Katoa Waist Pack Review.

Several weeks ago, I got fed up with having far too much space in my GoLite Rush hydration pack. I loved some features of it: the gel storage on the waist belt, the dual water bottle capability, and the bungee on the back, but I was fed up with having to stuff extra gear in it so that the gear I actually needed would stay put until I had use for it.

A friend of mine here in Boulder had been raving for some time about Ultimate Direction for some time. I had a gift card to Amazon, so I opted to use it on a Katoa pack from UD. I had actually purchased one of Ultimate Directions original products years ago, for my high school cross country ski needs. Needless to say, the Katoa is a bit more sophisticated than a waist belt with a pouch for a water bottle.

After the test run.

My first thought when I took it out of the box was "I'm glad I didn't get the bigger version!"

The Katoa has about a liter and a half of storage, in two small compartments nestled between two water bottle holders (bottles included, kicker caps and all). 1.5L is a fair amount of storage, fitting my admittedly small camera and a couple food items easily. I can easily see putting both a bigger camera and a sandwich in the larger pocket, a couple bars in the smaller pocket, and heading out for a 20+ miler in the mountains without too much worry. Additionally, there are two pockets on the waist belt itself: perfectly sized for about two gels each.

Unfortunately, just after I got this pack, I also started feeling twinges of Plantar Fascitis, and took a week without doing a long run, so this morning was the first chance I had to test the pack, as well as the famed "kicker caps," or more informally, "nipples." I loaded up the water bottles, threw a gel in the belt pocket, a couple bars in the small pocket, and my camera in the larger pocket, and still had extra room.  With that in place, I strapped it around my waist, and headed out for a Dirty Bismark Loop, a 15 mile loop around Marshall Mesa here in Boulder, popular with runners and mountain bikers alike now that the loop is complete.

I always have a couple concerns about belts and waist packs. The first , in no particular order, is how stable it will be when it's loaded up. I found the Katoa to be surprisingly stable. It never felt like it was moving around the whole run. It sits pretty high on the waist, but even so does not impede breathing at all, a problem I have had with other waist packs as well as hydration packs. I did not even notice it irritating the scar on my back that has been a problem with many, many other packs (I had a mole removed, the cause of the scar, because of the same issue).

The second concern is if it will affect the way I swing my arms. This is a bit more of a concern with this pack, as the water bottles do stick out a bit on the sides. I did hit them just a couplet times over the 15 miles, but found that my natural arm swing is, in general, just wide of the tips of the water bottles. I would not want to wear this for a 200 meter dash, but then I'm not likely to do so.

Finally, and critically, I am concerned about the ease of drawing, and replacing the water bottles. This was the best part about this pack. With the Rush, I've had trouble reaching the bottles behind my back, and putting them back again, even with extremely flexible shoulders. With the Katoa, I just reached my hand back and the bottle was there, and reached back again to drop it back into the holster.

There are a few other things to note. This was my first "kicker cap" experience. I have heard that you either love them or you hate them. Personally I love them. All you have to do is pull on the rubber "nipple," aim in the general direction of your mouth, and squeeze. I barely have to interrupt my breathing to take a drink! The only downside is that the loop on the cap (visible in the picture above) sometimes dug into my back if they were oriented the wrong way. A few seconds with a hack saw should take care of that, though.

Over all, an excellent pack, and I can't wait to try it on some of my longer runs (fourteeners anybody? gotta train for the Pikes Peak race) and give it a real test run. I suspect that it will also be my pack for the aforementioned Pikes Peak Marathon.

A different view of the Flatirons than I often get on my runs.
I like this perspective.

As for the run itself, that was, for the most part, excellent. After two relatively easy, low mileage weeks, my PF seems to have mostly subsided. I only felt it on a few stretches during the 15 miles I put in today, and more importantly I was walking around normally afterwards, without the splitting heel pain that I have gotten after some other runs.

I made good time through the first half of the run (headed counterclockwise from Coalton Trailhead), hitting an easy-seeming 8 minute pace even once I hit the singletrack portion. Then I turned up along the Greenbelt Plateau trail and straight into the wind, moving from an easy 8 minute pace to a hard 9:30 in the space of a few minutes.

I made up for it, though, once I had the wind at my back, bringing it down to a legitimate 6:30 and having fun with it. I made it back to the trailhead at about 1:57 for 14.8 miles with (reportedly) 1500' of vertical for the day (I'm not sure I believe that particular stat, but it could be true). I can definitely say now that I am in much better shape now than I was when prepping for the Leadville race last summer.

The same view as above, but I wanted to get Longs/Meeker in there. It's amazing to me just how big those two mountains are compared to everything else around them. They're on my list for the summer. 

Now, after a sunny warm morning, the clouds have rolled in, and the wind has picked up. It looks like it might be a good day to go skiing tomorrow. Thankfully I am taking the day off from work.