Peak Prep

Hung around the campground this afternoon and pre-packed my run stuff for tomorrow morning. There are several bags:
  1. Bag with stuff I'm wearing, incl. heart rate monitor and a separate plastic bag with my Merrell Pace Gloves. They are a little messy with good Kansas dirt.
  2. Sweat bag. This is the plastic bag that packet pickup came in. You give it to the race officials and they take it to the top of the mountain. It contains warm clothing.
  3. Plastic baggie of my shower stuff. This is so I don't have to dig through my toiletry bag for the relatively few items I will need tomorrow.
  4. Sling bag with change of clothes. This will stay in the car. It will be mid or upper 80s in Manitou tomorrow, so I won't want to leave those warm clothes on very long.
I am also carrying gear on my person. Here's how it's sorted out:

Windbreaker front pockets. Left pocket: Vanilla gels, chapstick, tums, electrolytes. Right pocket: chocolate and raspberry gels, candied ginger, gel trash baggie. Upper zip pocket: gloves. Interior pocket: Girl Scout layer. (If you can't figure out what that is, you will never need to know. And now you figured it out, right?)

Where to put the sunglasses? I need another pocket. Hola duct tape! The vented back of the jacket is now a pocket. I don't like to run trail in sunglasses, so this pocket will only come into play above treeline. I won't need to put the jacket on until some of the gels are gone, so when it goes on, the glasses transfer into a pocket.

Not pictured (sloppy camera work; it was right there): my stretchy amphipod race belt, which is holding my rain poncho ($3 at the race expo) and the phone.

Now for the clever part.  When the jacket is rolled up and tied around my waist, the stuff in the upper half and the makeshift sunglasses pocket will sit snug in a roll at the small of my back. The weight is distributed so nothing is flapping around and no part of this whole package feels heavy.

I pinned it with some extra safety pins from packet pickup.

OK, this is not technically a gear pack picture. I am just very proud of this bib pinning job. My bibs are always somehow askew and they never lie flat and neat like this.

And here's my pace card, taped to my water bottle. I didn't mean to test its waterproofitude, but it worked out OK.

So that's it. I just ate my dinner of sweet potato, romaine leaves, an avocado, and an apple. I'm drinking another half liter of water. And then I'm going beddy bye.

Take care everybody and hug on the people you love.

Today's Tune:
In the Hall of the Mountain King, performed by a Lego Orchestra.


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