I wanted to test my new vest out prior to Rat Race's Dirty Weekend, with the weather looking wet on the Saturday and a large amount of water obstacles. Even though the weather today is a mixture of cloudiness and sunshine and around the 15° Celsius mark, it was a good time to see how the vest was in milder conditions, just in case the weather people made a mistake.
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| Sucking in the belly |
I followed the sizing chart on Gul's website and Amazon's and went for the small vest. As for neoprene to work in cold temperatures it need to be snug to the skin. It does fit rather too snugly, now regretting eating an entire 200g bag of midget gems last night.
Once I had squeezing my self in I set off for one of my usual lunch time routes around the local hills.
After a about 2 / 2.5 kilometers the sweat started to build up on the chest and back and wasn't uncomfortable, but you were certainly aware of tightness and clinging sweat. My run takes in a few steep hills and the vest didn't feel any worse when putting in more effort, and its is perfectly flexible when pumping the arms, vaulting gates, and styles. The most noticable discomfort is when the sun was shining on my back, these seemed to heat exacerbate the heat, and it had that strange, warm, unpleasant feeling, like when you're in a car with heated seats or an electric blanket turned up to high. I can see this vest being great in colder conditions and with water submissions.
Once back from the run it was fairly easy to pull off with all the added sweaty lubricant, it felt great to be out of the vest and took another 15 mins sitting topless before I had cooled back down to normal.
I'll take it with me to Dirty weekend, and if its cold or raining, or both and wear it under my Mudstacle running vest. otherwise I'll save it for colder race days or rainy training.
