My 2 cents:
Boots are indeed overrated for all but the most demanding terrain and conditions. I forgot who first pointed this out, but essentially 1kg on your feet is equivalent to 10-20kg on your back.
There are certain skin peeling problems I had hiking in boots that I was totally unable to resolve, but they have never even remotely been a problem since I started hiking exclusively in trail runners for the past decade or so. The other solution to friction related issues is to wear 2 pairs of socks. This is something I've been doing for many years as well. In the ideal, you want a tight fitting base layer made of thin, lightweight material (something like "Coolmax"). On top of that you want a sock made of heavier stuff, ideally also slightly looser fitting to accommodate the sock underneath.
If you want socks actually designed and marketed for this purpose check out the brand Injinji (pretty expensive as far as socks go, however).
The boots purchase was based partly off of prior experience and newbie enthusiasm. I got so used to living in very rugged wilderness where boots were pretty much essential and moving 5km an hour was optimistic if you weren't on a cut trail.
That said every time I've been out on a hike, the trails have been fairly well maintained so now I've retired my boots I'm going to get a pair of trail shoes for any major hiking. The boots I might get resoled and use exclusively for winter normal use, but I agree it's unnecessary weight where it's not needed, and you really start to feel those extra kg in the last days.
As for the double sock method, I've done it before with middling results. I got blisters from it, and found it less problematic to just vaseline my feet up and use just my wool hiking socks, so that's what I did for this trip. I got some blisters, but I think that was due to have let me feet get too soft, and it was mainly the sides of the big toe, so easy to drain and rest overnight.
I'm a chauvinist against pole use. But I guess they can be useful for steep inclines.
Even Kilian Jornet appears to be using poles in this video, whereas I know he eschews them in most races:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Lsnq8b9NUVA
I'm a bit mixed with walking poles, they are nice in rougher terrain and I recommend them if your in a situation where your going to be carrying a lot of weight and going up and down a lot of hills. At the same time, you want to train your body to be able to handle the weight on it's own. So it's a mix.
More than anything else though they come in handy for difficult terrain. I have a walking stick that I fashioned myself and it's my preferred walking support for ascending hills or walking over swampy or boggy terrain.
This race looks amazing!
Were you humping all your camping gear?
Yes.
Minus the micro sleeping bag and a few other items, I put some others back in so it was effectively same weight.
I live in suburbia hell but I love going on long walks through the 'burbs, zoning out or listening to podcasts. Unfortunately I get fucked because of my job, I'm often on-call even on my days off and when I get called in it's usually because something is real bad fucked and I need to be at work in like an <hour. Even when I'm not on call my co-workers will call me to ask about specific things only I can answer. So being hours out into a wilderness with no cell service would be...not ideal. And getting people to cover on-call shifts is a nightmare in paperwork.
Anyway, I wish I lived closer to hiking trails. I went to Alaska this year for vacation and tried some of the hiking trails and loved them, but because of the group I was with I didn't have nearly enough time to properly enjoy them. I could have easily spent my entire trip just exploring their trails. It was honestly a bummer, I want to return to Denali park and hike through it.
Great OP thread btw, I'll definitely use it as a resource if/when I can ever do proper hiking.
I can relate, I had a particular job where I wasn't really allowed to unwind because it was essentially a 24/7 gig.
In those cases you really owe it to yourself to have a word with your boss and find someone else who can shoulder the responsibility a bit, or delegate it directly and also make them understand that when you are away your away, no if and's or buts.
It took me a while, but once people realized they couldn't come to me for the easy answer they miraculously started to be able to think for themselves, and every carried on as normal.
