I tried my hand at running from home to UMBC today, which I had never done before. I had spent yesterday afternoon setting up a new computer at the office, and needed to pop in this morning to make sure the Apple Migration Assistant had finished moving all of my stuff over (it took several hours, but it worked great). I only needed to be there for the morning, so it worked out well to run over and then get a ride home at lunchtime. I stuck to roads, following a route that I’ve biked thousands of times. It was interesting seeing everything from a different vantage point. The overall route was just under 7.5 miles, which is about the same distance as my usual weekday loop from home. A couple of months ago, I picked up an Osprey Duro 1.5 running vest, mainly as a way to carry more water with me in the summer. It came in handy today, because I carried more stuff than I would on a typical run, and while the Duro 1.5 isn’t exactly a backpack, it had the extra capacity I needed. This was the 3rd or 4th time I’ve run with the pack, and it seems like it will work out fine. There’s a little bit of sloshing from the water reservoir if it’s filled to capacity (1.5L) but I ran with 1L today, and didn’t notice any sloshing. The vest doesn’t get in my way, and it doesn’t seem to rub anywhere where chafing might become an issue (July and August will be the true test, though). As I had kind of expected, it does get rather wet from perspiration (particularly from my back) so I’m probably going to have to wash it regularly in the summer to keep it from getting too funky. To me, it seems like an acceptable trade-off to being able to carry more water, which I definitely need in the summer. If I combine the 1.5L reservoir with my 16oz soft water bottle, I’ll be able to carry about 0.5 gallon. I just need to supplement that with something that will replenish electrolytes (gel packs?) and I’ll be ready to take longer runs in the summer.