Race pack

With only 11 days to go before leaving for Cairo, it's crunch time in re making sure everything that's needed is on hand. A few loose ends still need to be taken care of - disposable contact lenses, sewing a velcro strip across the sides of my trail shoes (Brooks Cascadia) for the sand gaiters to latch on, sewing the required 4Deserts patches and the American flag patches onto my "official" race shirt ... which happens to be an old 100% cotton button down office shirt.

Throughout late spring and summer I tried many different types of shirts, including REI's Sahara 

technical travel shirt. Unfortunately the pack straps left ugly piling marks all over the shirts. It then dawned on me that the old 100% cotton dress shirts were probably a much better idea ... and after trying one out found it to be the perfect desert shirt. It had all the necessary qualities - white, long sleeved, light, abrasion resistant, retained water (a real plus in dry desert heat!!) During a 3 week stretch, I wore the shirt - unwashed - run after run after run. Needless to say, the shirt looked incredibly filthy after ... but ... after one wash it was spotlessly white again and none the worse for wear.

I "accessorized" the shirt with iron patches but didn't do a very good job of ironing them on, so Aimee's picture was somewhat messed up (bummer!) On the right side I have the Qwest logo, the Rocky Mountain Road Runners logo, Premier Zhou's Chifa Burritos logo. On the left, Kevin, Cyn, and Aimee above the Ateneo logo (placed in the Grade School uniform location.)   The back of shirt, in the center beneath the collar I have the RMRR 50th Anniversary logo and a somewhat smudged running Sydney.  I thought about including patches of the Atacama Crossing and the Gobi March as well but given the smudgey results of the other patches, I gave up on the idea.  The shirt's pretty well marked up now anyway.

Although I'm not 100% certain that I'll actually take all this food with me during the race, I'll be taking the entire lot with me to Egypt. I have 13 double serve packages of Mountain House freeze dried food; 15 GUs, 7 packs of Sports Jelly Beans, 8oz beef jerky, 7 packs of Gatorade powder, 7 packs of salted roasted almonds. The entire lot weighs a tad over 14lbs - almost the entire pack weight of some of the competitors!

Sad to say but at both the Atacama Crossing and the Gobi March, I brought as much food and ate every bit of it ... and still lost 15lbs in the process. The hotter temperatures in the Sahara will more than likely curb my appetite ... and I'd really hate to be carrying a lot more than I need.

I will be using the same Osprey pack I used in the Gobi March. After all the runs and walks I've taken with it, it's as molded to my body as my body is molded to it!

I'll be taking the same REI subkilo sleeping bag ... rather than spend more $ for a much lighter one ... after all, it's been with me to Chile and China ... can't not take it with me to Egypt.

All told, my pack without water will weigh at least 24lbs - unless I cut back the amount of food I bring. With water the pack will weigh in at around 27-28lbs ... far too heavy to allow me to move along faster than last year. Oh well ...

I also have a replacement stuffed dobe which will ride the top of my pack. Maybe there'll be some lucky Eyptian kid who'll end up with it ... just like the Tajik kid did during the Gobi March (end of the second stage whilst we were in the Tajik villager's place.)