Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Final thoughts before La Trans Aqu

I catch a train on Friday at 6pm to Birmingham international airport. I've booked a hotel for the night because my flight to Bordeaux is at 6am on Sunday. I did get an offer from my folks to give me a lift straight to the airport, but they would have had to get out of bed at 2 or 3am. Also, I figured I can more or less fall out of bed and be at the airport terminal, hopefully getting more sleep. That said, I never really sleep well in hotels. I wonder what I am going to sleep like under canvass for a week with aching muscles next week!

I re-weighed my La Trans Aq' items after finding some digital scales in the house. I found quite a few discrepancies from what the manufacturer claimed were the weights. I have updated the previous blog post with the new weights of things. The net result was not a great deal different, as some were over and some under weight. One thing to bear in mind is even lightweight freezer bags weight 5grams. When you are using 6+ a day that soon adds up, something I had overlooked. I will be re-packaging some food items into freezer bags during the admin day in France, to reduce the weight a little.

I have had to weigh and measure all my electrolyte and recovery powders and bag them up already. If I don't make a blog post, check out the front page of Le Monde for a headline that reads "UK Citizen arrested at Bordeaux in massive drugs haul". All these bags of powder look very dodgy indeed!

I've been listening to Michel Thomas's Basic French lessons this week, trying to store up some useful phrases. However, he didn't tell me how to say "Please carry me, I can't run any further" or "my feet are basically two large blisters".

I'm sure I’ll struggle through somehow though.

I've made a table below that shows the days distance in miles and kilometres, the cut-off average speed for each day(if you finish with a slower average you are out), my expected average speed (mph) - low estimate, my expected average speed (mph)- high estimate, and the time in hours to complete based on the low and high speeds.



I've actually been optimistic with all of those. I am basing them on my UK performance, trying to factor in the heat in France a little. It may be that I can finish the first short stage a little faster, but on the flip-side later in the week I could be down to a hobble or crawl and finish significantly slower. These cut-off times are stricter than the MDS, which because of the intense heat can be done more slowly. It is not possible to walk La Trans Aq realistically. Not when you factor in navigation errors, stopping at checkpoints, tending to foot problems etc. I have to be in a 'run' mindset, albeit at a comfortable shuffle speed.

Not sure what the weather will hold at the moment. It has been raining all over Europe, but is forecast to get warmer this weekend. I am expecting to start with a temperature of around 25-27C. I'd actually like it to be hot, very hot, uncomfortably so in fact. I actually want to suffer because of the heat and get a small taste of what Morocco will be like next year.

I'm taking my mobile phone, mainly to take photos with now and again. If I use it sparingly, I also hope to be able to update this blog in the evening. I've set it to publish entries made to the blog email address (not the one in my profile), so hopefully I can post up something short and sweet just to say I'm still alive each day!

You can also check out the results page each night on the website. I'm race number 107. You can't send me any messages from the website I'm afraid, like the service the MDS offer.

I'm not 100%, but I'm as good as I can expect at the moment after the issues in the last few months. Things have gone well recently. I know I am capable of the longest day distance, as proved a month ago. I know what pace to run at, my nutrition is in order. I just lack experience. I don't feel too much pressure for this event. I am using it as a learning experience. I'd love to finish the event though, so I'm going to do my best to do just that.

Hopefully you'll hear from me from this Monday night (4th June) onwards. If not, keep and eye on the results and I'll post up my story when I get back. I arrive home late on the 11th. I'll post up a short and sweet version of events on the 12th, and then write up a day by day account during that week.

Wish me Luck!

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