 Test one, two, three. Test test. It's so crazy. Windy. Today. Denver. Good afternoon, YouTube. I was clipping coupons earlier now. By the way, I'm filming with my phone, not with a Canon 5D. Going into Runner's Rouge to check out handhelds. Handhelds. What is a handheld? Let me explain in a minute. Okay, I'm ready. Today's vlog, today's story, is a little different than most vlogs. Usually I film throughout the entire day. Today was a little tough. It was Monday. Busy. Phone calls. Meetings. Texted. Oh, it was a busy day. The day got away from me. So, instead, I want to talk to you about water. About the liquid. About the H2O. The good stuff. Question the day. What is the one singular moment? The one singular moment in your life when you were the thirstiest in your entire life. When you just, you were, you thought you might die. You thought you could have thirst. You know that moment. Mine came in the University of Colorado where I grew up. In college, I was on a training run a 20 mile to 20 to 25 mile training run. I have no idea how long I went. But I just, in college, you know, running under Mark Wetmore, we would go out for 20 mile long runs every Sunday. So, I went home for summer and I thought to myself, okay, I got to go do a 20 mile long run. It's Sunday. Well, I didn't have any water with me because back in the day, you didn't have fancy vests from Ultimate Direction to carry your water. And Coach Mark would carry the water in the van for us as we were training on Sundays when I was in Boulder. But in Budivista, I just went out for a 20 mile run with no water. No game plan for drinking out of creeks or rivers. Like, I just, I just wasn't even thinking about water. And I got to the point where my pride got in the way from me of sticking out my thumb and basically hitchhiking home. I was, I was at the point of being a little scared. Like I thought to myself, if I stop, I was basically shuffling by the end. If I stop, I might pass out. It was that bad. But I, my pride got the best of me and I was like, I'm going to finish this run no matter what. And sure enough, I did. Sure enough. But that was the thirstiest moment of my life. So that's the question of the day to prime the pump for today's topic in 2018. I'm ramping it up a little bit. I'm getting a little aggressive with the racing. I am excited to see what we can finally do in the 25 plus mile running scene. So an ultra race is considered anything over the marathon distance. Traditionally, it starts at the 50 K distance 50 K that K stands for kilometer. So 50 kilometers equals about 32 miles. I have raced two or three 50 Ks and I've raised two or three trail 25 milers. So not a marathon but a 25 milers and then maybe two or three half merit, maybe two half marathons on the trails. So I've got a little bit of a background, not a ton, but a little bit of background. Oh, I've also attempted this crazy mountain run called Nolan's 14, which is something epic. Go watch it up there. So I'm excited though to dive much, much deeper into the ultra racing scene in 2018. Now I have been a 10 K five K guy in college on the track cross country. And I never really got into the road racing scene, you know, half marathons, marathons, 10 Ks where you're just pounding it on the pavement. I just never got into it after college. I did a little bit but not a ton. And so I kind of skipped that step and transitioned into the trail scene. Now road racing, I love it's fun, but I don't I love the trails because you're out there, you're in nature, you're it's kind of secluded, it's just quiet. It's just beautiful. It's a beautiful thing. But in road racing, you have aid stations every two miles or every three miles or every five. It's like no matter what you've got aid stations along the way, in trail running and ultra running, it's a lot different. You might have five miles to your next aid station. You might have 21.5 miles to your next aid station. Like aid stations are a lot choppier along the way. In the ultra world, you usually see a vest. And I know you see this in road racing as well, but not as much. So you see a vest, we see a handheld vest or handheld. There's also waste belts, but not too many people use waste belts these days. I have traditionally used the vest for like Nolan's 14 attempts. My long runs, where I'm going over, let's say 22 miles. And I love it. I do love it. But you know, it weighs you down, of course, and it gives you like road rash on this is an ultimate direction, which it's a good design, I would say it's not a great design. This design is about three years old. I think their vests have come a long ways in the last three years. It's an Anton vest, and it's good. But I think they've come a they've come a long ways in three years. Nathan, Solomon, Raidlight, in ultimate direction, they've all evolved quite nicely in the last three years, I would wear this type of vest in 100 mile race, or a 100 K race, which is basically 64 miles. But now this summer, that 50 K to 50 mile distance, the vest is just a little too much, especially if you have eight stations every five to eight miles, you don't really need a vest. Instead, you go with a handheld. Okay, the handheld is a water bottle with a strap here, you see the strap, and then a little pouch on the front. You unzip the pouch, you stick your cliff bar in there, you stick your gel, you stick your nutrition so you don't bunk. And then inside the bottle, I will probably use tailwind, which is basically a powder you put into your water like Gatorade, but it's designed a little more specifically for ultra runners, it's called tailwind. And so I went with Nathan today from Runners Roost, shout out to Runners Roost for having a great selection of handheld water bottles. I was beyond impressed, beyond impressed with your selection, and just willingness to help me. So thank you, Runners Roost. And so I went with Nathan for a couple reasons. First of all, I think the zipper system on this pouch is much better than Ultimate Direction or Solomon. And I don't I don't know it's just in the store. I was trying it out and it was just easy to unzip. Like I can do it with one hand and I don't have to take the bottle off. So that is amazing. Thank you Nathan for designing that. The strap system, once again, I found it to be a little easier to use this strap system to to cinch it down onto your wrist onto your hand so that it doesn't slide around. And then of course, the most important is how easy is it to drink out of. So when you're running along, you're carrying it like I'm not holding the water bottle, it's just stuck to my hand. So you're running along, running along. Sorry, that was not a good one. You're running along, you're running along, you're running along, you know, my old, I don't know, six, you're starting to get thirsty. You're running along, running along, running along. You just go, you just go. So it's faster than a vest and it's a little, I think it's going to be a little easier to refill as well. So this lid, I was testing it in the store. Boom. One half twist and it's it's good. And I can tell it's well built. I can tell Nathan you did a good job. You done good. You doing good, Nathan. That is my discussion on H2O and water and staying hydrated and make sure you do too out there. Don't, don't bonk on you. Don't bonk out there in the wilderness or on your long runs or so that's today's vlog. I know it's not the traditional SJD story, but yeah, I get what you can take sometimes and just the day got away from me. But I hope you gleaned a little insight, a little wisdom into hydration, especially for running. If you have any questions, of course, drop them down below and I'll be happy to answer them. And I'm excited to stay hydrated in 2018 and I'll be interested, very interested to read your stories down below as to the thirstiest moment of your life, whatever that might have been. So, seek beauty, work hard. Love each other. See you tomorrow.