Nathan's Hydration Belt Review

I purchased a hydration belt to wear for my upcoming races.  I looked and searched and read reviews and finally decided on Nathan's Speed 4R hydration belt.  I went with a 4 bottle belt, that held 8 ounce bottles with sport tops.  Read good things about it.  One thing I did like was they were 8 ounces each.  

If you use Nuun, like I do, then it takes the measuring out of the equation.  Nuun is an electrolyte tablet that will dissolve in 16 ounces of liquid, water.  There's no sugar in it and I don't have to deal with the syrupy stuff like Powerade or Gatorade.  Plus, instead of paying over $1.50 for each 20 ounce bottle, a tube of Nuun works out to less than $0.75 for 16 ounces where I live.  The tablets can be split in half and then I can dump the halves into 2 separate bottles and shake, and be done with it.

There's a pouch in front for gels or chomps, cell phone, whatever.  It's quite roomy.  There's also a small pocket in the back for a small item, like a single car key or house key.

So, I decided to take it on a 3 mile run I did last Saturday.  Needed to get out of the house and out of the library for a bit and give my mind a rest.  Finals are fast approaching.  Less than week away from this post.

I filled 1 bottle with just plain water and the other 2 with Nuun.  Got the tablet dissolved easily enough.  The temperature was about 78 F and ended up being over 80 when I got back.  The humidity was high enough so I was glad to have this.

The issue with the belt or more specifically was with the sport bottles.  I'm a bigger guy and the belt fit around me fine.  But as I bounced and slogged to start my run.  The bottle I had on the back of my belt that was full, shot Nuun out every time I landed on that foot.  It happened a few times and the water hit my elbow or if it missed landed on my back foot.  I kept looking to the sky to see if it was raining............not so much.

So when I had my walk break, doing the Jeff Galloway method of run-walk-run, I would drink a few ounces thinking this would help.  Again, not so much.  I don't know how much liquid I lost from this issue, but eventually it worked out.  Glad I had the water and the Nuun, seemed to help me later in my run.  I didn't do any chews or gels, cause I was only running 3 miles.  See how the rest of my longer runs go before I use it in a race.  Can you imagine the person behind me getting drenched with Nuun or water as I slog along!?!?

I haven't had a chance to use it again because of classes and studying.

That leads me to this, I appreciate you reading and I know I just started this blog, but I don't know when I'll post again between now and August 18.  My last final is the morning of the 18th.  

After that I'll try to update the blog with some of the races I've run and my training leading up to the Cleveland Rock n Roll 1/2 marathon I'm running on Oct. 6th.  I'm signing  up for the Detroit Free Press International 1/2 Oct. 20th.  I get to run in Detroit, cross the Ambassador bridge into Windsor, ON, Canada and the come back through the Windsor tunnel.

Anyway, that's what I got for now.