Spectated the Liberty Run 4 Mile race this morning at Washington Park. The race featured the HydraPouch and the Liberty Run was advertised as one of the first cupless races in America.

The video on the website is a laugh riot. I love how the runners are managing to spill 90%+ of their drink on their face and shirt. They also have runners grabbing cups off of a large table, this rarely happens, most races have volunteers handing the cup to the runner. Thus, I think they took a few liberties with the video that don’t truly reflect a running race. Looks like most of the footage was shot at BolderBoulder.

I agree that drinking out of a paper cup on the run is cumbersome, but if the volunteers fill the cup half way it’s not that difficult. At the Liberty Run every runner was given a HydraPouch at the start of the race and the aid stations featured the HydraPour. Thus, if you wanted water, on this hot 70 degree morning you literally had carry your HydraPouch the entire race (has a a belt clip) and stop running to fill up your HydraPouch from the HydraPour.

I noticed that few if any of the fast runners bothered to carry the HydraPouch. I would not have carried it, there is no way that I would literally stop during a race to fill up a HydraPouch. If it were a longer race and I knew that I needed water, I would probably bring a larger bottle to either carry in my hand or on my waist, one that would not require refilling.

I did see a good amount of runners carrying the HydraPouch, however they were the less serious runners who probably don’t mind having to stop and fill up their HydraPouch. The HydraPouch may have promise for recreational runners, but I don’t see how a race can completely forgo having paper cups without alienating serious runners.

The product has gotten some great publicity and as a Colorado company I would like to see them succeed but am having trouble seeing a demand for this product or that it could replace the paper cup. The HydraPouch does work, I tried it out and it is a lot easier to drink on the run than the paper cup. The HydraPouch is eco-friendly another selling point in today’s green movement oriented society.

One area that the product may have potential is to market it to people who live and run in urban areas and who stop at water fountains to get a drink while running. The advantage would be that you would not have to carry a heavier water bottle or water on a belt, instead you could hit up various water fountains along your route. I imagine that Central Park in New York City would be an ideal place to test and market the product.

The big question and the question that has to be answered in order to thrive is how do you accommodate the fast runners who are not going to want to stop during the race to fill up their HydraPouch?