I utterly loathe this running bag as much as it makes me laugh at just how awful it is. 2 years ago this blog was a short and succinct statement that this bag was not fit for purpose…back then I had no decent bag as an alternative to offer readers… I do now.
Firstly Ill walk you through why this bag is quite so nuts, and towards the end you’ll actually have a feel for what you should be looking for and a link to a newer blog of mine 2 years later ( and wiser) where I’ve finally found a running bag good enough for the deserts of the Sahara AND the arctic wastes of Mongolia.
Firstly let me set the record straight on this bag. This bag DOES NOT have a 20L capacity. At best its 12 litres. I know this as I have owned both the raidlight and the WAA at the same time and when I moved gear from the Raidlight to the WAA it wouldn’t all fit in, in fact half of it wouldn’t fit in. You only have to look at the pics of people running the MdS in this bag to see how much of their gear is hanging off the outside of it even towards the end of the week. How on earth can a bag SPECIFICALLY designed for ONE RACE be so off the mark for that race? My mind boggles.
Secondly this bag is given away for free to all UK entrants of the Marathon des Sables. This is important. WAA claim that the vast number of people running the MdS use this pack and whilst that is true its because they literally had to give it away. Just because people are using a free bag doesn’t make it good. A lot of people doing the MdS have little or zero multi day running experience so dont know what to look for in a bag.
Thirdly this bag IS NOT 590 grams. Its 1.2Kgs . This is a glorious bit of marketing misdirection. Whilst this bag has very very sturdy build quality it is ridiculously heavy for a desert race. Its also BLACK so it attracts heat AND the pouches and back section are padded to keep the heat in more. The main bag ONLY weighs 600g, once you add the side pouches and all the front gubbins its like wearing a Volvo with all the nuts loose.
This bag wears you not the other way round.
If you need a 30 minute instructional video on youtube to explain how to wear this bag you have utterly failed in your task.
I tried the WAA pack on the xmas before my Marathon des Sables. I got rid of it by January . It was hopeless.
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| Lee-Stuart Evans testing the WAA Ultrabag over christmas |
I literally couldn’t design a worse bag for desert running if I wanted to.
The bag itself is nuts. It has a rain cover ….for a desert race . It has a flare pouch for an item that isn’t part of compulsary kit for the last 3 years. It has belt pouches that slide around all over the place and drive you mad and fall off when you undo the waist strap. This bag has a complicated waist extra bag 4L pouch system at the front that you can run without the main bag ….except…AT WHAT STAGE DOES THIS HAPPEN ON THE MDS?!!! When do you leave the main bag behind and run with just a waist pouch on ?!!! This makes no sense.
The bag has 3 black zips on the black bag that are blocked by some useless clips and covers just to make things more fiddly. Finding the right black zip is difficult at night. The zips go all the way round the bag to fully open it, and unless you leave the zips to meet at the base of the bag it WILL open itself under pressure and movement and empty the contents of your bag across the desert without you noticing.
The good news is it has lots of mounting points on the outside of the bag to compensate for its terrible internal volume. Beware the velcro strap loops on the bottom, position them wrong with roll mat or sleeping bag in them and the velcro will wear through your shorts in a matter of hours.
The water bottle holders on the front sort of clip on and bounce around like mad. But that doesn’t matter because the WAA desert bottles leak like crazy so you wont worry after an hour or so as they will be empty. It also comes with a green kagool…for the rain …..but it has no arms . Nothing on this bag makes any sense.
This bag is fiddly and time consuming to get on and off. You honestly feel like you are parachuting in to liberate France when you wear it.
WHY DOES IT HAVE A FOREHEAD STRAP ? Who carries a bag via a strap wrapped round their HEAD?!!
WAA dont make any decent running gear and rather than try they simply throw marketing money at dominating races like the MdS to garner sales. Their MdS Bag is the ultimate glorious testament to just how wrong they can get it if they try hard enough. I suspect the MdS logo added £50 to the cost of this bag.
You would be nuts to buy this bag.
If you get given one for free at the MdS expo sell it on Ebay quickly and go shopping for something suitable for purpose.
So what bag is perfect for the Marathon des Sables ? I wrote a more recent blog here to tell you
