Race Pac
My main piece of kit was my inov-8 race PAC 22 litre. This along with the bottle and holder and mesh pouch for attaching to the front strap was kindly donated to me by the wonderful people at inov-8. I usually use a much smaller backpack but obviously for this race that wouldn't cut the mustard.
This is the bag in all its glory. I was worried when it arrived that it would be too big but soon realised it was the perfect size to fit in everything I needed (I will add to this post the kit list I made for me and Sarah on my pretty excel spreadsheet).
The bag had a big inside pouch and several other pockets for storing things in including a hidden inside pocket under the lid of the bag which is where I stored my passport and valuables during the race. There was another pouch on the top of the bag which was great for things you needed easy access to but didn't want every 5 minutes such as tissues and little sun lotion sachets and rock tape. On the waist straps there was a pouch which I used for putting in my snacks and lip balm and pain killers. There were two diagonal pockets on the sides of the bag which could be used for putting the water bottles in but I chose to have one bottle attached to the front of the bag and my Nathan bladder fitted nicely inside the bag where there is a section for the bladder to fit in.
The pack was easily adjustable even when running and with the use of some extra Velcro straps the poles attached safely to the back.
The only thing I would suggest is that if the water bottle bouncing will annoy you it is worth adding a few extra strips of Velcro to the bottle holder just to secure it a little more. I did this before I left and the holder stayed in place perfectly. I also chose to switch to the raidlight bottle with the longer straw as this meant I didn't have to take the bottle out when I wanted to drink (this later proved to be an excellent idea)
I would highly recommend this PAC for the longer races where you need to be carrying a lot of kit. I have just bought the smaller 10 litre one and will be using this for my shorter races.
Sunglasses
I took BLOC sunglasses with me - stupidly I forgot to take the coloured lenses but I survived just fine with the clear ones as they still had UV protection. Sarah also wore a pair of BLOC sunglasses (she remembered the lenses for hers :) )
These were so comfortable I actually forgot I was wearing them after a while and will for sure come with me on my future runs and next year to the OFR.
Gaiters
The Gaiters I used were by Raidlight and were stuck on with velcro. If there is one thing I would 100 % recommend it is to get the velcro sewn on to the shoe. I used some very strong glue and in the heat this just started coming away from my trainer - I still maaged to keep most of the sand out but by the end of the race there wasn't a whole lot of velcro still stuck to the trainer as I kept taking them on and off to re tape my feet.
You will also notice that on the front of the gaiters, due to the amount of rocky sections in the run they did get worn slightly but not to an amount I would be concerned about and I would be perfectly happy to use these again next year.
Trainers
I took my trusty brooks road trainers with me. As the terrain was so varied I didn't see the point in changing over to a trail shoe and to be honest I think having the extra support from the trainer was beneficial.
One thing that was noted however was that the people who wore Hokas had the best feet at the end of the race so perhaps something to consider if you are looking at this race for this year or next.
