Ultimate Direction Ambassador Rea Kolbl Wins 24-Hour Obstacle Course Racing World Championship

Boulder, Colorado (November 21, 2019) – Ultimate Direction, the leading brand in hydration and wearable gear innovations and supporter of world-class ambassadors, is proud to announce Rea Kolbl has become a world champion.

In the Spartan 24-hour World Championship in Åre, Sweden, where the clock runs for 24 hours and the competitor with most laps completed takes the title, Kolbl finished the race with 14 laps of the course, covering 70 miles and 28,000 feet of elevation gain. She was the 1st placed women and 4th person overall.

Kolbl crossed the finish line using the forthcoming Signature Series 5.0 Race Vesta, redesigned for 2020 with more capacity, and available for the first time in a women’s-specific design. 

All Ultimate Direction products are designed by athletes, for athletes, and tested and proven in races before coming to market.

A very prolific racer in both OCR and ultrarunning races, this was the race at the top of Kolbl’s goal list for the entire 2019 season.

“It was a bit scary knowing I put so much focus into one race and very few things went according to plan, but running into problems and solving them on course is the reason I love racing,” Kolbl said.

The race was cold, snowy and very long. As such, Kolbl depended on a variety of Ultimate Direction gear including the women’s Ultra Pant v2, the forthcoming Signature Series 5.0 Race Belt and Body BottleTM 2 500. For each lap, she swapped a new Race Vesta which included mandatory gear like an emergency blanket, pants, gloves, bottles, and a backup headlamp.

“It was so cold I had to tape foot warmers to my gels and bars to prevent them from freezing. I used the Race Vesta’s bottle pockets to stash gloves when I took them off for the obstacles – they were the perfect size, and then I always knew which was ‘left’ and which was ‘right’.”

Kolbl is originally from Slovenia but lives in Boulder, Colorado. Find her on social media instagam.com/reakolbl

About Ultimate Direction

In 1985 Ultimate Direction invented the first waist pack for carrying bottles. A few years later they designed the first hand-held water bottle carrier and numerous innovations defining the hydration pack category for endurance and every-day athletes. 30 years later the brand remains credible and critical to the world’s most passionate athletes. Ultimate Direction is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Visit www.ultimatedirection.com.

Press Contact: Craig Randall, Ultimate Direction, craig.randall@ultimatedirection.com