Self Supported 7 day stage race

[Perry H]

I am racing a self supported 7 day, 6 stage race that’s 171 miles.  Basically a marathon+ a day, with one stage being roughly 50 miles, and the last stage, 7-8 miles.

We have required gear – so I am wondering what the group here would choose…

Things to know – its high dessert in Sept.  IE LOTS of sun, cold nights, warm days, thorns around etc.  We have mandatory gear (below), and mandatory calories (2k minimum but I plan to haul 3k) to carry each day.  Tent and hot water provided at camp and on trail, and water refill provided on trail but might need other means of water purification.

So I am curious what you all would recommend:

• Backpack (I have a 40L Gossmer gear but need to add a hipbelt) – open to other options 30-40L  Needs to be stable while running!
• Sleeping bag: Temperature rating of Zero Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) or lower. Extreme temperature rating acceptable but a comfort rating is highly recommended. Note: the manufacturer’s label must be intact and reflect that this minimum requirement is met or, a printout of the manufacturer’s sleeping bag specifications which includes the temperature rating must be presented at the mandatory race check-in. (I have a Stoic Down 15*, again, pending cost and weight savings, might consider others)
• Sleeping pad (torso length minimum) – I’ll most likely use my Z-Pad due to the thorns and ease
• Light down or fiberfill jacket. No substitutions (wool shirts, fleece, etc.) acceptable (no vests).
  • I have a hooded 800 fill columbia
  • 750 fill non hood patagonia
    Will use the patagonia unless someone knows of a inexpensive light weight jacket so I dont run the risk or ruining a nice backpacking jacket
• Rain poncho or waterproof jacket with hood and taped seams (no emergency ponchos)
  • I have an arc terx (it’s heavy and my bombshell)
  • columbia
  • few others I cant thing of off hand
• Knife with 3-5 cm (1.1-2.0 in) blade
• Signal mirror 20 cm2 (3 in2) minimum
• Two headlamps with spare batteries, each headlamp must be a minimum of 200 lumens. 
• Red flashing light (to be affixed to backpack for night stage, a spare battery for this)
• Ability to carry 1.5 liters (50 oz) of water minimum. Recommend 2 x 750ml bottles
• Blister Kit

Other needed recommendations:

ultra light weight, fast wicking, light gray or even white long sleeve shirt to black the sun
wide brimmed hat or hat with flaps cover the back of the neck

Thanks, Perry

[Matthew / BPL]

I’m quite partial to the Patagonia Tropic Comfort Hoody when hiking in the desert. It’s baggy on purpose or you could switch to the Capilene Cool Daily Hoody for a more trim fit in the same fabric. I hike without a hat much of the time when using the hood, adding an OR baseball hat when the sun is in front of me to shield my face.

[Monte Masterson]

I don’t know how much of a factor money is to you, but if you want to get a lighter pack weight I could suggest a few things.

* You say you have a 40L GG pack so I assume it’s the Gorilla. The Ultimate Direction Fastpack 35 weighs about the same, however, it would ride much more comfortably with running day after day. Of course there are much lighter 30L to 40L packs available such as the Zpacks Nero, but you’d be miserable with them in adventure race mode.

* An Enlightened Equipment Enigma 30 degree rated quilt with 900 fill and 7d shell weighs 15.43 oz for a regular/regular. An 800 fill is $50 less and weighs about 1.6 oz more.

*The Outdoor Research Helium II Rainjacket weighs 6.4 oz in size medium (they run small though).

* You say you don’t want to ruin a nice jacket so I guess that means you’d possibly be wearing it while running. In that case I’d want a light synthetic-fill jacket because you surely don’t want down to get wet from perspiration.

[Jacob]

SOL signal mirror has instructions printed on the back. I think one of Coghlans has instructions too but they have two on their website and no pictures of the backs. I think SOL is using reflective plastic with some new-fangled sight (lexican w/ 3M branded sight) vs Coghlan using protected glass with a mesh and bead sight.

https://www.surviveoutdoorslonger.com/signaling/survive-outdoors-longer-rescue-flash-mirror.html

https://www.coghlans.com/products/sight-grid-signal-mirror-0905

Surprised they require a mirror but no whistle…So many whistles I’ve bought on amazon simply don’t work, maybe they will handout good ones like the SOL whistles.

 

 

[Chris W]

Dang, that sounds like an awesomely good time! It also sounds similar to Marathon Des Sables, except that race is in April, not September.

As far as specific gear selections, I’d really focus on your pack. It seems like you have something that could work (although may not be ideal) for most of the other big stuff. I’d go as small and light as I could with the pack. Larger packs, for me, tend to get overly full and make the multi-day running experience miserable. If the weight gets up above 20 pounds including food and water, running on anything but the mildest terrain becomes really taxing. I prefer a vest harness AND a hip belt for running with a pack since it seems to control bounce better than just the vest-style harness and I really like having easy access to water, snacks, and other stuff while running.

I use an Ultraspire Epic or Salomon S-LAB Peak 20, since my running adventures top out around 5 days. The Ultimate Direction Fastpack 35, mentioned earlier, would probably be my choice if I were forced to size up. There aren’t a ton of options in this realm, but RaidLight and WAA make a few packs as well.

I’ve contemplated similar races and found a few articles on iRunFar.com to be a pretty good starting point. Meghan Hicks did a three part series on the gear, logistics, food, and planning that goes into MDS but it seems to be pretty good advice for any long self-sufficient stage race. The series is long on her approach and philosophy of preparing for the race and has her gear list. I found both the perspective and specific gear selections pretty informative.

Links below:

https://www.irunfar.com/2019/05/how-to-run-the-marathon-des-sables-part-1-gear-kit.html

https://www.irunfar.com/2019/07/how-to-run-the-marathon-des-sables-part-2-food.html

https://www.irunfar.com/2019/09/how-to-run-the-marathon-des-sables-part-3-training-and-logistics.html

 

 

And a few other gear notes:

Hat– OR Sun Runner. Love the ball cap and cape design

Red Flashing light: Nathan makes a super small clip on one for running that works well. Runs on a watch type battery.

Insulated Jacket – I love my Patagonia micropuff for this kind of stuff. Super light and I don’t have to worry about throwing it on when I’m soaked with sweat.

Shirt – yep, Patagonia tropic comfort. Or an arcteryx phasic sun hoody.

Good luck!

-Chris

[Monte Masterson]

The SMD Flight 30 UL is another running pack you might consider. Weighs 26 oz and can be purchased with vest harness or conventional shoulder straps. $152. Montbell Thermawrap for a jacket.

https://www.montbell.us/products/disp.php?cat_id=25011&p_id=2301354&gen_cd=1

[Tom K]

Are you doing the Marathon du Sable in the Sahara?

[BlackHatGuy]

Take a look at the Yama Mountain Gear Sassafras fastpack (I never understand why Yama gets so little love on this site, Gen makes quality gear).

I’m also a big fan of his insulated pogies – much better, IMO, than wearing gloves or mittens.

[Roger Caffin]

Insulated pogies: how do they go with XC ski stocks?

Cheers

[John S.]

Shirt- Railriders Adventure Top

Hat- Sunday Afternoons Ultra Adventure Hat (add clips and string to keep neck flap in place, similar to OR sun runner hat)

[BlackHatGuy]

“Insulated pogies: how do they go with XC ski stocks?”

No idea, I don’t XC ski (is a ski stock the same thing as a ski pole?). Not sure why it would present a problem though.

[Edward John M]

Pogies look like a very easy DIY project but for CC skiing I think you would be wearing LW gloves and need to size up a bit to allow for that extra thickness.

Might be a good project for Thinsulate too.

 

[Perry H]

Running the Grand2grand.  :)

These are all AWESOME recommendations…

On the ultralight, long sleeve sun shirt (for warm climates) – any recommendations without a hood?  In the past the hood of other shirts rubbed on my neck during training runs.

Think super thin as I’ll most likely stick to my merino wool ultra light t-shirt on top of the LS shirt.  – Most Likely :) so open to suggestions.

[John S.]

The columbia timiami shirt is very thin fabric. Then there are the sun protective companies like sunprecautions.com that sell clothing.

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