I'm at the stage now where I need to make final decisions on all my kit and food. Particularly as I think my wife is now becoming stupefied from my endless comments about whether I could/should do a hatchet job on my otherwise poor performing Raidlight bottles or do a DIY job on the High 5 bottles or simply exchange the Camelbak Performance bottle top for the Camelbak Podium bottle top; or should I wear the UnderArmour HeatGear Draft Compression shorts rather than the Nike Dri-Fits or Skins A400? and how can I take Super Noodles for breakfast in such a way that I don't need a cooking pot or mug (which I don't intend to take)? and did you know that if I bought the titanium long handled spoon, which is far more practical, rather than stick with the Esbit titanium spork, I'll save 1 whole gramme in weight! Every gramme counts!
You get the idea!
Trainers
Hiking boots: not a chance for this event.
So the choice is down to off-road or road running shoes.
 |
| My wife doesn't understand my expensive shoe habit |
Because I now wear orthotics I know I need a neutral gait shoe. I've found the best neutral cushioned shoe for the road to be the Asics Gel Nimbus and, for off-road, the Asics Gel Trabuco.
On the MdS there'll be a variety of terrain: sand dunes (Nimbus, I guess!); a couple of mountains (Trabuco); salt flats and dried-up wadis (Nimbus) and rock-strewn plains (Trabuco).
I've found the Trabuco OK for off-road soft and grassy trails but not as great on very muddy terrain. But it does have a rock protection plate to protect against bruising from running along on or hitting stones and rocks.
The problem with the Trabuco is that after several hours I start to feel everything, far more than I have done in the Nimbus after the same period of time. There seems to be more cushioning in the Nimbus.
Cushioning will be my friend after a few days so I'm minded to go for the Nimbus. I'll try out one more test of the Trabuco, on hopefully a winter-hardened track, before a final decision . . .
. . . Other than the final decision of whether to go a half or a full size larger shoe to accommodate heat-swollen feet, or the room needed to accommodate the work of the infamous Doc Trotters (the French medics who literally slice the skin off blisters (cutting into raw skin is optional), add neat iodine, patch you up and send you away in tears).
I'll have to do this soon so I can get a final new pair of whatever I choose, break them in over a couple of runs and then send them off to get knee length sand gaiters sewn and glued onto the shoe: getting sand in the shoes leads to horrific blistering and foot damage, as some MdS photos on the internet prove!
Socks
Years ago I used to wear Twin Skins until the manufacturing appeared to change and they started giving me blisters. I then discovered Thorlos running socks with reinforced sections and have never had blisters wearing these: they're a fantastic product.
As I'll likely be starting the MdS with a slightly larger shoe to accommodate swelling and Doc Trotters' work (see above) I've recently been trying Injinji toe socks underneath my Thorlos, partly too as another method to try and ensure no blistering on the MdS. These have been fine but with a normal sized shoe have made my feet very snug. I'll likely take the Injinjis for the first couple of days of the MdS and bin them if/when my feet swell so much that I can't get my trainers on.
I haven't yet decided whether I'll take a spare pair of socks, though it's likely. I'll have to see how the rucksack weight pans out: spare pair of socks or 100g of jelly beans? Decisions! Decisions!
Shorts
I went by the sizing guide to try on the UnderArmour HeatGear Draft compression shorts to ensure a chaffing-free MdS but still found them a little too loose: maybe I need to take all my measurements again because not many of my clothes are fitting properly anymore!
I've also tried the other main compression short competitor, the Skins A400.
Neither can beat the Nike Dri-Fit shorts I've been wearing. On the couple of times I've worn them and got serious chaffing I think that's down to horrible wet weather conditions causing the friction, not the shorts themselves. I've found the UnderArmour and Skins a little looser and thinner than the Nike Dri-Fit and aren't tempted to spend more money on trying a smaller size when the Nike's seem to be doing the job.
Every gramme saved counts, so I don't plan on wearing a second pair of shorts during the MdS. I might though take a second pair of Nike Dri-Fits for a change before the long Stage 4 starts (assuming I get that far).
I've been trying BodyGlide too as an anti-friction test. A small size of this will come with me . . . just in case I do start getting a chaffing problem! I don't feel I can justify dropping this to save weight: a serious chaffing issue could make for an extremely uncomfortable race if it came on, for the sake of 32 grammes of a BodyGlide stick!
Rucksack
Without a doubt the OMM 32 litre. This has proved to be bomb-proof over the couple of years I've been getting used to it. This should give me enough room to pack everything: I really don't want to end up having to carry items outside of the rucksack, e.g., sleeping mat, sleeping bag etc.
Bottles!
I've had no end of testing nightmares with this one.
The OMM32 rucksack is great but the mesh bottle holders on the sides of the rucksack end up being slightly too high on my back, making it difficult to reach round to get a bottle. As I'll need to be taking a few sips of fluid every 5 minutes or so in the desert the bottles need to be more accessible but I don't want to keep taking off my rucksack so frequently (ideally not at all during each stage, the stuff I need for the day fitting in the hip pockets of the rucksack or a waist bag).
Enter the Raidlight Bottle Holder which can come with a 750ml Raidlight bottle. The Raidlight Bottle Holder can thread through the shoulder strap of the OMM rucksack easily enough and I've been using two of the Raidlight Bottle Holders, secured by duct tape to the shoulder strap, hence I've been running with 1 water bottle on each shoulder.
I very quickly ditched the Raidlight bottles themselves, which are complete pants: the elastic securing string of the Bottle Holder sat too highly on the bottle and regardless of how much fluid was in the bottle it swung annoyingly from side to side: after a few hours this really got on the nerves. There was also risk of serious eye injury by impaling myself with the straws that sit on top of the bottle, and the straws were useless too: in trying to pull up the valve from the straw to take a drink it felt like I'd pull my front teeth out first.
A great discovery was the 750ml High5 bottle: it sits perfect and snug in the Raidlight Bottle Holder and has 50ml markings along the side to allow easy measuring out of water for rehydrating meals (hence no waste of limited water supplies).
I've used these pretty much throughout all my training . . . but recently sat back and thought how I was using them: I was taking them out of the Bottle Holder and pulling up the spout with my fingers.
On long runs in the UK this isn't so bad because I'd only be drinking every 20 minutes or so, but for running in the desert I figured there were two problems: firstly, I wouldn't want to be pulling these bottles out and putting them back in to the Bottle Holders every 5 minutes; secondly, hygiene is going to be a particular problem in the desert so I didn't fancy getting my grubby fingers all over the bottle top each time I wanted a drink.Bottles!
I've had no end of testing nightmares with this one.
The OMM32 rucksack is great but the mesh bottle holders on the sides of the rucksack end up being slightly too high on my back, making it difficult to reach round to get a bottle. As I'll need to be taking a few sips of fluid every 5 minutes or so in the desert the bottles need to be more accessible but I don't want to keep taking off my rucksack so frequently (ideally not at all during each stage, the stuff I need for the day fitting in the hip pockets of the rucksack or a waist bag).
Enter the Raidlight Bottle Holder which can come with a 750ml Raidlight bottle. The Raidlight Bottle Holder can thread through the shoulder strap of the OMM rucksack easily enough and I've been using two of the Raidlight Bottle Holders, secured by duct tape to the shoulder strap, hence I've been running with 1 water bottle on each shoulder.
I very quickly ditched the Raidlight bottles themselves, which are complete pants: the elastic securing string of the Bottle Holder sat too highly on the bottle and regardless of how much fluid was in the bottle it swung annoyingly from side to side: after a few hours this really got on the nerves. There was also risk of serious eye injury by impaling myself with the straws that sit on top of the bottle, and the straws were useless too: in trying to pull up the valve from the straw to take a drink it felt like I'd pull my front teeth out first.
A great discovery was the 750ml High5 bottle: it sits perfect and snug in the Raidlight Bottle Holder and has 50ml markings along the side to allow easy measuring out of water for rehydrating meals (hence no waste of limited water supplies).
I've used these pretty much throughout all my training . . . but recently sat back and thought how I was using them: I was taking them out of the Bottle Holder and pulling up the spout with my fingers.
So final testing was getting a Camelbak Performance bottle (650ml) which has an easy-to-access drinking straw and locking lid to prevent spillage. I swapped this bottle top on to the larger Camelbak Podium bottle (710ml) and haven't had a problem at all training with this: I can sip fluid out of the bottle with ease without taking the bottle out of its strap and without having to use my fingers to do so. The Podium bottle sits tightly in the Raidlight strap and doesn't bounce nor give any annoying sideways movement.
At each checkpoint on the MdS competitors are given a 1.5l bottle (2 of them if the next section to the next checkpoint is particularly long or hard, e.g., miles of sand dunes in the midday heat). Ideally I would have liked to have gone with 2 x 750ml bottles to ensure I'm fully watered up before I leave a checkpoint, rather than be a few miles from the next checkpoint and waterless had I taken, say, 2 x 500ml bottles (I don't want to be carrying the 1.5l bottle itself: I'll empty it and dump it at the checkpoint).
In this way I'll leave each checkpoint with a total (2 x 710ml) 1.42l of water using the Camelbak Podium bottles and having swigged 80ml before setting off. I'm happy with that.
I now just need to make a few markings on the side of the Podium bottle to help with accurate water measurement for rehydrating my meals at the end of the day (rather than guessing at it and ending up with soup for dinner), and I intend sewing on the Raidlight Bottle Holders to the OMM32 shoulder straps to remove any risk of duct tape failure!
Top
I'm going for the Railriders Ecomesh long-sleeved shirt: this is a featherweight nylon with SPF of 30+ weighing just 6 ounces! This will be the only top I'll wear during the race. I'll also take another top to wear sleeping at night which I'll also use under the Ecomesh for the night-stage.
Hat
I tried the Mammut Nubian hat on a run in Portugal last year but I found the neck flap insufficient protection in a breeze (the Sahara does get them), it was too tight a fit around the head (so not enough ventilation) and didn't quite cover my ears.
I've ordered a Frillneck hat from Australia (or "Arafat" hat as it's collequially known for obvious reasons!) which should hopefully do the job and can double up for protection against sand storms.
One of the great things about training for the MdS? Kit, and lots of it!!!!
