Karrimor Mens Raid 5 Adjustable Zip Pocket Breathable Mesh Bag

Having tried many of these bottle belts over the years, I’m fast coming to the conclusion that they’re a “holy grail” of runners accessories. None of them adequately serve the purpose we want them for.

As I’m about to start training for a marathon, I went for a run with this bottle belt yesterday with the intention of using it for my long runs. I’d planned to run 21km, but this turned into 20 miles.

On the plus side, these two bottles carry a lot of water. I had one filled with plain water, and the other filled with water and an hydro tablet. I didn’t need them for the first 21km but, between 25km – 32km, I was very glad that I had them with me. The belt is quite well made, with elastic straps to hold the bottles down. The mesh material is padded with foam that contains air holes so that your back doesn’t get too sweaty where it’s in contact.

The main back pocket is large enough to contain my running jacket. After running for three hours, with the weather getting colder, I was glad to be able to pull the jacket out and put it on. The front pocket is sufficient to hold gels, energy bar, etc. In short, there’s enough space there for a lot of stuff.

As is to be expected, carrying so much liquid makes the belt quite heavy and bouncy when you run. Unlike some other belts, though, the bounce is manageable as the belt tends to roll with you when you get into a consistent pace on the flats. The more bouncing you do (such as on hills or uneven ground), the more the belt bounces, but the steadier your pace, the more the belt “rolls” in tune to your pace instead. Everything stays together, though, so it’s just a matter of some discomfort. After a while you get used to it to a certain degree, although it never feels “comfortable” – just tolerable. I don’t think there’s a bottle belt that ever will be comfortable (I have a non-bottle gel belt which is fine, but without bottles it’s not an option for long training runs).

As you drink from the bottles (particularly if you drink equally from each), the lesser weight makes the belt much more manageable and, thus, more comfortable.

A day later, and I do feel some bruising/soreness where the belt rolled/bounced around my lower back, meaning I wouldn’t want to wear this belt two days in succession. I’ll wait until I’m healed sufficiently for my next long run. Fortunately, I only need to use this belt on long runs (30km and more), so I won’t have to use it for shorter runs (for those, it’s sufficient to carry a bottle in my hand).

In short, this is one of the better bottle belts that I’ve found, particularly if you need to carry this much liquid with you. It’s far from being perfect, but it is tolerable. I’d probably give it 3.5/5, with the understanding that no other bottle belt I’ve tried would get more than 2/5, but I can’t do half-stars and so will give it 4/5.

The nirvana of bottle belts still remains to be made.