Packing and Tanning

Not much kit for a week in the desert! 

Between yoga and gym sessions, the main focus over the last couple of weeks has been feverishly packing, and picking up all the last minute bits and bobs like lighters, hand gel… and immodium. I’ve managed to pack all my it into my 25 L innov8 rucksack – that vast majority of the volume of which seems to be filled with food. Looking at the kit I’m taking, it looks like very little for a week in the desert! Its certainly outweighed by the food anyway. I’ve packed up and labelled all my food, with a separate bag for each day, and practiced packing my bag. Unfortunately because of the hand baggage limits on the plane I can’t take it packed, so I’m having to re-organise things for the travelling.

I could probably have managed with a slightly smaller rucksack, but I’m quite happy with the size as it wasn’t too stressful. It should cinch down well as the amount of food in it reduces over the race as well – any way we’ll see what I think of it when I’m back! Weight wise, it looks like it’s going to start out around 8.8 kg with the flare and road book etc. I weighed it without the fuel (which I’ll pick up at the first bivouac) and a couple of small bits and it came in about 8.2 kg. It’s a little heavier than I might have hoped for but it didn’t feel too bad on my back in comparison with the training weights I’ve been using – I’ll probably disagree with this completely after the first 500m, but at least I feel ok about it now!

On top of the yoga (which has been getting easier with the heat, though I’m hoping the sweat is going to evaporate off better in the desert!), I’ve had a couple of goes on a sun bed to try and prepare my skin a little. Not something I’ve ever done before, and not sure I’ll do again… I jumped out after a couple of minutes the first time – it felt like I was in a big microwave! After being reassured that I wasn’t the colour of a tomato after this I’ve been in for two more short periods which has given me a little colour – not sure it will make much difference but hopefully it can’t of done any harm. I did end up paranoid the last time as I couldn’t be bothered to find my socks and was worried that the tops of my feet were going to go red and sore – perfect for running across the desert! This, combined with me opening my bedroom door onto my toes and taking a load of skin off the tops of them, has made me very cautious not to do anything silly to myself before I go – there’s still time yet though…!

Any way tops of my feet are a normal colour and my toes have pretty much healed – just a bit more packing and then off we go!