Two Weeks...

Two weeks from today and I'll be in Knik at the start of the Ultrasport. For the past 3+ months I have spent almost all of my free time training for this event and now that I'm into full taper/rest mode I spend almost all of my free time trying to improve anything I can with my gear.

I finally finished sewing up the snow cover to my sled last week and it was nice to find out today that it fits over all of my gear with plenty of room to spare for any last minute additions. Today was the first time that I packed up every single last thing into my sled... or almost everything, only had about 3,000 calories of food in there but I'll likely start the race with about 6,000 in my sled (as well as ~3,000 in my camelbak). It weighed in at about 34 pounds and will probably be closer to 40 once my water bottles are completely full and all my food is on board.

Yesterday I spent about 2 hours packing up my food that I need to ship away to Anchorage which will then be flown into 2 checkpoints along the way (miles 130 and 210). Each of my drops weighs in right at (or a touch above) the 10 pound limit. They contain about 16,500 calories each as well as a few batteries, chemical warmers, and stove fuel. 16,500 calories is a ton of food (probably more than I'll need for each stretch), but I've decided to go with as much as possible and if I need to leave some behind I'd rather make that decision once I'm a few days into the race rather than trying to make it now.

My camera can supposedly take 56 minutes of video on the 2 gb card that I have. My hope is to have the energy and memory and motor skills while out there to try to use most of this space for short video clips throughout the race. If this works out I'll hopefully be able to post a little video that will give a small glimpse into what progresses out there on the trail.

Anyhow, this is all still two weeks away so I guess I may as well stop getting so worked up about it now. On one hand I wish the race were just starting tomorrow. But on the other hand I can think of dozens of things I'd like to test/improve before the race. Problem is that many things just aren't going to be figured out until I'm out there on the trail for a few days. I suppose that's just the way it goes when you attempt something that so far ecxeeds any previous endeaver. I think you can read about this stuff and learn a lot in training but I'll probably learn more about what the hell I'm doing out there in the first day on the trail then I could in a lifetime of reading stories and advice on the internet. What I hope for is that as I learn these things I've got the knowledge, the strength, and the equipment to do something about what I've learned. And if not? That's the scary stuff that I just try not to think too much about. I do after all still have 2 weeks.