Saturday at 7am, competitor briefing at the Novotel Ulaanbatar.  130 of us are signed up to take on the 155-mile / 250-kilometer Gobi March.  That’s 130 stories of training and persevering, planning and dreaming.  I want to complete the miles, but I also want to hear the stories.  Where did these racers come from and what is their “why”? How did they train? What is their race strategy?  Lots of trail hours ahead for those conversations.

I live in Evanston, just outside of Chicago.  Chicago is great for many reasons: food, culture, Lake Michigan.  It is also great because you can get pretty much anywhere in the world from O'Hare.  But Mongolia took real effort.  Three flights and nearly 30 hours of travel from door to door.  I'm a little bleary eyed, but it is a small price for a big adventure.

I left my house at 6am on Wednesday and by the time I got to the hotel, it was after 11pm on Thursday.  I was up early on Friday morning to take a tour of the Ghenghis Kahn statue, the Terelj National Park and the temple located within the park.  If the scenery in the park was a preview of what we will see on the course, it is going to be an amazing week.

Back to the briefing.  It is a straightforward meeting which takes roughly 30 minutes. The race organizers introduce themselves and tell us what to expect this week. There is a large and experienced medical staff.  Let's hope they are the equivalent of the carried umbrella that ensures the rain does not arrive.  Next up is more administrative stuff, small group meetings to verify that all forms have been submitted and each of us has the required gear, electrolytes and food.

My gear check time was 9:30.  I have passed gear check with a pack that weighs 10.5kg, roughly 25 pounds.  This is actually pleasing to me because while I think my pack looks cartoonishly large compared to the other racers, it is more or less the average pack weight. Still, 25 pounds is a lot.  The good news is that every meal and snack consumed this week will reduce the pack’s weight and volume.

We have the rest of the morning to deal with the nervous realization that this adventure is finally about to begin.  Buses leave for Camp 1 at 1pm.  The ride will be scenic and the energy will undoubtedly be great.  I am hoping to take a nap to offset my lingering jet lag. The ride will take up to six hours.  Most of us have brought takeaway meals from town for tonight’s dinner in camp.

If sports were ever important to you, you remember the feeling before the contest was about to start.  And the questions.  Did I do enough to prepare?  Will I perform up to the level of my training?  How will I react when the plan goes sideways?  Well, once you get to a certain level of…”maturity” in life, those butterflies generally become a thing of the past.  Which is not necessarily a good thing.  An event like this is a kind of magic trick because it transports you back to that time when kickoff was one hour away.  One more restless sleep followed by a Sunday morning briefing and then the race gets started…