Water goes down your chin, splashes in your eyes, soaks your shirt and seems to go everywhere but in your mouth — whether it’s a 5K or a marathon, it’s hard to keep a race pace while drinking from the small paper cups typically found at aid stations. A Boulder, Colo., startup called HydraPouch LLC is hoping to make drinking on the run a bit easier.
The HydraPouch is a soft silicon vessel with a pouch-wide slit on top for filling. It holds 6 fluid ounces and allows you to sip water while running instead of pouring it all over your face or downing it right away so it sloshes in your stomach. The pouch weighs 1.5 ounces when empty, and it clips easily onto a belt or the waist band on a pair of running shorts when you’re done drinking.
To fill it, all you do is squeeze the top of the pouch (much like a coin pouch) and pour in your water. The upward-pointing spout with a straw-size hole lets you drink.
In my test, a few drops of water escaped the pouch to splash out as I ran. But it proved to be better than trying to drink from a paper cup. While it won’t replace hydration bottles on long runs with no aid stations, the HydraPouch would be great for road runners who can rely on regular refills.
The HydraPouch is currently available for $17. www.hydrapouch.com
—Ryan Dionne
