ApocalypseEquipped: Bates

Showing posts with label Bates. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Events: Tough Mudder #2 Melbourne 2013

I ran the Tough Mudder again this year, January 19th, which was a lovely sunny, breezy day here in Melbourne.

The event was held at the Phillip Island Raceway again, which lays an hour and a three quarters drive from Melbourne, and backs onto the Bass Strait. I had only recently been given the all clear from the ankle troubles of late last year, and had not had a lot of preparation, baring three or four runs, of 2 - 5km, so I wasn't sure about how I would cope, not only with my ankles, or my general lack of CV fitness as a result of my injury, the prednisone treatment (25mg daily, dropping 5mg each week to wean away).

Regardless, I had booked in, and was raring to go. I had tried to drum up interest from the folks I ran with the previous year, but no takers (although it turns out, a couple did the event as it happens).

For those who don't know what the Tough Mudder is, it is a 20+km endurance challenge, with 25+ military inspired obstacles. The events run world-wide, in all conditions, and feature some signature obstacles, namely, lots, and lots of mud, electrical wire filled corridors, and pools swimming under barriers, ice filled pools and all manner of climbing, crawling, and of course, running. I hate running.

The above pics are me before the race, in my running kit, pretty much the same outfit that I wore for the previous endurance event I did, the Stampede with the First Spear OAGRE vest, with my Source 3L bladder in the back, and snap-fixed to the 5.11 Tactical TDU belt, keeping the vest snug to me and my TAD Amphibious Shorts with my trusty Blackhawk! kneepads, which were again, a real bonus, so, "i told you so" to all the scoffing runners out there. You can see me, fresh from the Arctic Enema/Chernobyl Jacuzzi ice bath and dunk, fishing a couple of ice-cubes out from my kneepads. I also wore my iPhone, in its SLXtreme case mounted in the Platatac PRR pouch I got specifically for the event. On my head I wore one of my caps, which I had modified to carry a picatinny rail, in order for me to mount my Contour GPS helmet-cam to, via the Strikemark adapter I have. I also added a chin-strap to the cap, to help deal with the added weight of the camera, which seemed to work pretty well. I wore one of the Under Armour t-shirts from the previous Tough Mudder and my Ironclad gloves.

I also swapped out boots, having put my Altama's into retirement and for this event, I wore my Bates Delta-8's which really held up well, and cleaned up tremendously.

Here's one of me having scaled a 2m "Berlin Wall" and torn my number off in the process. Lesson learned, bring my own safety pins or lashing system. Their little pins were ineffective!

This is me and my running-mate, #7819 :) doing the SHINBASHI salute after coming over the Bale Bonds.

She and I knew each other socially, and upon hearing my interest in a running-mate, signed up, regardless of trepidation and obstacle-shyness. Far better a runner than I, we kept a good pace, she kept me going on the straights, and I helped her along on the climbing, jumping and swimming, crawling and squelching.

She started the race with a black headscarf to match her all-black running slicks. I was referring to us as "day-ops" and "night-ops". My gear was already mud-coloured, and my head higher up, so don't think that I was getting away unscathed ...

We did the course in just under 4 hours, I felt that it was actually a lot easier this year, even without all the extensive running I did prior to the previous events. This may be in no small part to mental preparation, and experience. There were no "I haven't done it before" nerves. I made it over every obstacle on my own steam, climbed every wall, made it across the slippery monkey-bars, made it up the Everest half-pipe on my first run. I was rally pleased with not only my pace, but the speed I overcame the obstacles in my path, but also how I was able to help me fellow Mudders.

Here I am, following the event, having stripped off the OAGRE, sporting my celebratory headband, and working up the guts to pull my boots off. Not a blister, or scratch, but a lot of grit and muddy water. It turned out that the time-lapse application I had hoped to run on my iPhone hadn't begun, but the SLXtreme and PRR combination had worked like a dream. The Picatinny rail I had mounted the Contour cam on needed to be at more of a down-angle, I took a lot of 3/4 sky footage, but see below for my links.

I dinged my shin whilst hurdling a log, and gave myself this exciting bruise on the back of my left thigh. Last year I had two of these, one on the back of each thigh. This year I pegged the moment when I got it ... scaling one of the 4m Berlin Walls, lesson learned? major muscle groups do not make good leavers!

A great event, a good challenge, and certainly a good conditioning and preparation experience.

Will I do it again? hells yes. As many, and as often as I can manage.

Friday, December 21, 2012

Apocalypse Equipped, no, really.

So, the Mayan Long Count Calendar is widely believed to clock-over today.

It's also the Solstice...

AND the last workday before my FAMILY XMAS (Que dramatic spooky music)...

Apart from having to be at work, I wanted to give you all a quick insight into my "it's all hit the fan" load-out.

When the sirens and screams start, this is the kit that I would be strapping on, and similar to what I'd be dishing out to my family to load up and be ready. Fortunately I have quite the collection at the ready.

To be fair, this is my full "there is no help or law coming" gear, not just a "house-on fire, leave for mum's" and I would strive to abide by the laws on my land wherever needed. Wearing swords and the like "without reasonable cause" is frowned on here. In fact, the whole get-up would arouse considerable consternation for LEO's.

That said .... here is a break down of my "end of the world", kit, because I want to be Apocalypse Equipped.....

and that's on my top half, and not even what IN those pouches and bags....

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Review: Bates Delta 8 boots

I've worn boots almost every day since I was at uni and out of school-uniforms, in 1994. If I'm not in boots, I'm barefoot, unless I have a real need to wear shoes (like driving, at which time I'll throw on some sandals. However, day in, day out, boots. I've had my share of GP's and steel-caps, giant goth boots and sheepskins. However, I tend to wear them to death. To my shame I infrequently polish them, but I do try to at least maintain them, doing waterproofing and the like. Here is my current set, and I think, my favorite yet. These are the Bates Delta 8 Gore-Tex Sidezip Boots and I'd like to tell you a thing or two about them.

Firstly, for a 6" boot, I find they are light at 1.6kg (3.7lbs) and well balanced. They are leather, "ballistic nylon" and Gore-Tex construction in the "uppers" which is both breathable and tough, and the soles are made from Vibram® Mutant rubber. Zipper closures on the instep make for speedy fitting, but I must admit, unless I'm going to a meeting,or know I'm about to so some serious trecking, I leave them unzipped to breathe and give me some more freedom whilst I'm sitting or strolling. The soles are hard wearing and grippy, whilst not being an aggressive cleat you can see that they have collected some crud from feedings the chookens this morning. The uppers are cemented onto the soles, rather than stitched, but have given me no sign of decaying as yet.I replaced the shoestrings with paracord, because you never know when you might need some. The leather upper continues up asa fold behind the zipper to keep the entirety of the height of the boot waterproof.

The interesting part of these boots however is the removable insole. I have dodgy Achilles tendons, and require a bit of bracing, which these offer in a unique way. The whole sturdy fitted insole comes with two gel-padded regions, one on the ball, and another at the heel. The ball-pad is nothing special, other than being bonded directly into the insole, so it sits in the right place, all the time, without slipping and sliding like some after-market pads I've had in the past. The heel end is where things get interesting. This is the iCS® technology adjustable heel .

What it does is allows the wearer to customise the firmness of the heel padding, by rotating the blue gel disk, the crenelations of which vary around its circumference according to the labels, letting you adjust the fit, both for firmness, and also for lateral movement. I love this. I've been able to adjust my boots to suit where my physio has been at, and maintain a level of protection for my ankles that other boots have failed at in the past. These are pitched as Police boots, and I would think that they are well suited.

I think I've finally found my brand for boots, so much so that I bought a second set of Bates boots. Hardy, great fitting, good protection for my feets and not clunky. Look out summer storms and abandoned fortification locked-doors everywhere. I have me some good kickers on!

ApocalypseEquipped

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Events: Tough Mudder #2 Melbourne 2013

Friday, December 21, 2012

Apocalypse Equipped, no, really.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Review: Bates Delta 8 boots

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