Part 1 - What Didn't Work So Well
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
I first read the title of this post on the very first Camelbak I ever owned, and thought it was a bit overdramatic at the time... then again, I suppose "hydrate or vomit", "hydrate or feel really lousy", and "hydrate or really wish you had" aren't nearly as catchy and memorable. And having ended up dehydrated on more than one occasion, I can definitely attest to the importance of getting enough fluids... unfortunately, the task of actually carrying those fluids with you can be a real challenge, and that's the focus of what I'll be discussing today - the gear that I've found that works best for me (so far...)
I feel a little bit silly writing the following, but apparently it's become an "issue" with blogs that discuss consumer products, so - All products mentioned in this post were purchased by me; none of the companies mentioned have provided me with any gear, for review purposes or any other reason. (Nor do I expect them to ever offer to do so, given the very limited readership of my rambling writings...)
We now return you to the regularly-scheduled post about hydration...
When I first started running back in 1997, there were two things I never would have predicted - that I'd still be running in 2009 (and in fact be missing it terribly while injured) and that I'd end up aquiring some much stuff to use while playing outdoors. So much so that I suspect I could easily fill a closet with all my outdoor gear. And a good-sized chunk of that gear would be related to hydration. Bottles, waistpacks, hydration packs, hydration bladders, plus a few items to help keep them clean and ick-free. A quick glance shows somewhere around 2 dozen bottles of various sizes and shapes, three hand-held bottle holders, half a dozen or more waist packs, three hydration packs, and three bladders... and there are probably more that are buried out of sight. Not to mention gear that I've thrown away because it wore out, broke under the tough use I tend to put my gear through, or just plain didn't work the way I needed it to.
I started out holding a bike water bottle in one hand, but then needed to put it somewhere else when I began using hand weights, so I picked up an inexpensive waist pack at either K-mart or Ames... that worked great for shorter runs or ones where I could somehow refill the bottle. I tried an inexpensive two-bottle waist pack for longer runs but was never particularly happy with it, because it tended to bounce around a lot. Then a friend gave me the Camelbak I mentioned a few paragraphs back - that worked a lot better, though it was far from perfect (this was in the days when Camelbak was just getting established and as present day hydration packs go it was pretty primitive.) In the end, though, it was a moot point, since I moved to Albany and cut way back on my running... I used the single-bottle pack when I did run and the Camelbak mostly ended up gathering dust in the closet.
Initially I stuck with my old bottle carriers and Camelbak when I started running "seriously" again in 2005, but it became clear pretty quickly that I would need something better, especially for long distance. I experimented with a variety of inexpensive waist packs for short and medium distance; most have long since gone into the trash. The best I found was one from Fuel Belt, similar to their current Crush bottle carrier, but I was never 100% satisfied with it - it still bounced a bit (though it was better than the cheap carriers) and had very little room for carrying anything else. For longer distances I followed up on a recommendation to check out North Face waist packs, and ended up with three - a small two-bottle carrier with a modest amount of cargo room, a huge two bottle carrier with tons of cargo room (the Mountain Biker), and finally a happy medium (a later model Mountain Biker.) I also tried a Nathan hand-held and was never particularly happy with it. And somewhere along the line I picked up a Camelbak MULE hydration pack on sale, which I've honestly mostly used for riding - it's big and bulky and not terribly comfortable to run with, plus there's no easy way to carry a bottle of sports drink and actually access it without taking the pack off.
Of all these products, the only ones I tend to still use are the North Face packs, mainly because they're decent for hiking or riding, can carry lots of gear, and so far they're incredibly durable - I've had one belt clip break when I shut it in a car door, but that's it. I don't run or snowshoe with any of this gear any more, because in 2008 and 2009 I found products that work much better for me...
JMH
