This year I had the opportunity to try out some Nathan Hydration Products.
Since I had just taken up running Trail Ultra’s I thought I would try out the Nathan HPL 008 Hydration Pak. I thought this would be a good choice allowing me to carry adequate water with the addition of a couple of pockets for gels, etc. Leaving my hands free and not having to worry about loosing bottles from my waist belt (I would occasionally knock the front bottles out on the more severe climbs).
I picked up my pak just a couple of days before the Pick Your Poison Trail Race, but forgo wearing it as I hadn’t had a chance to train with it.
After that I got out on a few runs with it and it seemed to work well.
My next Ultra was Sulphur Springs, about a month after getting the pak and a couple of trial runs with it.
The Nathan hydration pak worked well for the most part, but Sulphur Springs has this long enclosed gully that was stifling in the heat and I felt my chest restricted with the strap on the pak. So at 30k I switched back to my waist belt.
As I wasn’t convinced that this was anything more than a lack of acclimatization and trial and error fit with the strap (strap height is adjustable for different size/build runners and comfort). I did a couple of more trial runs with the plan to wear it in my next trail ultra. Other than the issue of running out of water sooner than planned, which I believed was from taking larger drinks than I would from my bottles and the occasional wet back from over filling, I seemed to find a comfortable spot for the chest strap.
As I prepped for my next ultra, the Creemore Vertical Challenge, I pulled the bladder from the vest for the first time since Sulphur Springs and water immediately started pouring out the bottom of the bladder at a leak in the seam. So the running out of water and the wet back were actually caused by the leak. The pressure from the vest had slowed the flow making me believe it was just my lack of experience drinking from and filling the vest.
I e-mailed Nathan indicating the problem and asking what was required to repair/replace the bladder. I know that bladders are not usually covered under warranty, but I thought with having used it less than a dozen times and it being the weld seam that had failed, Nathan would repair/replace it cheaply.
However this was not to be the case, as I never heard one word back. Not even a “sorry, but it’s not covered under warranty, you’ll have to purchase a new bladder”
So 4 more ultra’s run with my waist belt instead of the pak.
And although I was becoming used to the pak in the few training runs I did with it, I never did get to try it out as thoroughly as I would have liked in races.
Overall not a satisfactory experience with the Nathan HPL 008 Hydration Pak. I plan to repair or replace the bladder, possibly with a different brand, on my own this winter and give it another shot in the spring.
