Gear thoughts....

It's the aftermath, just wasting time until 1st Sept and I can enter for 2013, so I'll post a few thoughts about gear.

In a sort-of order of importance, here's what I used together with a view on would-I-use-it-again IYSWIM:

• Shoes - Inov-8 Roclite 295s. Absolutely brilliant, they survived the Trailwalker 100km last year, the Lakeland 50 this year, and pretty much all the outdoor training in between. They're unscathed. Might get replaced by Terrafly 303s for next year, although Michael was so enamoured of his Hokas that I've really got to try them. Castleberg Outdoors offer a 2-week road test that I'm about to sample, so I'll report back.

• Haglofs Endo jacket from Castleberg Outdoors. What a brilliant piece of kit this is.Waterproof, light, easy to move fast in, I can't fault it. Detailed review here.

• Water Bottles. Big learning point this one. I'd already given up on using a hydration bladder - they're too inconvenient to refill at checkpoints - so had 2 bottles, one in a Raidlight pouch at the front and one in the side pouch on the rucsac. This worked, but I've since seen better solutions. Camelbak make a 'hands-free adapter' that fits a hose onto a 'better-bottle', giving you the best of both worlds - drink like a bladder, refill like a bottle. Now all I need is a pack with 2 bottle holders and I'm sorted, which leads me on to.....

• Inov-8 Race Elite 25 rucsac. Mine is the older version of this, it's a great daysac but with hindsight is really bigger than it needs to be for this event. The mandatory gear is only 4 litres (it fits into my 4L Inov-8 bumbag) so this was overkill. Also I've realised I need to change my water-carrying habits, so for next year I'm looking at Salomon's SLAB-5, XT Wings 5 or possibly an Ultimate Direction Highline if I can find one in the UK. Key criterion is 2 external bottle holders at the back/ sides, and low volume, 4L is plenty bearing in mind:

• OMM trio mapcase/ front pouch. I generally hate map cases - they're too bulky and flap about in the way. OMM has come up with a neat solution that attaches to both rucsac straps, and hence stays put. It makes taking the pack off more difficult, but you have less need to take it off with 4L of storage right under your nose.

• Zebralight H31 torch. I used this as a head torch with another (cheapie) headtorch disassembled and attached to my rucsac waist belt. This gave a low-down light that helped pick out the rocks underfoot, with the Zebralight giving distance viewing. It's got 6 light levels that are easy to switch between, ranging from glimmer to searchlight. It ran all night on a lithium battery that's still going, 2 weeks later. No need for spare batteries. An absolutely brilliant torch that's well worth the money, and Flashaholics sent it within a day.

• Under Armour cool gear t-shirt and Edz merino long-sleeve - I wore these the whole time and they did the job perfectly. I like the look of Rab's MeCo shirt though....