There is no point walking away from a 24 hour endurance event, if you have learnt anything.  The Dos and Donts on what we should and shouldnt do.  Please remember is what helps us, this may not be the same for you and your overall lessons may be different.  However everyones tips are greatly appreciated and will always help for future events.

There are going to be a few items that helped with the whole experience including:

Not having camped since school, we needed to pick up pretty much everything equipment wise to prepare us for the event.  First stop a Tent!

We picked up a cheap 4 person dome tent from Kmart $45 which did the job, but you could understand the tent envy when you compared ours.  The tent was supposed to be a 4 man tent, which would have been a stretch to sleep 4 people in it.  We did have enough room to have one sleeping bag, all our dry gear and food though, there was enough room to get changed if you crouched down.   he tent served us well, for what we needed it for, but will probably get another one for next year.  The next one  will include the vestibule, as we will be competing as solos.  

COOKING EQUIPMENT
Kmart and Aldi were our go to shops, our cooking set which was fantastic was and picked up from Kmart $7, it comprised of two little pots and a little frying pan. We also got up some thermos flasks from Aldi $7.99 each, one we had continuously filled with hot water and the other one with hot chicken soup, they worked really well and now get used for Daves work everyday!

The camping stove Dave found in a cupboard at his work and it was on its way out.  It did what it needed to do though and then we threw it away.  We now have time to invest in a descent stove that is also light weight.  We purchased a set of 4 gas canisters from Coles.  Initially we first thought that 4 would not be enough, but only used 1, so 1 pack is definitely enough.  This of course, depends on how much time you will be spending cooking, we only used it to heat up water and had some toast.

BACK UP TORCHES
Since Kmart was serving us so well, we picked up a couple of back up head torches @ $5 each (it didn't really matter if we lost or broke them, it was just good to have some sort of back up).  We didnt end up using, so cant give a review on how they worked, but they were good for 'just in case' purposes.

TENT LIGHT
At the time picking up a $5 dome light from Kmart seemed like a good idea, it would have been better to have a light that we could hang from the top of the tent (novice camping mistake - adding this to lessons learnt).  The dome light will be modified and re-used next year.

SLEEPING BAG AND MAT
Warmth was as always our biggest concern and I really do feel the cold, so we picked up a colder temp Summit sleeping bag with hood from Kmart $49, I still found myself with my thermals on, as well as a fleece blanket (Coles $10).  We also used a gore-tex sleeping bag cover that the Marines use and that has accompanied us around the world (sorry no price on this one).  The camping mat was to make it a little bit more comfortable especially with my back ($10 Kmart) worked well in insulating the body from the cold floor.

TUBS
We picked up some 60 litre tubs (again from Kmart) $10 each (had a better seal on it) to store our event gear and dry clothes.  We had already sorted the clothing into different bags for quick access (this was a tip found on the Going Long Site) and would recommend doing this again, especially if you are in a team.

GROUND SHEET
We purchased a ground sheet with the idea that we can use it outside to roll out on (we didn't think about the night dew), so didn't use it too much as it was too wet.  It we had thought about it, we would have pegged it above the tent just to have some extra covering.

HOT WATER BOTTLE
I ended up walking around everywhere with the hot water bottle underneath my top (this is were having a thermos flask comes in really handy), just having all these little things made everything a lot more comfortable and enjoyable.

CLOTHING
Aldi had a sale on winter gear, so we also picked up some warm, thick socks $7.99.  Good idea to double on socks (just to stay extra cosy).  Dave wore his Aldi Ski Compression pants $16.99 throughout the whole night while he ran the course.  It is worth just keeping an eye out on these types of Aldi sales, as unfortunately they had ran out of a lot of stuff for me. So I got some thermal plus pants from Katmandu $59.68 (I bought a pair for Dave too, but he didn't use them).  I wore them during the night, underneath another pair of my post race comfy pants.  Also happy to bring along my fake UGG boots for that extra cosiness.

We also got lucky that there was an 2XU warehouse sale happening at the town hall, were we picked up some compression socks $5 each, Tri hat $5 and a few pairs of 2XU gloves at $5 each.  Having Dave's Snowboard jacket kept us warm during our change overs, it was good to have something warm too put on straight  away.  

HEAD LAMP / STROBE LIGHT
For my birthday Dave bought me a good quality LED Lensor head torch, this would have been fantastic if it wasn't for my rookie mistake (I forgot that we had already used it for previous night events), so it ran out of battery.   We also got a smilier set for Dave to have.

We didn't realise we also needed to wear a strobe light during the night too, so we picked up a couple of dog lights from ebay $3.19 each which worked all night.  I just attached it to my wetsuit zip and Dave attached it to his hat.

MOXIE GAITORS
How I wish we had invested in some of these sooner, it would have saved my shins so much pain, bumps and bruises.  These are highly recommend and are really comfy to wear, you hardly noticed wearing them.  Also having the extra support with the compression socks underneath allowed for some additional protection.  I also think that this may have helped with minimising the amounts of cramps I usually have in my carves. Thanks goes to Clem and Alyson from the Compound for these.

SAFETY WHISTLES
We only paid a few dollars for these from Rebel Sports $2.99 and included a lanyard, I just had it around my neck underneath my wetsuit.  This was also an essential True Grit requirement.

FIRST AID BAG
Yep we had a bag with all the essentials, from pain killers, deep heat, heat packs, KT Tape, scissors and a small first aid kit which included bandages etc.  Also in there was some antiseptic powder, just in case we had a major cut and needed to get it cleaned to minimise any possibility of infections especially getting wet and muddy. Happily nothing was required!

This equipment must be carried by each individual and NOT transferred from competitor to competitor. This will be checked and you must have this gear to participate:

1. Headlamp (Between the hours of sunset & sunrise)
   
2. Saftey Whistle (securely on your person, easy to locate and loud enough to be heard from space).