Dress rehearsal

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Time to put everything to the test, body, shoes (peculiar pack shuffle has already started dealing to them), diet, sport potions, pack, discipline and grit. 6 days off, 5 of them will try 30 ks a day. I think the first day off, call it preparation. Away every morning by 6.00 am, there is most days a great sunrise at some point along the trail. 11.5 kg pack which got lighter as the water went down and 1000 calories of sports nutrition, Hammer gels and hammer perpetuem, as a liquid mix. The weather has finally got a little cooler, highs under 35 and around 17 in the mornings, so there was no great battle with the heat. Two of the days were were cloudy and storm threatening, a real treat in the Pilbara

Days 2 and 3 were the best times for the 30 ks, 4.5 hrs or 6.6 ks an hour which I am quite happy with. So what happened in the 5 hour days ? Probably finding anything to do but shuffle down the track, adjust shoes, check for mail, taking photos, discipline disappearing down the track with the thought that perhaps it will all come together with the occasion.

The diet/nutrition thing worked well. Every day was approx. 2 kgs lighter than the morning weigh in, but recovered or even gained a little by the next morning. Excellent 6-7 hour unaided sleeps, the sleeping pills are in though, being packed 10 to a tent will probably have me crammed up and sleepless, so ear plugs and sleeping pills, oh quiet Island.

The IT thing has been a comedy of bad research. The Samsung 2 note was purchased because you can change the batteries, the thought being, collect a few photos every day, write a daily blog and either drop box or cloud on a daily basis as we are able to get to a computer every day. Turns out, only able to email without photos or do in house blog. The photos on the Samsung, although great in the phone, don't transfer well and the compact Sony gets very noisy at 100% magnification. Result; the new Sony has arrived in time to read the manual and get a bit of practice. There will be a daily update during the race but the bulk of photos will be added right afterward.

Found a weakness in the body other than the state of mental health. The site of the October hernia operation was starting to get very uncomfortable. A visit to the local Doc, no evidence of rupture, so between us decided it must be a weak spot under strain. Super voltarin in case it becomes a problem during the race. Wasn't totally convinced as the site has never really settled down, something is a little bit amiss in there. Give it a few days rest, do another couple of 30's in the weekend of the last working week see if it has settled.

On the travels round and round the tracks came across a young man jogging with a pack. In a short chat found he had, with his partner, completed the Atacama 4 Desert race. He suggested that if I completed the 5 days of 30 ks then the Gobi should not be too much of a problem. Yeah right! Was though a psychological boost and put a spring in the step.

Now all that needs doing is a final organisation of the pack. So far with everything packed comes in at 11.5 kilos without water. Too heavy. The average pack weight will be in the 8-9 kilos. The camera at 530 grams will always be an extra, at the lightest I would like to get it down to 9.5 kilos. At the latest Atacama the lightest pack was 5.2 kilos, what did he eat? The heaviest 16 kilos.

2 kilos to chuck out !

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Photos

Daddy long legs
And the Eagles

Comments

[bo on the go]

daddy long legs
its all but time... he is prepared, hell yeah !! then go for it as eleanor roosevelt wrote "do one thing everyday that scares you" let your race begin.