Ultimate Direction Racea 4.0 8.1L Hydration Vest

Great Light-weight Running Vest

Great Light-weight Running Vest

Ruth Calder-Murphy - 20/01/2020

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I bought this vest as I had the older Jenny Jurek version, and consider it to be by far the best running pack I've had to date, but which was beginning to come apart a bit after thousands of miles of use. I was slightly disappointed to find that the lovely deep colours had been replaced by the so-called (but ridiculously so, in my opinion) "female" colours of pastel pinks and similar, but decided to go for design over aesthetics and ordered the coral pink version. I admit to being pleasantly surprised that it's a deeper, richer orange than the photos seemed to show, without being too bright. On the design front, a few things have changed. The big pocket at the back is no longer zipped, which I think is a shame, but it's still pretty secure - especially when it's snug against your back. There are plenty of smaller zipped compartments to hold really valuable items like credit cards, wallets, phones and so on. Overall, I'm still very pleased with it. It's so lightweight and comfortable that I even wear it for shorter runs. Over longer distances (I tried it for the first time at the weekend for a 21-mile run) it's absolutely brilliant. Even though it's extremely lightweight, I can fit a full first aid kit in there, plenty of water (I prefer using the front pockets for bottles, but you can put a bladder in the back too for ultra distances) an extra layer/waterproofs, personal items, food, etc. All in all, it's light enough to make it worth taking along even on short training runs, but would also be comfortable enough, and somehow (maybe it's a Tardis?) has enough space in it to carry basic kit for a medium-length ultra marathon. A great piece of kit.

I bought this vest as I had the older Jenny Jurek version, and consider it to be by far the best running pack I've had to date, but which was beginning to come apart a bit after thousands of miles of use. I was slightly disappointed to find that the lovely deep colours had been replaced by the so-called (but ridiculously so, in my opinion) "female" colours of pastel pinks and similar, but decided to go for design over aesthetics and ordered the coral pink version. I admit to being pleasantly surprised that it's a deeper, richer orange than the photos seemed to show, without being too bright. On the design front, a few things have changed. The big pocket at the back is no longer zipped, which I think is a shame, but it's still pretty secure - especially when it's snug against your back. There are plenty of smaller zipped compartments to hold really valuable items like credit cards, wallets, phones and so on. Overall, I'm still very pleased with it. It's so lightweight and comfortable that I even wear it for shorter runs. Over longer distances (I tried it for the first time at the weekend for a 21-mile run) it's absolutely brilliant. Even though it's extremely lightweight, I can fit a full first aid kit in there, plenty of water (I prefer using the front pockets for bottles, but you can put a bladder in the back too for ultra distances) an extra layer/waterproofs, personal items, food, etc. All in all, it's light enough to make it worth taking along even on short training runs, but would also be comfortable enough, and somehow (maybe it's a Tardis?) has enough space in it to carry basic kit for a medium-length ultra marathon. A great piece of kit.