Mountain Marathons

[Miner]

Having done plenty of backpacking and orienteering I'd like to combine the two and try a mountain marathon. Could anyone recommend lightweight equipment and a suitable first event?

[Copepod]

SLMM (Saunders Lakeland Mountain Marathon), 3rd / 4th July 2010 is a good first MM. Wansfell is easiet running course. All MMs (as far as I know) are for teams of 2 people, so first thing to find is a team mate. Introduction to MM kit at http://www.planetfear.com/articles/The_ ... _1037.html In practice, to start with, use what kit you have, borrow what you can and only buy what you must.

[Jon Brooke]

Rab and DMM both have solo categories. But if it's your first one probably best to find a mate to do it with.

Beg or borrow what you can, but probably you should be looking to get your kit into a bag that is 30 ltrs or less (and weighs less than 1 kg). Look for a tent that is at least sub 2 kg, and a bag that is at least sub 1 kg. You can make big weight savings quite cheaply by buying a Pocket Rocket stove or similar, or cooking with Hexamine blocks. Most top runners carry an empty bottle or cup and fill up and drink as they go. They also work out how much food they will need and take just that. Those are the main things re' keeping the weight of your kit down, which IMHO equals max fun.

Elite kit will be Sub 1 kg tent, 300 gm bag, sub 600 gm sleeping bag.

Terra Nova make nice tents and bags.

[Steve]

The benchmark for pack weight is 10 lb or 4.5kg. Depending on your physical build, you will find you can run with a sub 5kg bag, and anything over 6kg will feel heavy. Doesn't stop some people heading out with 7kg+, but they don't do much running.

[ba-ba]

Enter early - SLMM filled up a long time ago.

personally, I reckon the best way to get into it is to fill a space at short notice with a friend who has all the kit. I did my first (OMM last year) at 10 days notice. No time to get worried about it, thankfully there was some training already done and we managed to pick up some booty on the B course!

[Miner]

Thanks for all the advice - plenty to get me planning, training, borrowing and weighing!

Have so far located a very lightweight tent and somewhere in my loft I know there is a very basic and lightweight stove, if only I could find it. A sleeping bag is proving more of a problem as they seem to get very expensive the lighter they are. Actually running with camping kit is beginning to feel more feasible though.

[rocky]

Re: sleeping bags. It depends which MM you're planning on attacking. The expensive lightweight ones are down filled which is probably necessary for a colder one like OMM of Highlander, but I've got a synthetic Wynnster one which weighs 650g and only cost £25. Designed for backpackers and with a comfort zone of something like +8 to +16 it'd be fine for something like LAMM or SLMM.