Welcome to my series on random gear that makes trail running just that bit easier. Totally unsponsored, so I genuinely like it for it to make the list 📋
- My favourite bag clip! 🎒💧
- My favourite socks 🧦🏃♀️
- My Backpack gets Love ❤️🎒🏃♀️
- My Favourite Running Undies 🩲🏃♀️
- My Favourite Chafe Management Gear 🤕🧴
- My favourite way of preventing a complete meltdown due to sand in my shoes 😫🏖👟
- My Arm Sleevies 💪🧦❤️
- My PLB 🤕🛰🚁❤️
- My Favourite Recovery Shoes 😴🩴❤️
- My Favourite Trail Shoes 🏃♀️🏞👟
- Dealing with Leeches 🧛♂️🪱
- My favourite snacks 🏃♀️🍱
- My favourite Mapping & Navigation Tools 🗺🧭🤳⌚️
- My Post Race Compression Gear 🏃♀️👖🧦
- My favourite Poles 🏃♀️👩🦯
- Support Crew 👯♀️🍔🏃♀️
My favourite bag clip! 🎒💧
I run with a bladder and there’s always that issue of what to do with the hose. The UltrAspire “Magnet Vest Clip” is the best solution that I’ve found. The clip has attached to any sort of backpack that I’ve owned. And the magnet part fits around a standard bladder hose. AND the magnets are strong! 🧲💪 I throw the hose in the general direction of the bag clip while running and it just clips in. Compared to others, this one is by far the best. Plus it’s cheap! 🙂👍
Sadly I lost one of my clips Rogaining. I was messing around and somehow flicked it off into the bush. Being black I could not find it (plus I was still in the middle of a race). I will try to spray paint it’s replacement a brighter colour 😢🎨
My favourite socks 🧦🏃♀️
These aren’t exactly an unknown product. But they are the best; Injinji toe socks. 🧦🦶
When I start a race, the socks I put on are the same socks I finish a race in. 🧦🏁 So these socks are getting wet, dry, muddy, sandy, sweaty for possibly 3 and a bit days straight. But I don’t change them. They stay in place, they don’t chafe and I may finish a 200 miler with “maybe” a blister. Maybe. I don’t get blisters all that often. 🤕🦶
They do take longer to put on as you need to line up each toe neatly for its sock hug. But worth it for races and longer training runs, especially in the wet where they dominate all other socks. 🌧👍🏃♀️
My preference are the Mini Crew Height cause I find they are high enough to always clear my shoe, but low enough that my legs aren’t going to overheat. 👟🥵 And either Original Weight or Trail/Medium weight (I can’t actually tell the difference when running). ⚖️🧦
They’re fairly average priced for a decent running specialised sock at $25-$30. Well worth it to buy a couple of pairs for racing and training (they last for ages) 👍🧦💰
My Backpack gets Love ❤️🎒🏃♀️
Food Grade Silicone Spray 🥙💨
I am sure this is why my packs last as long as they do. Don’t mess around with WD-40 or anything like that. Go straight to the good stuff. 🙅♀️ the zippers on my pack had started to catch cause of all the rain running recently. So it was time to give the pack some love ❤️ Each zipper got a little spray and it’s back to full use.
I specifically get the food grade one so I can also use it on the bladder. 💧 Where the hose attaches to the bladder & also the slide seal at the top. 👍
Price wise. I think this was around $20. There’s all sorts of brands. The Helmar Food Grade Silicone Spray is what I’ve got, plus I’ve got a gel one somewhere that’s a different brand. 👍💰
My Favourite Running Undies 🩲🏃♀️
It took me years to find ones that don’t chafe on the seams or just end up sitting weird sometime during the first night. I love my Bonds for training, but once the k’s get longer. They just don’t cut it. 😞🩲🌌
Hello T8 Women’s Commando Running Underwear! They are fantastic. No chafing, limited sitting weird and unlike my socks I actually change these during a race. 😁🩲🏃♀️
They aren’t cheap at around $30 each, so I really just use them for races or extra long training runs. But they are 100% worth it. 👍💰
My Favourite Chafe Management Gear 🤕🧴
Chafing is inevitable… Especially if it’s raining and your shorts get stuck to your legs ending in inner thigh chub rub 😱😬🌧 Also under the bottom of my crop top 👙🤕. So annoying!!
I’ve tried the fancy gear. But honestly old fashioned Vaseline works the best. You can lather it on thick, it’s fairly waterproof and you end up nice and greased up. 👍🧴 Apparently it can stain your clothes 🤷♀️ These are my trail running clothes, so uh. They’re really already trashed. I also haven’t had any issues 😁
When the chafing does occur. Because in the big runs it’s inevitable, the vaso has washed off, rubbed off, I’m chafing somewhere I haven’t prepared. Whatevs. 🤦♀️ I go with Bepanthen. This was a hot tip from Liz Maughan and it is the best. It soothes the chafing and also prevents future chafing 👍 (I’ve tried a few other nappy rash creams, this one is still my favourite) ❤️
Both products you can get from the supermarket and the store brand Petroleum Jelly works exactly the same as Vaseline. It’s also cheap! Vaso is only a few dollars and Bepanthen around $10. 💰👍
My favourite way of preventing a complete meltdown due to sand in my shoes 😫🏖👟
The first year I did Delirious WEST I attempted to quit 5k from the finish cause I had sand in my shoes AGAIN!! 😖😭🏖👟
The next year no sand!! 🙅♀️🏖 thanks entirely to my Raidlight Desert Gaiters 👟🧦🐊
These things are awesome. Nothing gets in the shoes! They come with a strip of sticky velcro & the gaiters themselves. I get the velcro stitched on by a cobbler up in Newcastle so it’s not going anywhere. Then the gaiters cover the entire shoe. 👟🧦🐊
Regular ankle gaiters will stop the sand coming in over the top, but this fine WA sand was coming in through the mesh at the toes and anywhere else it could. So the whole shoe needed to be covered. Problem solved 100% 💯
So far I’ve used them for Delirious WEST & Great South West Walk and plan to use them for Lakes Trail Festival Lakes 100 & Next years Delirious + Any other races that involve sand 🏃♀️🏖
These are definitely a specialty item and you’re not going to be needing them for UTA or anything like that. But when you do need them they are a lifesaver. Or a meltdown saver. And it’ll save the support crew from having to deal with the upset messy runner 😆
Price wise. I think the Gaiters were around $30 and it cost another $60-$80 to get the stitching done. You could just stick it down if you wanted. But I thought it’d come unstuck over the long distance. 🤷♀️💰
My Arm Sleevies 💪🧦❤️
I love my sleevies. These ones happen to be La Sportiva brand. But there’s plenty of similar ones out there. ❤️💪🧦 And they’re much better than my original arm sleevies which was just an old pair of socks (too bulky) 🧦
They keep my arms warm especially at the start of a race where it’s freezing at the start line 🥶 But I know I’m going to be toasty in a few k’s 🥵🏃♀️. I start with them on and the mittens pulled down over my fingers, then the fingers come out & eventually I either push the sleevies the whole way down or take them off entirely and put them in my pack 🎒
All of this can be done without taking off my pack (unlike a long sleeve shirt) and without slowing down 🙅♀️🚶♀️.
Best Features:
🧤 Mittens and a thumb hole. So fingers can be kept warm
⌚️ A watch hole so I can see exactly what my pace/distance is.
🪶 Lightweight and pack small. So they’re easy to toss in the pack once I’m warm. Or to grab in case I might need them overnight.
🌧 Dry quickly cause they’re made of quick wicking running material that won’t hold onto the water
📏 Nice and long so they go the whole way up my arm
I got these ones at the UTA pre-race festival a few years back. I think they were $30-$40. Totally worth it. They’ve appeared at most of my races since then 💰👍
My PLB 🤕🛰🚁❤️
Technically this is an item I love. But have never actually used. 🤞
I bought it after a few near misses with snakes 🐍 & a couple of dehydration incidents 🥵. In both cases there was no one else around and I had no phone reception 🤳. So if that Red Bellied Black Snake had not moved out of the way (instead of me treading on its head - We made eye contact 👀🐍) I’m not sure what I would have done. Bandaged it up and laid on an overgrown track hoping that someone figured out I was missing at nightfall and where I was. Or limped it back to an abandoned campsite that I’d passed 🤷♀️☠️.
My “adventures” have gotten way more wild since then. Now I wouldn’t even necessarily be on a trail. 🏃♀️🧭
So the PLB (Personal Locator Beacon) became a necessity. It’s the Ocean Signal PLB1 RescueMe. And It has one purpose. Call a helicopter and tell them where I am 🛰🚁
It’s a once use item (But when I use it I’m probably dying. So that’s fine & I think you can get the battery replaced etc if you send it off.) ☠️. Is very small (Sunnies for scale) and lightweight. 📏⚖️ There’s no annual fee or anything like that. You buy it and it’ll just work 💸. It also connects direct to emergency services (Some go through a third party) ☎️🚑
These days it just hangs out in my training pack. Where I hopefully never have to use it. But odds are I will eventually 🤷♀️🏃♀️
Price wise, it’s not cheap at around $350. But like I said, that’s all you pay. 💰the other thing you want to check is the expiry date (the batteries run out eventually) they can be replaced if you send it off. But it lasts around 7 years in standby 🔋
My Favourite Recovery Shoes 😴🩴❤️
A few years ago I got Plantar Fasciitis pretty bad. And as you do I tried ALL the treatments. One piece of advise I got was to “never walk around barefoot” 🦶🙅♀️
So I invested in a pair of OOFOS 🩴 Even with the Plantar Fasciitis long fixed 🦶👍 I still wear my Oofos. They’re just really comfy. 😄
I have an indoor pair (the clogs) and an outdoor pair (the slides). The clogs have suffered a bit of damage due to my parrot taking offence to them 🦜🔪 (You can see the bite marks). But overall they last for years. 👍 And I pack the slides for after every race 😁🏃♀️🩴. I also very specifically chose Oofos that I could wear socks with. (Cause I gotta have on those compression socks post race) 😁🧦
Price wise you’re looking at upwards of $60. 💰 But there’s also lots more colours and designs now. 🌈🩴👍
My Favourite Trail Shoes 🏃♀️🏞👟
Trail shoes rely a lot on personal preference. And personally I like shoes with good traction, that are flexible, good drainage & I can feel the ground under my feet, while they still remain protected. And they have to be tough!!👟👍
I started trail running in inov8 & then loved the Nike Terra Kiger. Before floundering a bit looking for my next shoe. Salomon was all the rage, but I just didn’t like them. The soles were hard, and didn’t flex & my feet got uncomfortable. The Hoka was another obvious choice, but I found they were too bulky and I felt like I was going to trip over 🙅♀️👟
Then Lisa Cahill let me try on her La Sportiva Bushido. Fortunately we took the same size. Cause I fell in love. ❤️👟
They had everything I was looking for in a shoe! 👍👟 I can wear these for days (and have). And now they get personal mods with Velcro to attach sand gaiters or ankle gaiters. 🐊👟 I go through a questionable number of pairs (photographed are the ones I gathered from around my house, they are all “well loved” 🤳). They last for hundreds of kilometres. Or in my case a couple of ultras, then they’re downgraded to training shoes for the next 6 months until I’ve completely worn off the traction. 😬👟 Then the Bushido cycle of life begins anew 🔄👟
Price wise I buy them whenever they are on special for about $180. 💰 The hardest part is that not many stores carry them. 💸📦👟
If La Sportiva would ever like to sponsor me, it would really help the ongoing Bushido love & my wallet 😁❤️
Dealing with Leeches 🧛♂️🪱
The Leeches at the moment are hideous! The worst I’ve ever seen it. At one stage on todays run I would have had well over a dozen on each shoe, each of them trying to slink their way up my tasty tasty ankle 🙅♀️🧛♂️🪱
Bushman Repellent with Deet is the only thing that holds them off. 🛑🧛♂️🪱 Spray it all over your shoes & then up around your socks and ankles 👟🧦
How long it lasts totally depends on the day. Today I was fine for the first couple of hours, then it got washed off 🌧 and they attacked!!
You can buy smaller cans that fit into your running pack. 🎒 In the past I haven’t bothered. But atm, I’m classing it as mandatory gear 😬
Price wise it’s like $9-$15 depending on the size can you buy. 💰 You can get it at supermarkets, chemists or camping stores 👍 Also, Make sure it’s the Brown can, that’s the only one that holds back the leeches!! 🟤
My favourite snacks 🏃♀️🍱
To be classed as my favourite I have to be able to easily stomach the food for days on end. 🙅♀️🤢 Unfortunately gels, while they’re good for a high speed race, not so good on day 2. 🤢
My go to food supply is baby food 👶 Fruit purées, Custardy deserts & for the hot races. Jelly pouches. 🍮
They’re all really easy to stomach & there’s a heap of variety. The baby food in particular is quite gentle on the stomach. I guess cause it’s gotta be alright for babies 😁👶
Calorie wise. They vary between 70cals-150cals which is fine for me and I generally have one an hour. 🔥⏱ I’ll also mix it up with other food. And that generally depends on what I feel like and what the weather is like. Eg. If it’s hot. I must eat all the Watermelon 🍉
Being in little pouches they are easy to carry, and fold up for throwing out once I’m done. 🗑 They are larger to carry than a gel. But I’m wearing a pack. So it doesn’t really matter 🎒
So far this is the only food I’ve found I’m able to carry & consistently stomach during long races. After a while everything else gets a bit sickly 🤢
Price wise. These are around the $1.50 mark. Some are a bit cheaper, some a bit pricier 💰 You can get them at any supermarket in the baby food or dessert aisle 👶🍮
My favourite Mapping & Navigation Tools 🗺🧭🤳⌚️
1️⃣💻 Route Planning:
Before I plot anything out I do some research into whether trails exist or how hard the terrain is, if I’ll be on private property, or if anyone has run/hiked this before. My fav tools are:
🗺 Google Maps (maps.google.com) - Using Map layer, Satellite layer & Street View It lets me see if trails exist, the sort of terrain (or extra trails), and if I’m coming on/off a road; what the access is like.
🗺 SIX Maps (https://maps.six.nsw.gov.au) - This is a gov site that has all the Topo maps for free. It shows property boundaries and even old trails. The satellite imagery is also different and more high res than Google maps.
🗺 Strava Global Heatmap (www.Strava.com/heatmap) - This is very useful to see if anyone has ever run or biked that route before. It’ll show if part of the trail is cut. Or what I’m planning probs isn’t possible.
2️⃣🗺 Mapping:
Next it’s time to map out my route so I can load it up to take on the trails with me. There are a heap of apps that do this. But my two favs are:
🏃♀️ MapMyRun (mapmyrun.com) - Super simple to use and you can quickly draw your planned route. Exports as GPX Files
🏃♀️ plotaroute (plotaroute.com) - A bit more advanced. But has some great tools for extracting parts of existing gpx files and splicing them into your new planned run. Exports in any format you want. So GPX & KML (I really only use those two)
3️⃣🗺 Navigation:
You’ve got your planned route and now it’s time to run it! 🏃♀️ My fav apps and tools for this are:
🧭 Watch Navigation - A lot of the watches now support maps. I use a Garmin Fenix 7. Which has my route overlayed over a topo map of the area. The best part about this is it shows all the alternate trails. If you have an older watch it only shows your route on a black background. So if you’re turning right & there’s two rights, you won’t know you’re on the correct one until you start down the trail. To get my maps onto my watch. I export them as GPX format. Load them into Garmin Connect & then “Send to Device”
🧭 maps.me - This a free app you can load onto your phone. You download your initial base maps & then it runs completely offline. While not being super detailed, the base maps show the vast majority of trails and of course your planned route over the top. It also works with your phones compass. So there’s a lot of me spinning in circles until I’m facing the trail I want. It supports KML files which you can download and airdrop or send to your phone which maps.me will save as a bookmark.
🧭 Avenza - The app itself is free. But then you buy most of the maps. This is the big kid of navigating. Full topo maps with contours and plenty of detail. If I’m doing complex nav or off-trail stuff I use this. The Topo maps are around $2 each and once you’ve bought them they’re yours to keep (I have all the local locations). I load GPX files onto it as a new layer. It’s a bit more complex than maps.me but worth learning how to use. Also works completely offline.
My Post Race Compression Gear 🏃♀️👖🧦
This was a game changer for me. I swear that I feel heaps better the day after if I put on compression gear after my race. 🏃♀️👖🧦
My favourite combo is my 2XU compression tights with my Compress Sport socks. But if I don’t want the full tights I use my SLS3 calf socks. 👖🧦
Although I think any compression brand will work. It’s more about the calves & quads getting their compressed hug. 🤗🦵
I wear them to bed. Then normally wear the tights under my pants the next day (if I have to go out… they look a bit weird by themselves) 😆👖
My calves in particular seem to recover quicker. 👍🦵
Price wise. Well. I can’t remember. But the pants are probably close to $100 & the small socks $20’ish & the Calf socks I think I paid around $40 for 💰. You can get the gear at any running shop or sports store. 👍🏃♀️
My favourite Poles 🏃♀️👩🦯
These are my Leki Micro Trail Race poles🦯 I love how they’re super lightweight, They fold up small, they’re easy to assemble and especially….
The gloves!! 🧤 You wear the gloves the whole time and can quickly clip in or out of the poles. I used to always get annoyed with figuring out which pole was left or right and then getting the wrist straps back on. Now it doesn’t matter. They’re the same!!! ⬅️➡️🤷♀️ I still haven’t solved how to not trip over your own poles while using two hands to eat a packet of chips however 🍟🤦♀️
They come with their own carry bag & I also purchased the rubber tips for use on the road 🛣
Price wise I paid a bit over $200 for the whole lot. 💰 Not cheap, but definitely worth it if you’re looking to invest in some quality poles 👍
Support Crew 👯♀️🍔🏃♀️
This is my last post in this series as I need to get ready for Irrational SOUTH which is starting next Wednesday 🏃♀️💯💯
None of the big events I do would be possible without Support Crew. Normally mum helps me during races, but heaps of other friends are there feeding me 😋, pacing 🏃♀️ (sometimes on a bike 🚴♀️), transporting me on a Pirate Boat 🏴☠️🚤, Cheering me on at the finish line 🏁, Listening to me complain 😫, taking photos 🤳, or protecting me from leeches 🧛♂️🪱.
Races are made so much easier with Support Crew, especially the really long races. And they are more fun. A drop bag just isn’t as good. 😁
Price wise. I suggest packing extra snacks, and you will owe them for days afterwards!! 😬💁♀️
If you’ve liked this kind of random series, and want me to post about other ultra/trail running stuff. Comment to let me know what you want to hear about. 😀
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