at 26 g, which was the first thing I noticed. You can’t feel them at all when they’re on you, it’s pretty amazing.
The second biggest thing for me is the waterproof feature. Any ultra runner (especially this year) runs in a good bit of rain. These headphones deliver music, podcasts, or anything you need to give you needed comfort on the most tedious parts of the trail. These headphones allow you to not only enjoy your favorite songs and podcasts but they keep you safe because you can still hear around you. You can run more confidently because potential hazards can still be identified. All around, the headphones of the past that were a painful sweaty broken mess are done — you don’t need them anymore.
I’m extremely impressed with what Mojawa has done here. They basically rolled out a product to bring all the people who are sick and tired of all the pain points back to the headphone fold. They have masterfully pinpointed the absolute worst parts of using headphones and made the experience so much better. I’m just going to flat out say it: for the current price of $139, the Run Plus are not just the best bone conduction headphones, but also the best pair of headphones money can buy.
THE BAD
JOHN: I’m being very nitpicky here because this is a wonderful product, but if I had to identify anything to be improved on, I wish there were more than 8 hours of battery life. 8 hours is pretty standard with headphones, but as much as the Run Plus pushes the limits, I would like to see a larger battery life.
Even though 8 hours is a great amount of time for weekday training runs, for longer races, your crew is going to have to toss them to you when you need them for a bad section (like when you need to listen to your Grandmaster Flash going through the miserable ATV section at Old Dominion 100-if these had arrived in time for Old Dominion I may not have DNF’d), and then you’ll have to toss the headphones back to the crew when they die, to charge or just be done with them. It would be nice to have the battery go the distance on a longer run. It only takes 50 min to charge them, so again, I’m picking nits.
When I started using the headphones, I had some trouble getting used to the controls. I definitely called a couple of people by accident on early am runs (I’m sorry) and made some other silly mistakes. I’m pretty sure I had a couple of people thinking I needed bail money, a rescue off some trail, or to pick me up from some DNF (like Old Dominion, I really hope not Manitou’s Revenge coming up — I can’t take back to back DNFs).
Disclaimer: For tech-savvy folks, it’s probably easy to pick up the headphone controls. I’ve used many headphones throughout the years now and especially in run specialty, but I’m a very busy person, and I tend to just jump into the fire when it comes to learning new tech, so if you are like me, you may make a call by mistake or some other silly thing.
MOJAWA RUN PLUS CONCLUSION
JOHN: For anyone like me who loves music and podcasts, needs to blast Pantera on a shitty long run, get motivated by listening to Ben Johnson talk about doing 4 marathons in 4 weeks on The Drop Podcast, or just needs to get out and unpack stuff in your head and who punted on headphones, like I did, these were made for you. For people that are already using similar headphones and are on the lookout to upgrade, you also need to check these out.
To compare, check out Seth’s March review here at BITR of the Shokz OpenRun. The Mojawa Run Plus is a very similar product but lighter and more affordable.
I am totally smitten with the Run Plus. Just to make sure I wasn’t completely love-crazed and blinded, I had friends try mine on for other sports to tell me what they thought, and it’s been universal acclaim. I can’t recommend them enough. I apologize to everyone I was rude to for wearing headphones. I was in a bad place, but the Run Plus helped me solve a big piece that was missing in my life.
