I refuse to say failed. Granted the goal of coming home this week with a finisher’s medal in hand did not happen but this whole trip was a huge huge learning experience that will allow me to come back next better prepared. While altitude sickness and heat where the primary things I battled with on stage one, I have learned a great deal from the other competitors concerning gear and some other types of training to better prepare. In spite not getting my finisher’s medal, the past week was phenomenal; from the volunteers and all they do to make this event run smoothly to the competitors helping others from duck taping shoes to needed encouragement, etc. It is hard to put into words and I am still in awe. So now I am back home in civilization and making my plans for next year. I have a score to settle with Atacama =)

These past few days (weeks) have been STRESSFUL, in a good way. The excitement I am going through reminds me of being a kid who can’t WAIT for the day of some awesome fieldtrip! So focusing has not been easy but I have managed to keep my collective head on straight.  Tonight will be spent finishing putting patches on my clothes and compiling my music. Tapering has been hard because I worry that I will lose fitness but it has been nice to sleep in a little later. With all this pent up energy I hope I don’t blow it all on the first day (HA!) but I am looking forward to no snow, no frozen water, no slipping on ice, and ditching the 15 layers of clothing. Safe travels everyone; see you all in San Pedro!

I don’t, mine leaks. I recently picked up a 70 oz Camelbak hydration bladder and have been using it along with my RaidLight Evolution 2 Backpack for my long treks. I like the fact that the bladder is very light with a wide mouth for cleaning and pouring in the goods. However, I have noticed if you are not very very careful when closing the reservoir, you will think it’s closed until half your water is sloshing around in your backpack. Even when I double/triple insure I have closed the reservoir correctly, there are minor leaks that pop up on occasion. I find this frustrating but since this is the first time I have dealt with a hydration bladder, I am uncertain as to whether I have a defective product, bought from a hit or miss company, or if this is the nature of the bladder beast. I have been considering getting another bladder, 100 oz, but I don’t know if that means the problem will be more pronounced. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?

How humbling.

Just got back from Australia where part of the trip was spent bush camping in the desert of the Northern Territory and hiking Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon across 3 days. What does this have to do with Atacama? Well, the humidity was ~10% (Atacama is 9% humidity), the temperature reached 42 C (107.6 F), and both treks had some significant climbing with no shade. So I view this as a pre “hello, guess what you’re in for (insert maniacal laugh)”. Let’s just say it humbled me on what we are about to do in March and the honeymoon about Atacama is officially over. It was just by chance this worked out this way as this trip was to celebrate a friend’s birthday but it gave me good insight on how my body handles the high heat with low humidity, my water and electrolyte consumption in this type of environment, and sleeping outside in the cold desert night.

Five and a half months away…wow. I still don’t believe I have signed up for this event, until I look at my name and get chills. To tackle this event I decided to treat it as a project so I scoped out the work, did my WBS, yadda yadda, and finally generated my Gantt Chart. That was the fun part, now time to execute.  The mileage buildup is coming along nicely and I am lucky to have a variety of trails to train on. As far as equipment is concerned, I just ordered the RaidLight Evolution 2 Backpack  and will start to use it on my 10 mile commutes to work (I do this 2-3 times a week) so if this one works good for me then I will purchase another for the race. I already use an 18L fast pack crammed with clothes and other stuff so this pack should not be too much bigger. I plan to continue my commutes in the winter so I would imagine I will be carrying more gear and other stuff to deal with the cold and (hopefully) snow. Shoes-wise I am leaning towards the Altra Zero Drop Lone Peak trail shoe as these have worked very nicely for me. I am just not sure how bad the salt flats could wreak them though they seem pretty sturdy. So for now time to tryout some freeze dried meals and look for a sleeping bag and pad. Any thoughts on closed cell-foam vs inflatable sleeping pads anyone?

 

UPDATE – Backpack just arrived!!! Wow, they gave me a delivery date of Oct 26^th but it only took 3 days! Too excited. So I will be using my backpack starting with Wednesday night’s commute home.