So I figured I'd do a quick post on lessons that I learned from this race, mistakes I made, etc... to better help out for the next one.  Or anyone that has questions about their first one.

So, right off the bat, day 1 I did do a lot of running, but I settled into my pace and ran my race pace for the entire day... that was good... and non hurting.  That was a good thing... not a bad part.

The front pouch on the pack, didn't like that.  It's been fine for shorter training runs, but didn't like it at all for longer distances.  It seemed to hamper my speed.  I think a better idea would be to manage to compress everything into just the 30L part on my back.  Bottles, can go up on the shoulder straps.  I like the Raidlite water bottle cariers that attach to the shoulder straps of the bag.  And they have drinking tubes built into the bottle as well.  Either that, or get a SmarTube, and just keep the 1.5L bottles that they give you at the checkpoints on one of the side pouches on the backpack.  That'll make for quick checkpoints as well.  So either of those options would be great. 

Kit wise, I was pretty happy with mine.  My sleeping bag worked out great.  I didn't need a sleeping mat, although one would've made the ground a bit more comfortable, I got by just fine without one.  It would've been nice to had brought more socks, a fresh pair of socks is wonderful!  Trekking poles would've been pretty nice, I didn't train with them, nor expect to be walking as much as I did, and they would've made the "Undulating" terrain much nicer.  I did fine without a solar panel as I didn't listen to my ipod at all during the race.  I used it at night to help relax and recharge... but I had more then enough battery life for that.  The shoes worked out good.  At first I was getting sand coming in through the vents on the top of the shoe at the toes... cause the sand was so fine, that wasn't too cool.  I ended up putting some duct tape over the toes of the shoes, and it worked out great.  The built in gaiters worked great too, even when I sunk in the sand up to my ankles, no sand got it.  It would've been nice to have slightly bigger shoes then what I had brought out there.  And, I can always put 2 insoles in them to make them fit better, and take them out as my feet swell.

Food wise, the food I brought was pretty good.  One good idea would be to take the food out of the container that it comes in, and put it in little plastic baggies rolled up, that would save on space.  To eat it, I can just do like everyone else, and cut the bottom off of one of the 1.5L bottles and eat out of that.  Also, a good bfast idea would be crushed granola or something similar, powdered milk, and maybe some dried berries, that would be tasty and probably pretty high in calories.  But by saving room on my food, I would be able to potentially use a lighter/smaller pack.  The cliff bars and Perpeteum that I brough was great, and just the right amount!  I was working hard to make sure that I drank enough Perpeteum during the stages.  Cliff bars were great to nibble on when I was extra hungry on the longer days.  It would've been nice to have brought a long some sort of meat sticks or something similar to eat... that really would've hit the spot!  Or some beef jerkey, or those beef jerkey cubes that are pretty soft....mmmm.  Other then that, I can't think of any other ideas for food. 

Well, this is all I can think about for now.  I'm sure more will come later, we'll see.

Hmmm... this is a little late... but I figured I'd still write about the 6th stage. 

So we had to get up to load the buses at 3am.  Everyone was moving pretty slow.  We had a 200 Meter walk to get to the buses, that was pretty tough with stiff joints from having just woken up and it being pretty cold outside.  I did it barefoot as I didn't feel like squeezing my feet into my shoes for such a short walk.  Anyway, on the bus, I had 2 seats to myself, so I was able to stretch out and keep my knee from causing me too much pain.  Did a lot of stretching and massaging, which helped, and tried to sleep the best I could.  It was about a... 5 hour bus ride.  That sucked.  We were all expecting to come running out of the desert to the pyramids, but instead we got bused to a side street near the pyramids.  Anyway, so there we are navigating through traffic on the buses with police escorts, making so much noise and such a scene, everyone's staring at us and I'm thinking, these guys must really be wondering who we are.  I realize that they can see our nationality patches on our sleeves through the windows, all these different nationality flags on all these buses, must look pretty strange.  The bus stops and lets us out, instantly everyone's on to gear prep for the race.  I managed to squeeze my feet into my shoes, I was pretty happy about that.  We're all getting ready to run when we're told to get back on the buses.  What was that, practice?  Anyway, they bus us, no kidding, about 200 Meters down the road... where they let us out again.  This time we all get lined up, and they start us on the final stage.

The first part of the run consisted of running through back allies piled high with trash, and horse and camel waste, pretty discusting.  There was even horse traffic!!  It was like a horse/camel traffic jam, everyone was riding horses!  So we get through all that and make our way into the area where the pyramids are at.  That was pretty cool, running up and seeing the pyramids.  We follow the flags around and then the finish line is right there.  I couldn't believe it!  All of a sudden, I see people coming from another direction.  It turns out some of the bystanders had pointed some competitors in the wrong direction...hehe.  I heard one story of a guy that got pointed in the direction of the sphinx last year, and was waiting around down where that is, when the finish line isn't over there.  So the finish was, in typical Racing the Planet fashion, up a steep hill.  We had a red carpet to run up, and it was lined with camels wearing all this fancy dress.  It was pretty cool.  Cross the finish line, and I'm hugged by the owner of Racing the Planet, and she put my finisher's medal around my neck.  What a feeling that was!  I don't think I stopped smileing for quite a long time.  Anyway, I just started walking around, taking photo's with everyone and talking and joking about the race... it was pretty fun.  We made our way in and had pizza and beer... yum!  All us hungry runners finished off the pizza and beer pretty quick.  After that was done we loaded the buses back up and headed off to the hotel.  Hotel check-in was a nightmare!  They knew we were coming, but weren't prepared.  As it turns out, a Saudi Prince had a bday party the night before, and his guests were refusing to leave.  Stupid.  So we all go put 3 to a room.  That didn't effect me cause, one of the people in my room went to someone else's room to stay, and my other roomate, Taavi from Estonia was leaving at 1am, so we just stayed up and talked after the banquet.  So I got checked in and showered.  Then went to get a massage, sat in a hot tub and took a "sweedish bath"... shower, sauna, shower, steam room, sauna, shower... that was pretty cool... but I was exhausted afterwards.  Went to the barber's for a "proper shave" which was pretty nice to have.  And by that time it was awards banquet time.  The banquet was nice, lots of good food, and lots of good fun.  And we had an open bar of beer and wine... pretty nice. 

Well, that's all I can think of for this post.

I've been meaning to start this for a while... although I'm not going to be updating this that much before the race... maybe I'll write in it a bit more as the race get's closer.  So, where am I in training... long runs on the beach (I still despise the sand but I guess I need to get used to it).  Equipment is coming together nicely.  Still working on food.  And travel plans are still getting arranged.  If anyone has any ideas I'm always game.  So far my thoughts are taking the Ferry to Morrocco, then maybe an overnight train to Cairo?  Germany Ironman 70.3 is in 2 weeks, time to worry about that. 

-Eric