The Jurek Endure: A Gear Review

The folks at Ultimate Direction asked if I would check out one of their products, and I was thus sent a new hydration belt, the Jurek Endure. Even though I live in Florida the land of heat and humidity, I have never been a hydration belt guy—they are always too big or too small or too hard to get to fit right. Often they chafe and bounce around, and on more than one occasion I have dumped them in the bushes (and not returned to get them willingly). Thus I will do long runs on loops with water bottles stashed and placed along a route. I have commonly used a handheld and gone into drug stores, hotels, and gas stations to fill up. While a hydration belt doesn’t preclude the stop and fill up method, if done correctly it should aid the endeavor.

Stretch Mesh Pocket

Enter the Jurek Endure. This belt solves a universal problem: belts are often unbalanced and prone to bouncing around. Countless times, I have craved up the side of my torso as hydration belt meets sweat line and frantically bounces to and fro, especially with a full bottle. Here, with two 10 ounce bottles, when full, the belt feels quite snug. The bottles bungee in, each with their own strap, and feel rather secure. While I am typically a water guy, I tried what Ultimate Direction suggested, and filled one bottle with an other: my mixture of honey, chia, and water, the other with straight water. Despite the liquid weight, the belt held steady and continued to do so even when one bottle was depleted.

Beyond the balanced design, the strap adjusts quite well. The front of the belt has an elasticity to it that allows it to be snug, a tight fit, more like my running shorts than a chaffing army of darkness. The stretch mesh pocket allows for stashing essentially anything: gear (think gloves in the winter), salt tabs, gels, phones, keys, money, etc. You name it and desire to have it, stick it in the pocket. While there is not a counter balance, you can slide this pocket around the strap, allowing for preferred placement.

Advertised as waterproof, the belt deflects moisture at a strong rate. My gels stayed dry, and while I have yet to put a tissue in there, I am fairly confident that the only moisture the will find its way into the pockets will drip from my hands when opening and closing the pocket. In between the bottle holsters, one can store more items, and even bungee in products for quick grabs. Once again, stash your Huma gel here, in plain view.

All in all, while I have never been a huge hydration belt guy, I have been pleased with this product and will continue to update this review as I use it more.

General specs (via Ultimate Direction):

    Two 10 oz bottles included

    Bottle holsters are stiffened with lightweight foam for quick access

    Front pocket is sweat resistant and moveable, with foam backing

    3/4 in. waist webbing with stretch panel

    Movable Race Bib clips

    Adjustable buckle fits all sizes

    Weight: 6 oz / 163g

    Pocket Size: 6.5 x 3 in / 16.5 x 7.6 cm

    Pouch Size: 4 x 4 in / 10.2 x 10.2 cm

    Fits to: 26 - 44 in / 66 - 112 cm

    

   Hex Mesh: The structure of this belt is totally breathable, while also being extremely strong,lightweight, and will not absorb moisture.

    Silnylon: Silicone impregnated for ultra lightweight and durable waterproofness

    Velvetex Edge Binding: Super comfortable and soft

Book Review: Eat and Run

When I picked up Scott Jurek’s Eat and Run, I was unsure of what to expect. As an avid reader, writer, and runner, books on running and about runners typically flow for me, and thus I often reach the end of them searching for more. Each running text explores a different facet of running, ranging from training method, historical context, or personal narrative. This time around, I hoped to learn about Jurek the man, his motivations, his drives, and the life of a Vegan Runner, and I did. Eat and Run will give you these things, it will lead you down that road. He loads the text with Philosophy, he details many of his races, and he explains how and why he is a Vegan Runner.

  
 Yet Jurek’s text, while interesting at times, just didn’t provide the narrative experience that keeps a page turning. This is not to say that the text is not worth the look, but that rather it fails to flow as a cohesive narrative. Eat and Run is broken into chapters that center on an important event or stage of Jurek’s life with each chapter ending with a Vegan Recipe. As stand-alone articles, many of the chapters would be great reads, yet they fail to connect in the book format. We jump from race to race with little mention of the events in-between. Personals issues come and go, sometimes they are given a backstory and subsequent resolution, other times the tales have no terminus and we are just left there. In the texts opening pages, we are hooked by a harrowing tale of one of Jurek's attempts to tame the Badwater Ultramarathon, a race that transverses Death Valley, running a 135 miles, in the middle of July. Yet this tale is never really brought a conclusion, being only half finished much farther into the text. The wait was too long, the narrative too jarring.

At times, Jurek will describe a single endurance event in detail, whether it is a training run up a mountain, a 24-hour race run in pursuit of a record, or a spiritual experience while running the Spartatholon through Greece. These moments make the text—we want to read about what makes an ultra-marathoner, how this man can push through the pain, run with broken bones, and submerge himself in a coffin like structure full of ice water in the middle of Death Valley. Yet, Jurek suddenly breaks away from these moments, leaving a jarring experience. His family life is deeply humane, interesting, and pushes you to understand why he runs like he does, but one heartfelt tale doesn’t always flow into another. We read about his mother's health struggles and how they drove Jurek to train, but at times these details are more assumed and inferred than stated. His race schedule is sporadic to the reader, and the reader may struggle when confronted with the nature of the events if they are not familiar with them.

All in all, Jurek bares his heart, teaches you about running, why people run, and how running is far more than physical activity—it is philosophy in motion. He provides interesting recipes, and for the most part the results have been favorable when I’ve tried them out. For the runner, for the marathoner, for the lunatic wanting to run farther than 26.2, give it a look.