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I've been looking for a challenge and thanks to rhb posting a bit of warning I snapped up a place for EfM next year! Really excited, furthest run so far is 50km but I've got a year to prepare for what is at the moment way above my head! Any advice would be much appreciated from the insanely impressive ultra runners on here.
My primary concern at the moment is the navigation, my sense of direction is poor to say the least and think I am going to have to rely on technology a lot. By the looks of it I am going to have to start saving for a high end Garmin to upload a pre planned course to or am i missing something? I can't seem to fathom whether something like the 735xt is going to be sufficient or do I need to be looking at the 935 or Fenix? Would Apple watch be any use given I could get a heavily subsidised one through health insurance, presumably battery life would be the main hurdle here?Thanks very much in advance.
Philipflop-
Ace. Which way you thinking of heading? Canal can eliminate much Nav, but brings different challenges.
I used paper maps with phone as backup. Powerbank handy too for recharging tech stuff, e.g. Anker Powercore Mini
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i use a 935 for exactly that and it works really well but you are just following a line on the screen not an actual map.
battery life is amazing even with all that stuff going.
you still need your wits about you to follow it and you have to allow it a second or two to orient itself when you lift your arm up to look at it.
getting proper trail routes involves getting hold of a decent topo map, i have a weird faff where i had to buy garmin topo maps and install it on my garmin edge 810 and run garmin basecamp with the edge plugged in to use the maps which is a little clunky though some websites let you make routes online and download them as well.
off course notifications are perhaps too sensitive and wish there was an option to allow a little leeway as it triggers a lot on wide paths when you are a couple metres from the specific track point.
in addition i tend to download the offline explorer maps from osmaps onto their app for my phone for the entire area i will be in as a backup. premium membership is like 3 quid for a month so i just buy 1 month when i have a trip planned.
overall i recommend it though.
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I have a 735 xt and use the DWmaps app. It lets you upload a route to the watch, giving you a line to follow/alerts you when off course. It's a bit of a fiddle to get used to but it works well once you've figured it out.
It's opened up a load of things for me - mainly going on more adventurous runs when working away.It will also show you a background map if you pay for premium, but you must have it connected to your phone and your phone needs a data connection.
The background map updates as you move, rather than being uploaded to the device with the route (this is due to memory restrictions on the app/watch). The background map thing isn't usually much use for me, but I think it would definitely help in an urban environment.
One factor that may sway you is battery life - you'll definitely need to charge the 735 once or twice if recording for 24hrs. Should be easy enough to manage with a power pack though. Watches like the 935 have a better battery IIRC.
rhb
HatBeard
Nef
Cracked the early entry riddle for EfM last night, so I defo have my spot for next Nov. General sale at midday but it'll be a scramble for fewer places.
Same applies for the 48hr Escape from GB for end May, not sure I'm ready for that tho so not entered.