Introducing the Ultra Running Gear Guide

Hello, I am Marc Krawitz, just an ordinary back of the pack ultra running enthusiast. By day, I work in Data Science and in the dark, I run — usually a lot each week. While I am not fast, I do believe I have landed on a combination of gear that is exceptionally effective and this is what I want to share with all of you! What to buy and how to use your gear effectively. I do not aim to replicate or compete with the many creators who review a wide variety of equipment. Instead, I aim to do a deep dive into a specific set of recommendations which I hope will help you buy with confidence, be safer out there on the trail, have more fun and maybe even go a little faster.

Nothing about what I recommend is influenced by anybody or any company. Additionally, I do not claim that my recommended approach is the only or even the best way to be successful — only that it represents a very good approach. Also, my recommendations are always based on my personal experience and research and never based on “such and such athlete used this so you should to”. I strongly believe people should understand why a product is recommended and not just use it because somebody they admire has used it (more on that later). So I will focus a lot on explaining the why. Before concluding this article, I want to give a specific example of the “fallacy of following the elite” problem — i.e. buying something because others we admire are using it. This happened to me just yesterday. About three years ago I was in the market for new trekking poles. After doing some research, I saw that a specific set of poles — the Leki FX.One SuperLite came in highly recommended and seemed to be used by some elite athletes. I was taken — “good enough for them, then good enough for me!” I bought it. The poles were awesome — so light and agile, like carrying a thin twig. Until one of them snapped on Saturday. Luckily I wasn’t in the middle of the race or far from my vehicle. Reading the fine print on the product page, these poles are very thin and intended for elite athletes during races. They are not super durable and Leki specifically calls this out and recommends alternate products for every day use and every day athletes. So was this product bad? Absolutely not — it’s an outstanding product actually. But not the right product for me. With that, we will move onto watches next time.