Running long distances requires hydration. Having water available on your run can be difficult unless you carry your own. My solution, until recently, was a water belt by New Balance that holds a single water bottle in front, angled toward your left hip. It also has a pouch in the front for keys, ipod, whatever. It worked fine, but I was running out of water at 15 or so miles. The single bottle was not enough.
So I decided to look for a double bottle configuration. Leftlane Sports was running a sale on the Salomon XT Twin Belt hydration system. This belt has two water bottles located at your back with a pouch between them and a smaller pouch at your hip. Unboxing the product and trying it on – it looked and felt fine. The true test was my twenty mile training run.
I will start with the positives. Two bottles are definitely better than one. The bottles themselves were very nice and easy to drink out of while running. The pouch in the back and smaller one in front provided more than adequate storage for your stuff.
Now the negatives. I could not get the bottles to comfortably rest on my back. If I pushed them up, they poked me in the back. When I pushed it down, it sat right on the top of my butt muscles and was not comfortable at all. The bottles also made a sloshing sound the entire time. I thought about leaving the belt along the trail and coming back for it later.
The Salomon XT Twin Belt is high quality and looks really nice. It just does not work for me. I will have to find a way to manage with a single bottle or some other bottle configuration. I am returning this product and continuing my search.
