The bottle on the left is a Nathan hand held bottle that I have run with for a little over a year. I haven't used it that much because I generally don't run with water. Usually I only use it if the temperature is over 100 degrees. The bottle on the right is an Ultimate Direction. I bought it to replace the Nathan, and not just because the Ironman has an Ultimate Direction pack.
Let me run this by you guys. I have had this idea for a while. I am going to gather up and save all of the gear that I have used that didn't work like it should have. I'm going to put it all in a big pile and take a picture of it. I plan on making it a regular part of Broken, Beat & Scarred. I'm going to call it the "Gear Graveyard". I'd love to hear if you have any ideas, or reviews of gear that has let you down. I'm throwing the Nathan bottle on the pile now.
4 comments:
I wish I could’ve warned you about those worthless Nathan bottles. I’ve got the thermal handheld and I really like the holder. I let the kids use the bottle for soccer hoping they’ll lose it. My summer strategy (which would probably be early spring for you) is to put cold drink in a non-insulated Ultimate handheld and an iced drink in the thermal one. Then I’ve got a nice cold drink for my second hour. I think the Nathan packs like the 020 are awesome though.
But I love the Ultimate “kicker” bottles. Once I was running with my two handhelds, one the old style Ultimate with the regular push-shut top, the other with the red nipple. I tripped over a rock and broke my fall with the two bottles (another benefit of hand-helds for trail running). The old style top blew completely off and dumped basically the whole bottle. The red nipple vented without blowing off, saving my drink so I was able to stay hydrated for the rest of the run.
Here’s some outdoor industry trivia for you. The guy who started Ultimate Direction is Bryce Thatcher. He lived in Rexburg just a few miles up the road from here. He happens to own the speed ascent record on the Grand Teton at an unbelievable 3:09 or something like that. A few years ago he went to Nathan and helped design those packs I like. Now he’s starting up a new water pack company called Ultraspire, you may have seen teaser ads. I know a couple guys who are beta testing their gear and they’re pretty happy with it. That bottle question was the first thing I asked.
When are planning on participating in the Ironman?
Is not a graveyard a location of "worn-out" items/individuals?
I have no intention of doing an Ironman. I am a terrible swimmer. I am planning to do the R2R2R soon though.
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