Monday 10 October 2011

Thoughts on running jacket drying times

So I was out in the mist and rain for the past 2 days. Not much to choose between them for nastiness, one outing was over to Hope and the other was a 14km round trip on Bleaklow.

The first one I wore the MHW Dragon Jacket, and on the second I wore my Montane H2O Jacket.
To be honest, I was as comfortable in one as the other. As long as the pace was kept up and warmth was maintained, they were fine. The Dragon jacket was warmer- as it needed more venting, neither of them kept me dry in any way shape or form, but that was to be expected. If it was any nastier, yes, I probably would have worn a full on Proshell Goretex jacket, however, I'm about to get to the point.

The Dragon jacket was worn on Saturday, during the run, the H2O jacket was in my bag as an "emergency, emergency" top, and it got soaked. They both got hung up on Saturday night when I went to bed, and in the afternoon on the Sunday when I was invited to go out "for a quick trot around the hills", the Dragon Jacket was still sopping wet, but the H2O was pretty dry.
Came back, soaked to the skin, hung up the H2O. Its now Monday afternoon, and its dry again. The Dragon Jacket, by contrast still feels like I've just been standing outside in the (now pretty constant) rain.
Yes, the Dragon Jacket is made with Windstopper and the face fabric isn't as water repellant as Proshells, and yes it has an internal scrim, and yes, it may be fabulous for "dry, cold days", but it takes a hellishly long time to dry out, and when you're heading out on a day to day or at least every other day basis- and you KNOW that no matter what you're going to wear, you're going to get wet- it seems that the H2O is a pretty decent choice.

(having said that, I did get a mail from someone saying they had a thoroughly miserable experience on the hill on Sat in an H2O- maybe he wasn't going fast enough?)

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