Gear Review: FlipBelt

Most endurance athletes, be they professional or casual, know that one of the cardinal rules of doing well at an event is following the old adage, “nothing new on race day.”  This applies to what you eat (before and during the race), what you wear, race strategy, and the gear you use.  Being an excessive planner, I’ve only broken this rule a few times, and generally only when absolutely required.  For example, a few years ago, I moved away from my standard Nike Air Pegasus running shoes to venture into Mizunos.  While Mizunos are great running shoes that work well for many folks out there, they weren’t for me; they ended up causing me a decent amount of foot pain, so the week before that year’s PF Chang’s, I went to the nearby Nike outlet, grabbed another pair of Air Pegs off the shelf in my standard size and spent a few days breaking them in before running a full (or potentially a half – I can’t really remember) marathon in them.  Although this was a dangerous thing to do, it ended up working out for me, since I had previous experience running in that exact model of shoe.

The Nike Air Pegasus.

Behold the greatness.

Obviously, not my actual pair,

as mine are way dirtier.

It really makes sense, right?  I mean, you spend months training for this event; you perfect your pace and your stride, you test out different gels or blocks, and you figure out which pair of shorts won’t chafe you as you complete this test of endurance.  You really don’t want to change things up on race day, as this can seriously throw a wrench in your plans of finishing strong. 

All of this is an extended lead up to say that I pretty much ignored this wisdom and brought a new piece of gear into my race day arsenal for the recent Phoenix Marathon.  I’m a rebel without a cause, I know. 

Okay, time for more backstory, because it’s my blog, and I can do what I want around here.  I mainly complete runs over six miles with either a waist mounted FuelBelt that holds four 6 ounce fluid canisters or a Nathan hydration backpack with a 70 ounce reservoir, depending on the length of the run.  I can fit my iPhone 5S in both packs (I can just barely shove it into the FuelBelt’s back pocket), so Chris can track me while I run along for hours at a time.  I can also put my gu packets in either the pockets of my running shorts or one of the ample pockets on the Nathan, so I have my nutrition close at hand. 

A Google images shot of

the FuelBelt I actually still own.

I really didn’t think I’d find this,

as it’s sooo old.

The problem comes in because I don’t wear my standard running shorts for races; instead, I wear a running skirt because it looks better in race pictures.  I know, I know.  Stop judging.  You can be serious about your run and still want to look good; they’re not mutually exclusive goals.  Anyway, the running skirt has one pocket on the side, and I normally put gels in that, grabbing water along the race route as needed.  Over the years, though, that pocket has stretched out and things no longer stay well in there; imagine my surprise when I reached for a gu during the Long Beach Marathon last October and found an empty pocket.  That’s no bueno.

The Nathan pack I use.

It’s called the Intensity.

I didn’t realize that until now,

but I think I might bring that up

in casual conversation in the future.

“Hang on, I need to grab my INTENSITY!!!!@!!”

During the PF Chang’s half in January, I borrowed the race belt Chris purchased for Marine Corps, as it had loops for gus and a cell phone pocket.  Perfect!  I had gu spots and a place for my phone, so husband tracking could still ensue.  Although the belt was adjustable, the sewn in loops stopped the circumference of the belt from getting shorter than 31 inches; since my waist is smaller than this, the belt kept bouncing around, slowly driving me mad.  By the time I’d crossed the finish line, I’d looped it around and around in an attempt to get it smaller so it fit me properly.  Chris, upon seeing it, exclaimed, “what did you do here?!?!?!” and set to putting it back to rights.

In the week before Phoenix, I was wracking my brain, trying to figure out a solution.  I could bring my Nathan pack, but then I’d be hauling around 5 extra pounds of weight just in water, and as I’ve mentioned before, every extra ounce counts over 26.2 miles on foot.  I could not bother with my phone and buy a new gu belt, but the loops might prevent it from adjusting to the proper size, leaving me with the same problem as the gu belt we already own; plus, then Chris wouldn’t know where I was on the course.  Ah, runner’s conundrums.  True problems here, people.

In an attempt to find a solution, I visited my local running store, Tortoise and Hare, and one of the ladies there offered up the FlipBelt as a possibility.  I’d seen these at the store before but hadn’t really paid much attention to them, figuring that I didn’t need one.  Essentially, the FlipBelt is a stretchy fabric tube that sits around your waist and holds your crap.  Well, not your literal crap, but I suppose that if you wanted to put that in there, the FlipBelt would hold it, but you might want a baggie for it or something.  Just sayin’.

The standard FlipBelt has four little openings in it, and you use those openings for access to whatever you want to carry on you – phone, gu packets, keys, pygmy marmosets, etc.

Ah, Jesus.

My face just exploded from the cute.

Since it was already race week when I bought the belt, I wore it on the two training runs I had before race day, a 45 minute easy run with 2 half mile race pace intervals and a 30 minute easy run with 3 one minute pick-ups.  Here’s the belt on the kitchen counter, getting ready to go on the 45 minute run.

See?  Pretty much a fabric tube.

Since the FlipBelt doesn’t have an opening like a zipper or snap or buckle, you put it on like a pair of pants – step into it and pull it up as needed.  Demonstration in progress:

Pulitzer Prize winning photographs here, folks.

After I put it on, I stuffed it full of the items I’d need during the actual marathon: my cell phone in a Ziploc and 7 different gu packets.  I certainly wouldn’t need gu during my 45 minute easy run, but I wanted to have all the stuff I needed for the actual race in the Belt during the try-outs, so I could tell if it would work during the marathon.

Stuffing all my gu’s in,

one by one.

Since the Belt is stretchy, you can wear it wherever on your torso you want.  I would imagine the waist is the most common location (during these runs, even if I moved the Belt down to my hips, it gradually moved its way back up to my natural waist), but you could put it around your hips if you felt better with that.  I suppose you could even wear it around your chest if you wanted to, weirdo (actually, I imagine this position is popular during mid-run potty breaks – I haven’t found that out yet…).  A shot of the Belt, pre-run, around my natural waist:

Old race shirts never die.

They just start to smell awful.

During the training runs, I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Belt worked; it held all my stuff without issue, and it didn’t bounce at all, even with my cell phone weighing it down.  When I pushed it down to my hips, it swayed just a bit, but after it worked its way up to my waist, things were fine again.  The fabric was thick enough to prevent the corners of the gu packets from poking me mid-run, which is an issue I sometimes have when I put them in the pockets of my running shorts.  

Additionally, things didn’t shift inside the tube or seem to be in any danger of sliding out as I trucked along (the Belt comes with a small loop and plastic hook inside for keys and other valuables, so they won’t come loose).  The only downside I noticed during the shorter runs was that the Belt is two layers of extra fabric on the outside of your body, so if you are prone to being sweaty, the Belt makes this even more of an issue.  Check out this super lovely post-run picture of where the Belt was; keep in mind that this was a relatively easy effort of under an hour in weather with temps in the low 70’s:

Delicious

During the Phoenix Marathon, the Belt worked out well.  It held all of the stuff I needed, and it didn’t move one bit during the three hours I wore it in the race.  I was easily able to pivot it around my waist when I needed a gel that was tucked into the back, and everything stayed safe and secure within the fabric tube.  Eventually, since I was having issues with side cramping, I worked the Belt up over my shoulders and around my head to take it off, and I handed it to Chris at mile 19 for him to take away, as it was starting to bother me.  However, I don’t attribute this to the Belt at all; had I not been having side cramping issues, I think the Belt would have continued to be a good solution.  After the run, the Belt was totally disgusting (Chris put it in a Zip-Loc, and it started to develop its own weather pattern in there), but since it was machine washable, I just threw it in the washer with my other running clothes, and it came out great; I just hung it up to dry in case putting it in the dryer would shrink it up.

Overall, I thought the FlipBelt worked pretty well, and I’ll add it to our vast arsenal of running related gear to use in the future.  While I bought mine at our local running store for $29, the FlipBelt website seems to sell them for the same price online (I would imagine there’s a shipping fee, however); thus, if you’re not close to a running store or you hate the people there (it’s possible, even though running store folks are generally super mellow and friendly), you can still try it out.  For $29, it’s not the cheapest alternative for carrying stuff, but it works pretty well, overall.

Later!

Amy