Equipment Checklist and pack weight

4 days to departure date ... except for my trail shoes and my race cap/cape, everything has been weighed, accounted for, and ready for pack stuffing. The total pack weight comes to 24.6 lbs. I expect to have approximately 2.5 liters of water with me, adding another 5.5 lbs to the pack for a projected pack weight of 30.1 lbs at the start of the race. Needless to say, that's a lot of weight to be lugging around ... but it'll get lighter as I eat my way through my supplies.

Click on the pictures below for greater detail.

I took my Brooks Cascadias to a shoe repair place yesterday and am scheduled to pick them up on Monday. The cobbler said that the velcro strip could not be sewn into the rubber, so at best he'll try to glue the strip ... the wildcard being the velcro strip isn't rubber backed, so there's a chance that the strip won't stick that well to the shoes. He at first didn't know what to make of my request and even after showing him how the sand gaiters will be latched to the shoes via velcro, he remained perplexed until I told him I was going to be running a race in the Sahara desert. Needless to say, he thought I was nuts to be doing such a thing.

Cyn got me three white bandanas which will be fashioned into a cape that'll be velcro'd onto my RMRR cap. The cape will allow me to completely cover my face in the event of a sandstorm. Like my shirt, the bandanas are cotton ... the better to retain moisture. Hopefully I didn't miscalculate the benefits of cotton in the desert!!

I'll stuff the pack with the absolute minimum required gear - so as to be able to handcarry the pack during the trip ... and once in Cairo, I will repack for the race itself. With stops in Salt Lake City and Paris before arriving in Cairo, I don't want to leave to the mercy of airline baggage systems any of my race essentials.