There’s no escaping the over commercialisation of the festive season, with wall to wall adverts, never to be repeated discounts (until the next sale) and every brand under the sun trying to get you to buy their stuff, while at the same time trying their damnedest to look like they’re not trying to get you to buy their stuff (because they don’t want to be the one to spoil the mood).
It’s not surprising really, when you see the sales figures and realise how important this time of year is to retailers – for some, it’s a matter of survival. But for us, if we can navigate our way through the festive period without losing it over the 159th airing of the same Christmas ad, there’s potentially rich pickings to be had.
Rather conveniently, the festive sales, whether they start on Boxing Day, before Christmas itself or on New Year’s Day (yes, we know we’ve already had Black Friday), come at exactly the time when we Sport Walkers naturally assess the state of our gear and, all too often, realise we need to replace something.
So, let’s take a look a some items that you’d do well to look out for in the sales, if you haven’t already updated your kit during the Black Friday bonanza.
Shoes
As big ticket items go, your shoes are, quite possibly the most expensive regular repeatable investment you’ll make and for good reason. They’ll need to look after you over hundreds of kilometres or miles and you’ll also need them to be high performing pieces of kit. Cut corners with your shoes and on longer challenges, you could be increasing your potential for injury.
So this is the perfect time to renew and replace! If you can, stick with your preferred brand, as it’s not a good idea to play around with a winning formula. Be aware though that you will benefit from having a pair of shoes for all your training and then a pair that you hold back for challenges (although you’ll need to break them in while training). So, if you don’t see your preferred challenge shoe on sale, keep an eye out for something different that could serve you well for training.
Vest
After your shoes, your next biggest investment cost wise is probably your vest, although you can get really well equipped vests at reasonable prices from brands like Decathlon. The more specialised brands like Salomon or Raidlight are more expensive but they can be worth it. They are often a lot lighter than less costly brands but also they tend to have more innovative design features or come with soft flasks to give you an off the shelf gear carrying and hydration solution.
For most ultras of 100km or less, a vest with around 10L capacity will be plenty to contain all your essentials like compulsory kit and supplies of food but, like with your shoes, if you see a vest that’s discounted but has a lower volume, don’t think it’s not suitable. We routinely use a low capacity vest in training and a 10L challenge pack for ultras, so again, you could pick up a bargain that will help you in your training even if you don’t see something that would be ideal as your main challenge pack.
Rain Jacket
This is, arguably, one of the most important pieces of kit you’ll have, alongside your shoes. In fact, it’s hard to decide which is more important! A good rain jacket will make the difference between being comfortable and happy or cold and miserable in poor conditions, so it’s well worth going for the best model you can afford.
As well as the level of waterproofing, weight and packed size is also important. There’s no point having a bulky, heavy jacket if it’s going to take up your whole vest capacity and leave you struggling to get your other essentials in. Your ideal jacket will be waterproof to recognised ultra challenge standards (see UTMB rules), it’ll be lightweight and made of a material that allows it to pack down really small.
Looking out for a new rain jacket in the festive sales is a lot easier than seeking the latest version of your favourite shoe, as it’s more likely you’ll be able to consider all sorts of different models – there’s less at stake with the fit than with shoes. So take advantage of this and look for a quality brand that’s going to serve you really well.
We can recommend Ultimate Direction, Raidlight and Salomon to name but three but OMM and Inov8 are also good. Traditional waterproof brands like North Face, Mountain Equipment, Berghaus etc aren’t really what you want to look for, unless they have models specifically designed for ultra running.
Watch
Embracing tech is such a beneficial element of Sport Walking that we really do recommend getting kitted out with some kind of sports watch, to enable you to keep tabs on your pace and to see the improvements you’re making week in week out. So any discounted models are worth pouncing on.
The basic functions you want to have will be live pace data and some kind of heart rate monitoring capability, either on the wrist or from a chest band. Other features like barometric pressure (to give accurate height readings) and split timings are not so essential but can be useful.
Now smart watches are really big and their muscling in on the sports watch market but we’d advocate purchasing either a Garmin or Suunto because they’re focused on performance and, generally speaking, have the technology to deliver precision data, which is what you want. You don’t want to be getting inaccurate readings because that could impact your ability to achieve your time goal.
Obviously your choice of watch will be determined by your price point but we’d always recommend that it’s better to have a simpler, more basic model from either Garmin or Suunto than an advanced model from a less well established brand.
Accessories
The last big ticket item would be ultra lightweight poles, like these carbon Lekki collapsable poles, which are ideal for Sport Walking challenges. There are also plenty of accessories that are at the cheaper end of the scale though that could be just as good a bargain if you can find them.
There’s also clothing or maybe a technical gilet that would be just as useful if you saw something on a special offer. Of course timing is everything and if you updated your gear in the autumn because things had reached the end of their life, seeing a new vest going half price isn’t going to help you. But if you are in the market for new kit, especially some of the more advanced technical items above, now could be your moment!
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