Many people have asked about what supplies my crew and I brought with us to battle it out over 200 trail miles. The Petzl Ultra Belt ACCU4 was one of the most "game changing" supplies we had.I was fortunate enough to have been given a Petzl Ultra Headlamp as a loaner from Petzl before the start of the McNaughton Park 200 Mile Trail Run. This race is run over a 10-mile looped trail that is not lighted and without a flashlight would be pitch dark. The Ultra Headlamp lit up the course. On medium setting it had more than enough light to brighten the dark woods and also had enough juice to last through the night. Everyone on my crew marveled about how bright the light was - but were also surprised that that battery pack was not very heavy.
The light can certainly be worn by the runner - which I did on one of the laps. But works best when worn by a pacer running right next to you or slightly behind you shooting the light over the runner's shoulder. If the pacer gets too far behind - the light creates shadows that make it hard to see ahead. But when running side-by-side or slightly behind, this light is worth its weight in gold. On the third night, it was raining/snowing and very dark, without the Petzl Ultra Headlamp lighting up the un-runnable spots - I am certain that at least one person from my crew would have been injured during the night. Thank you Petzl - your lights are amazing!
In the following photo, you can see that I was wearing the Petzl MYO XP headlamp and my pacer Darren Fortney was wearing the Petzl Ultra Belt ACCU4.
