T minus 5

5 days until the race. In theory training is over, I'm either ready for it or I'm not. We'll find out this weekend.

This final week is spent thinking about all the logistics that go into an event like this. It's no joke to go 5 hrs from home to spend approximately 24 hrs in the woods, travelling 100+ miles by bike, foot and canoe.

Each race has a list of mandatory gear that the Race Director (RD) has decided that each racer and team is required to have with them at all times. We must produce the mandatory gear at check-in on Friday night and also at any time during the race when a race official asks to see it. So at 11 o'clock Saturday night a race official may very well ask to see your whistle or tweezers or water filtration kit. This is the easy stuff though, you just use the mandatory gear list as a checklist and make sure you have it all with you at all times. It's a level playing field because everybody must have all the same stuff.

The more difficult decisions to make is what non-mandatory gear to bring. How cold will it get overnight? Do I need pants? A jacket? A hat? What if it rains? My rain jacket is great but takes up a lot of room in my backpack, do I really need it? How many pairs of socks should I bring? Will the canoe sections be long enough to justify carrying the carbon fiber double-wing paddles or should we just use the lame heavy ones provided for us with the boats? The idea is to travel as lightly as possible, to only bring what you'll need. The final decisions won't be made until right before the race starts Saturday morning.

The other critical decisions being made now are how to deal with hydration and nutrition. This is a non-supported race meaning we get no outside help of any type so I must bring with me everything that I will eat or drink during the race. These are the decisions that make or break the race. I expect to be burning 500- 800 calories per hour or a total of 15- 20 thousand calories during the race. There's no way to consume that many calories while racing. There are web-sites devoted to these issues and experience has taught me that I can get through on 250-300 calories per hour. The secret is to maintain the hourly intake and not fall behind. I plan on consuming at least half those calories in liquid form through powdered energy drinks. The rest will be energy bars and gels. I may bring some trail-mix or something with me but I don't know if I'll eat it or not. I'm very cautious of what I eat during a race, I have a sensitive stomach and don't want to risk getting sick by eating other solid, fun, "comfort" foods. I've seen guys puking on the side of the trail or running with diarrhea running down their leg and it isn't pretty.

There's lots of info coming to us from the RD about the race. It's going to be a pretty cool race in many ways. These guys consider themselves to be high-tech and are trying some new stuff. As I get more clearer info this week I'll put it here.