Piece of String3 - DNS and DNF

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times.

It all started Like the Wind. After a great evening at their pop-up talk in central London, where I met pretty much all the Centurion stalwarts chugging beer at the back plus a few other runners talking about running and stuff, I hopped on the train to Tring.

Being proper mentalists the PoS group had a great idea a few days before the race to also run the inaugural Tring Parkrun. I think it was Adams that suggested this. The run was only 5 miles away and although I had no way to get to the start of PoS (not being a driver), Mark Fox offered me a lift. I was also in the String mindset and thought this might play some part in this year’s pointlessness. I even went to the point of checking who the RD was just in case the Jameses had set this up as an elaborate hoax. The paranoia had started early this year.

As the Parkrun organisers started the briefing at 9am and proceeded to enjoy a good back-slapping exercise in front of the 100 or so morning runners, I had to leave the ongoing handshakes, cheque presentations and introductions of all the people who made this event possible at 9:15 to be able to get back to the start of PoS. So the first run of the day ended in a DNS.

Mark drove over due to a late breakfast and gave me a lift to the Village Hall in Wendover where I met many familiar faces and and donned the chicken suit. I’d told a few friends that I was running in the suit this year as the PoS is billed as a Fun Run, and I wanted to explore this aspect. Unfortunately as I wandered to the start line I realised I was only able to see through a postage-stamp size hole and was already sweating like a good ‘un. But not being one to give up on a mad plan, I persevered.

"13 runners, one chicken"

Level 1: Chain Hill

Nici Griffin was to be the ringmaster on this little bit of fun, and delighted in sending us on around 10 laps of Chain Hill (I lost count. It doesn’t pay to count things on PoS). We had to complete a lap on average every 15 minutes. Quite doable but tough on the quads. I estimated the hill to be a couple of hundred feet. So this was a quick 2 hour warm-up, 10k and 2000’ascent. Level 1 complete.

Level 2: More Hills

Returning back to Wendover we had a quick briefing from James Elson, which was exactly the same as the Level 1 briefing. Namely we had to run 14 minute miles across the Ridgeway to Goring. Oh goody. More hills. By now I was really starting to feel the effects of the heat, hills and chicken suit but being properly unstable I had vowed to keep it on the whole race. So back through town for the third time and more questioning looks from the Saturday morning shoppers.

Getting chicky with it

We trotted along the Ridgeway at a comfortable pace and I fell in to a group of 3 with John Barrett and Antonio Martins. We talked about the beauty of the countryside, the joy of being out on the hills and generally what’s great about running. Always good to have positive uplifting conversation. By now the suit was beginning to take it’s toll. 3 hours in and I’d gone through 4 litres of water and enough electrolyte to rehydrate a small horse, and not needed a loo break (thankfully, as the suit is not equipped for such functions). 

I was starting to flag. 

I waved the other two on and took a slow hike up a particularly long hill.

In an attempt to catch them up again I put my foot down on the downhill. In the wrong place. A niggling knee injury twanged and I was reduced to walking. No problem as I’d done this in pretty much every race this season. Just walk it out and back to running in no time.

Each time I tried to run, the knee wasn’t playing ball, so a long hike was in order.  I was passed by the rest of the field who all stopped and asked if I was OK.  I was, but mentally I was cursing that goshdarn knee. To the point I took of the suit & stuck it in my backpack. I didn’t want anything to slow me down as it was now a race against the cutoff. The worst of times.

It was a race I didn’t win. As I plodded down a lane James Adams met me at the checkpoint. I was 15 minutes outside the cut-off though he did give me the option of returning, but I wasn’t going to be running again today and so took the DNF at about 15 miles. My shortest ever ultra.

Back to Wendover we picked up Debbie King who had got very lost and was waiting for us in a nearby pub. As I’d gambled on a long string again this year my train ticket home was for 7pm Sunday, so I asked if there was anything I could do to help. As a competitor turned volunteer it was fascinating to see the well-oiled meticulously planned PoS machine in action. I found my niche making tea and coffee and eating all the chocolate crack.

Chillin' while Chain Hillin'

As the runners returned to Wendover for the second time, they all looked in pretty good spirits. Anna bopped in as 1^st lady and 4^th overall, though as Sam Robson dropped here, she left as 3^rd overall.

My fellow Socialler, Mark Fox was limping badly due to twice twisting his ankle on Level 1 and was close to bailing. Luckily the next level was on the Grand Union Canal. Nice and flat, and so we persuaded him to pop out for another section. I was under strict instruction not to give anything away. So a nice flat GUC run it was then.

Level 3: A bit of canal and more Ridgeway

As it was now dark nav became a bit of an issue. That and the RDs forgetting to mention that the GUC had been drained for most of the section they were running so they couldn’t “follow the water” as usual. The Jameses swiftly and efficiently organised a text to all runners and we were back on track, and in the meantime it was time to brief for Level 4.

As it turned out most runners got through this section fine apart from Anna who managed to get pretty well lost and slipped from 3^rd to 8^th returning back at Wendover after 50-odd miles. We did lose Mark and Caroline after they missed the cut-off, so down to 6 runners.

Level 4: More hills

This was the beast section. The all-singing all-dancing James and James roadshow had found a looped track on a hillside in the nearby woods. Earlier in the day we’d asked the Twitterverse to vote trick or treat for each competitor. Some got 60% tricks, some got 100% tricks, though this useful experiment goes to prove that Twitter is full of sick, twisted individuals.

Midnight in the woods, dancing to toonz..

Nikki Mills and I were based at the checkpoint and had to meet & greet runners as they joined the fun. We first sent them uphill to the upper path, where Chris Mills was hiding in the bushes whispering Golum phrases and directing them back down to the lower path. Based on the Twitter votes, James Adams (who really enjoys this sort of thing) then either gave them a trick, directing them on the hell loop and a 49 degree scramble up Hoka Hill, or to continue along the flat path to our checkpoint for the treat. He was also tweeting each decision as the runner was told, just to make those voting for trick feel guilty.

Which I’m sure they didn’t.

In a display of absolute grit and determination, every runner that we sent on another loop merely refilled with water and gels, then set off on the next lap. Most had twigged this was going to be a night of loops on the second lap so just looked at us quipped “another lap?” and set off up the hill again as we nodded.

Finally after 5 laps we could send the runners back to Wendover with a “good news / bad news” greeting. 

The good news was back to the Hall. 

The bad news – they’d get that back at the hall.

The bad news back at the hall was that it was all over.

We’re a little bit twisted like that.

So as one by one the runners were sent back down to finish it only left Anna out on the course. Tunes blaring, bopping away and giving Adams a hard time for this year’s “piece of piss” to be sent down the hill to finish. All done. 

The best of times.

T184 - Sleeping my way to a finish

T184 is an unsupported run along the length of the Thames from the barrier in East London to the source near Kemble in Gloucestershire. There are checkpoints every 25-30 miles where you get water. Nothing else. You start carry everything you need for potentially 4 days running, sleeping and eating.

The route

My race began with a LOT of planning. Numbers and spreadsheets are my thing so I had catalogued every piece of kit I have into categories, with weight and bulk. The idea was that I could then work out the best kit combination and the size of pack I would need. There was also a lot of information and chat on kit, etc on the t184 facebook forum, which I read and added to my notes, including the best bit of advice from the RD Shane Benzie.. It's not kit weight but kit selection that will make the difference whether you DNF or not.

The final decision was to go with a lightweight approach but with one eye on the weather. That meant I had to carry kit for a cold Saturday (the forecast was for 6c overnight) and a wet Sunday.  I’d done a couple of long runs with my Innov-8 RaceElite 24 and knew it was comfy with no rubbing and for easy access I’d bought a RaceElite 3 waist pack for phone, map & snacks.

Key kit would be for comfortable sleeping as I’ve done a lot of hiking over the years and found that I’m useless without decent rest. Pace drops, I start to make navigation errors, etc as soon as I get really tired so a decent warm set-up was essential. Due to predictions for the cold weather I went for a 4-season Sea to Summit bag at +4/-2c, a Rab Ultralight bivi and Sil Poncho / tarp to keep the rain off (and as an extra layer if it got really wet) with a simple cut-down foam roll-mat for a bit of comfort.

On the food front I decided to leave the cooking kit and freeze-dried food at home due to the higher calorie value of nuts, pepperami and chocolate. Plus I saved over 1kg and a load of space in the pack by going with a cold-food option. And it was instantly available. No stopping to faff with boiling water and waiting for food to hydrate.

Race plan. Out of the window by CP2

My race plan was a run/walk strategy for 20/5 minutes at 6/3mph. Day two would be the same but at 5/2.5mph and day three at 4/2mph. I had also planned two 8 hour sleep stops overnight to recuperate fully from the day. I wanted to treat this more as 3 days of 100k, and use the sleep break as a reward for completing that day’s task.

Kenneth Branagh giving us his
Richard III speech

On Friday morning 70-odd runners gathered at the Thames Barrier café. We collected a tracking device, make final kit checks, some of us peed, drooled and gave blood for a Kent Uni immunology study and at 10:30am set off. The initial pace felt comfortable and we quickly passed the dome, crossed under Blackwall Tunnel and jogged past Parliament. The crowds of tourists were a problem in places but a few minutes walking were going to make absolutely no difference in a race that has an 80 hour cutoff.

At CP1 I came in at just over 5 hours, a little ahead of schedule but feeling good. Seeing the sights on a running tour of London had been a great lift, and I was ready to get going on the next 26 mile section. During the day several people had met me through London and run or walked for a while, which helped to pass the time and boost morale.  

For the second section I’d been running with a group and had become unofficial group leader after telling them I knew the area well (I used to camp at Laleham while working in Chertsey a few years back). I soon proved my worth by leading us down the wrong route that resulted in a 3 mile detour, but made up for this with a water stop at the campsite with an 80’s disco and an interesting encounter with a group of slightly drunk ladies offering us wine and food. We all declined. Moses did want to go boogie, but we had other things to do.

We reached CP2 at Old Windsor around midnight. Everything was going fine but a lot slower than planned due to a lot of walking. 53 miles in and I was way behind schedule, but I was enjoying myself so much I decided to implement the Whenever Plan. As long as I was ahead of the cut-offs, I’d just run, walk or sleep whenever I felt like it. My decision was therefore to bivi down on the football pitches on the approach to Windsor for a good night’s sleep.

Saturday morning saw me back on the road at dawn after a lovely 5 hours sleep. I jogged for a couple of hours as I knew I’d been 4 hours ahead of the cut-off at CP2 so I was now behind. But with the average required pace 2.3mph I knew that with a morning of running, I could get that buffer back. I met Jamie Woods at CP3 in Henley who had droped due to blisters. Luckily so far my feet were in great condition. I was removing shoes and socks at every chance and airing them out which combined with the recovery they got while I was asleep seemed to be keeping them in tip-top condition.

Together with the Whatever Plan, I had now decided that I would use my food as a reward system, so I tucked in to the 2 pepperami that I would get at every CP, filled up with water and moved on up the river.

Throughout the day I was catching up to runners and jogging with them for a while, as many had just grabbed the odd hour of sleep so my 5 hours had put me well behind. On the approach to the 100 mile point at Streatley I was becoming increasingly glad of my decision to take these proper sleep breaks as I noticed that many were looking extremely tired and having difficulty keeping a conversation going. Approaching CP4 at Streatley I also met a Kate Hayden and heard that a good mate Chris Edmonds had dropped earlier due to shin splints, a recurring problem and one that he needs to get properly sorted! (hint)

Streatley became a graveyard. Runner after runner collapsed in a chair and handed in their number. Maybe having reached 100 miles they felt happy they’d done enough, maybe it was the realisation there were still 84 miles and two more days ahead, but the field slimmed considerably. Another to exit from the race here was Tom Foreman, with whom I’d run the PoS last year. He’d decided that running the race was too easy and started swimming upstream a mile or so back.

Selfie while runners fight over a pie

Off again on the path and I was now on sections I was unfamiliar with. Well, the path at least. I’d rowed the Thames in a “three men in a boat” skiff a few years ago with my wife, so was familiar with the towns, bridges and pubs. Unfortunately the latter were well out-of-bounds so I had to march past with my eyes averted to the beer and food being served. To be honest it didn’t bother me. That was a different world now, I had a race to complete.

It was also around this time that I began to realise people smelled of soap and laundry detergent. Everyone I passed on the path had a distinct “just washed” smell. I’m sure the same applied in reverse as I’d been two days and nights as a soap dodger and the baseball cap was beginning to crawl away when I put it down.

I carried on about 6 miles past Streatley and found a lovely road bridge to sleep under. I the night fisherman further up the bank probably thought I was homeless but thankfully he didn’t offer me any food, and by the time I woke and set off he’d gone.

130 miles rolled around at Oxford and I was still feeling good. No blisters, the nutrition was working well and thanks to a load of sleep I was running well, taking photos and generally enjoying the experience. By now I had settled into a routine of run/walk for the morning marathon, then walking the afternoon. The pattern worked fine and I was so relaxed I was almost in a trance at points. I can see what these Sri Chinmoy guys are on to.

Over the flat farmland coming in to CP6 I could hear rock music. As I got closer it appeared to be a bad cover band. I couldn’t remember hearing of a festival in the local area and was wondering what it was. Chris came out to guide me in and said the pub opposite had a live band. Great. I was planning to sleep at this CP and they have Disaster Area playing.

Luckily to boost my spirits Chris and Nikki Mills turned up to give me some abuse and drink coffee in front of me. Anna Buckingham also dropped in, so we had a shouted conversation for an hour or so. The band actually stopped 30 mins after I got there but Chris talks so much find yourself shouting just to get a word in edgeways.

To give the CP staff a rest I ambled down the road half a mile for another snooze under my tarp/poncho at midnight as I knew rain was due. I heard a couple of guys hike past at 1am and shouted a greeting from under my shelter. Unphased they just shouted back “Is that Cranswick?” - I might have been getting a reputation for sleeping.

Shillingford Bridge early on Sunday

As this was the last day I was up at 4am in full waterproofs for a trudge through the dark till dawn. Although the next checkpoint and finish were only 13 and 16 miles apart respectively, these felt like the longest stages of the race. The rain didn’t help as for the first time in the race I could do nothing to prevent wet feet. The one thing I would change is having a set of sealskins in the pack for a bit more comfort in the rain as for once my feet started to deteriorate. Not a problem on the last day but had it been wet throughout I’d have been suffering.

I’d been leapfrogging Nina Smith for a couple of days and we’d run together for quite a while. She’s a great person to run with as she’s amazingly positive and has run pretty much everything several times. Plus she’s a tough as nails and will drag you through the low points. We hiked in to CP7 at 168 miles and once again Chris Edmonds was there to walk us in. There was a packet of open biscuits on the table which unthinkingly I reached towards before remembering that this was unsupported and reverted to the usual 2 Pepperami and a handful of nuts. The CP volunteers were cruelly offering around a box of crisps amongst themselves so in retaliation I left them a present of my old wet socks as I changed into a dry pair for the last 16 miles.

Andrew Jordan came round to say hi and lend some welcome moral support, and I did the usual silly pose for the camera as he took a “leaving for the last stage” picture. As we got going we were informed that the back-marker James Penson was powering so we decided to try to up the pace, not because we were worried about position but more that we wanted a comfortable buffer on the cut-offs and realised we were slowing considerably.

Erm...

Through the endless lakes towards Kemble I was trying to keep up the pace, but we kept slipping back to 2-3 mph. We weren’t looking for a power finish, just to speed up a bit so we could get the suffering over sooner. As James powered past I asked Nina if we should tag on the back of his zippy pace, she saw I was eager to get a move on and kindly said she’d catch up. Which she did. Due to my excellent navigation we found ourselves going wrong and after his friend in Australia called to say we’d gone off-route and had to backtrack about half a mile, where we met Nina again who was about to make the same error we’d just made.

Eager to get this over with we marched up the last hill, over the railway tracks and broke into a jog as we came towards the final gate. You could sense the anticipation as Nina put in a burst of speed to get her to the gate first, with me tracking and James keeping close. At the bell (sorry, gate), we were jostling for position and I kicked past Nina. I asked “are we going for it”, she agreed so I gave it the beans.

After 183.8 miles and 76 hours I actually managed something resembling a sprint.

Then something clicked in my head.

This was fun but we’d run this together. Not just me, Nina and James. But all the people I’d run with. All the people I’d talked to, bantered with on Facebook and the 70 nutcases that queued to start the race on Friday morning with no idea what was about to unfold.

I stopped. We had to go in together.

I waited for James about 30 meters from the stone. He stopped and we made a gap for Nina to grab our hands as we ran it in together and collapsed on the stone. Finished.

For those that took up this epic challenge I have a feeling.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqA5IJPEONY

All Change

I realise I haven’t blogged for a bit, and it’s down to one reason. I’m embarrassed.

After hyping up JOGLE for 20 months and delaying it from Jun to Aug, bullshitting about impossible timings and generally winging it with zero experience, I now have to tell everyone that has sponsored and supported me that I’m delaying it again to 2016.

For a combination of reasons.. knee injuries, unwillingness to battle with the traffic, dislike of road running & enjoyment of Social runs.. I’ve changed this year’s goals to completing some shorter but tougher runs, roughly titled the Pennance Race Series:

 

Social, not solo..

First up next week is the SVP100, a race I did last year and recce’d a few weeks ago as a Social. A great race, lovely countryside and excellently organised.

The week after is the T184, a  3-day self-supported run along the 184 miles of the Thames. It does sound a fair distance but the 80h time limit means we only have to cover 53 miles per day, so it’s a good introduction to multi-day run/walking with a 20lb pack. Which will come in handy for later.

A large part of the plan this year has been to qualify for Spartathlon 2015, and the Self Transcendence 24h in September gives me an opportunity to do this.
OK it’s going to be boring as hell running 450 x 400m laps, but it’s a great chance to make the 180k (111.8 miles) needed. And it might be good prep for..  

The Piece Of String in Nov. Once again I’ve decided to put my sanity in the hands of James Adams and just run until he says stop. Last year it was the fluorescent Idiot’s top. This year I’m planning on being a bit more visible.

Dodgy geezers

Talking about sanity, a long time ago I signed up for The Hill as a bet. I still haven’t (technically) completed a 100-miler so my entry is on hold pending my actually finishing something long-ish, so hopefully I can get through one of the above then relax and enjoy only running 12% of the laps I’ll have done on the 24h.

Finally to round off the Sackcloth & Ashes Series… The Spine. After turning down Chris Edmonds’ 36 separate requests to join him and several other Stringers on this, I finally crumbled and filled in the form. Now I just need to learn how to navigate and get myself some kit that will stop me turning into a human icicle on a Yorkshire hillside at 2am.

So once all that lot is complete, the 2015 JOGLE plan is to go for an off-road route linking up the major trails of the West Highland Way, Pennine Way, Offa’s Dyke and SW Coast Path, take around 4 weeks and see the sights*. 


*subject to change at my indiscretion, injury level & input from The Mrs.

Back to life, back to reality..

Well, it's been a while since the last post. Like far too long.

The reason being that I managed to pretty well knacker up my knee joint for a variety of reasons, which meant 6 weeks out from any running or walking any more than a mile or so.. But on the positive side I did get to spend a lot of time with The Mrs, who wondered who I was at first. That's the joys of being an Ultra Widow.

In my usual style I decided to jump back in with both feet and start off with the Keswick to Barrow, a 38 mile mass walk with a few runners. Bit like a road LDWA event for 3,500 people.

Team Alice Ladies Winners 2013, 2014, ...

I was running for Alices Escapes and this was a had-to-do as I had DNS’d last year's event. There was a fair bit of banter on the FB group as the women's team won and broke the record last year, and I was part of the first men's running team. Lads v Lasses. An inspiring run from the whole ladies team saw the A team win again this year and take another hour off the record, the B team came second, we blokes ambled in for second mens and myself 3^rd position in “Team Alice Real Men Wear Purple” with 6:45.. we have a long, long way to catch those ladies. They're faaaaaast !

Due to the time out, I've had to push the JOGLE attempt back to late August. In fairness while trying to keep the pie-eating to a minimum I've lost a lot more fitness that I thought, and there's no way I could run two consecutive 60 mile days at the moment, never mind the 14 I'm aiming for. So at least this gives me 14 weeks to get back to fitness.

During the downtime I’ve been tracking a few other JOGLErs with their attempts and progress:
Gavin Felton had to bail on his supported WR attempt due to a kamikaze lorry but “He’ll be back”
Marc Wallace gave it a real try unsupported (carrying everything he’d need except water), which due to injury he changed to self-support. Unfortunately the injury continued to worsen and he had to bail last week.
John Price is currently enjoying the trip down having had to bail on last year’s attempt, and is going strong.
Andy Hind starts self-supported on 26-May
Tom Milton is (I think) going unsupported on 19-Jul.
Just when you thought you were doing something unique..
 

As the Devil makes work for injured runners I put a bit of work into SocialUltra with assistance from Chris Mills. It’s a simple idea. Group of ultra runners, plan a route, meet, run, eat cake & be social. There have been a few posts about it, and even a piece in Ultra Tales (p.186) So far we have had 19 events with 120 runners taking part, 800 members on the Facebook site and have just set up a Strava group.

So stick on yer trail shoes, find an event near you and come for a Social.

LeJOG Kit

When I thought of running LeJOG, the first thing I wanted to do was to research the kit needed to get me through 14 days self-supported (basically carrying everything I need to complete the run except fro food & water). I wanted to know what people were using, what's practical and most importantly what weighs the least while not breaking the bank.


I found you can easily spend £100 saving 100g if you want to go to extreme lengths. I'd like it light, but there comes a time when you have to decide whether it's really worth shaving that extra 30g for the price of a marathon entry, especially when you can remove the draw-cord and labels from a waterproof jacket and save 30g for £0.00.

The list below represents many, many hours of researching, reading blogs, conversations, re-reading, updating with new products and pinching other people's kit lists to produce something that I hope will work.

A late-June date was chosen to maximise both daylight and temperature in an attempt to reduce the need for extra layers and therefore extra weight. As it's (supposed to be) winter as I write this, I can't really take this lot for a road test but the plan is to spend several weekends in the Brecons to find & fix any weaknesses.

Only time and the weather gods will tell if this is adequate, but short of snow in June/July, I think I have most things covered:

Weight by Category:

Place	Grm
Bag	377
Camping	1116
Clothing	904
Eating	205
Medical	814
Other	279
Tech	423
Water	157
Total	4,275

Item Detail:

Qty	Item	Grm	Category…	Place
1	Blue belt pouch	48	Bag	Pack
1	Coloured bags for sorting kit	10	Bag	Pack
1	Drybag - Rubble Sack	30	Bag	Pack
1	Inov-8 Race Elite 24L	289	Bag	Pack
1	Airbed Multimat Superlite Air	300	Camping	Pack
1	Mozzy net	20	Camping	Pack
1	Rab Bivi ultralight (Olive)	360	Camping	Pack
1	SleepBag Omm Mt Raid	366	Camping	Pack
10m	String for clothesline / tarp	20	Camping	Pack
1	Tarp	50	Camping	Pack
1	Balaclava - Merino	40	Clothing	Pack
1	Baselayer	170	Clothing	Pack
1	HH leggings	155	Clothing	Pack
1	Thin gloves	47	Clothing	Pack
1	Trespass Wproof Jacket	300	Clothing	Pack
1	Wproof Trousers	192	Clothing	Pack
1	Alices Escapes Tech T	180	Clothing	Wear
1	Cap & sunshade	75	Clothing	Wear
1	DirtyGirl Gaiters	35	Clothing	Wear
1	Hokas	700	Clothing	Wear
1	Shorts	195	Clothing	Wear
1	Sunglasses	25	Clothing	Wear
2	Xbionic Socks	44	Clothing	Wear
1	Knife	75	Eating	Pack
1	Mini Lighter	20	Eating	Pack
20	Electrolyte tablets	110	Eating	Pack
1	Compeed patches	100	Medical	Pack
1	Iodene	30	Medical	Pack
1	Lipsyl	9	Medical	Pack
1	Medikit (plasters, bandage tape, sml scissors, pills, iodene, pins)	50	Medical	Pack
6	Plastic medikit gloves	5	Medical	Pack
1	SkinSoSoft	100	Medical	Pack
1	Sunscreen	100	Medical	Pack
1	Talc	50	Medical	Pack
1	Vaseline	100	Medical	Pack
2	Wet wipes	100	Medical	Pack
1	Zinc tape	10	Medical	Pack
1	Cash, cards, etc	100	Other	Pack
100	LeJOG business cards	129	Other	Pack
1	Mini Soap Bar	50	Other	Pack
4	AA batteries	92	Tech	Pack
1	Mobile	96	Tech	Pack
1	Headphones	12	Tech	Pack
1	Socket charger	60	Tech	Pack
1	USB (AA batt) Charger	24	Tech	Pack
1	USB Cable	16	Tech	Pack
2	Mobile waterproof bag	2	Tech	Pack
3	Petzl spare AAA batts	36	Tech	Pack
1	Petzl Tikka+	85	Tech	Pack
2	0.5L UltraAspire Bottles	120	Water	Pack
1	Water Pur Straw	27	Water	Pack
30	Water purification tablets	10	Water	Pack