Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Official Review: Helium 4 Fuel Belt

So apparently, doing product reviews is quite popular on running blogs so here is my first.  Well, not actually mine but my running buddy Stacey's review of a fuel belt she just bought.  I actually have one myself that I'm planning on trying during marathon training.  Stacey sent this in an email to me and a friend and I thought it was a great review with a little bit of humor, which sums up Stacey pretty well!

This is Stacey after her first half marathon...she looks WAY too happy and relaxed!
Stacey took the Fuelbelt Helium 4 bottle running belt on a 12 mile run this past weekend and this is what she had to say:
It actually went way better than expected and I didn’t really find it annoying at all. After the 1st mile or so I hardly even noticed it was there. I wore it around my waist as opposed to my hips and it didn’t move around at all. My arms never hit the bottles either which I thought they would. It has 4 8oz bottles which I filled not quite all the way up and had no problems with leaking. They didn’t feel too heavy. I used cold water which actually felt kinda good to have something cool resting against your core while you’re running.
And the not so great stuff:

The cons: 1. Its expensive (mine was 45 bucks at a running store). 2: Its kinda noisy (you can hear the water slosh as you move), but if you turn up your iPod loud enough this takes care of it. 3: I found it a little tricky to put the bottles back in their little holsters after you drink…especially the ones in the back. I assume I’ll get better with this with practice. 4: It has a zippered pouch where you could put stuff like an ID, keys, but its not very big so you couldn’t pack it full with a million packs of sport beans. (probably only 2 packs at most)
From the website: http://www.fuelbelt.com/fuel_belts/images/helium4_large.jpg
Thanks for the review Stace!  Of course she didn't get paid anything for this review and paid for the belt herself but if Helium needs another product tester...I can be bought :).

In running news, the Rock and Roll half marathon is 4 days and I'm actually looking forward to it.  The weather is supposed to be the mid 60's and overcast which is PERFECT for running and I'm glad I don't have to stress about heat exhaustion during the run now.  I'm also looking forward to my first blog meetup for a carbo loading dinner on Friday night where I can get meet bloggers in real life :).

2 comments:

Christy @ My Dirt Road Anthem: A Runner's Blog said...

Good luck on your half marathon. I love my hydration belt. I recently got a hand held and I do not love it as much.

Marathon Lar said...

Thanks Christy! I have a handheld I've used for a couple years but after mile 9 it starts to feel like it weights 100 pounds!