What I didnt do

Before I tell you the full story of what I did do during the race in Namibia I thought I should tell you the few things that I didnt do, and also the result of some of them.

Heat of the desert
I didnt realise that the weather was going to be as tolling as it was. The day before the race we went out for a 4 hour walk to appreciate the heat of the sun during the middle of the day. I dont think I need to tell you that it was hot, but just how hot it was will be difficult to tell. I can say that it was so hot that none of the competitors in the run could run continuously after the first 4h or so. We suffered greatly in the 46 degree (115 Fahrenheit) sun.

Weight of the pack
I had been training with a backpack in the weeks leading up to the race. However I had been training with a pack that had a weight of about 6-8kilos. My pack during the race was closer to 12 kilos. In fact between kilometer 20 to 60 my left shoulder was my main concern and reason for pain.

Choice of shoes
I was using standard road trainers. The surface we were running on was a times very very rocky. I just didnt have the appreciation just how much landing on a rock could hurt the sole of my feet. The result of this was a painful blood filled blister on the sole of my foot. That was not the end of my blisters (as you can see on the photos). I also had blisters between my toes, under the pad of my foot and on my heals. The right choice of shoes would have been proper trail shoes with a protective hard layer in the sole to protect from the rocks underfoot.

Food and energy intake
I had been looking at total calories when I had accumulated what I intended to eat. However as it turned out I had should also have been looking at calories/gram. Items such as gels are great, but they are actually quite heavy. The same goes for energy bars. Items such as noodles actually gives much more calories per gram, and this resulted in a very heavy backpack. I also realised that I dont have to eat just quite as much as I thought. I had estimated to carry about 7,000 calories. In the end I only ate about 4,500 calories, and with that I was still among one of the persons eating the most.

I can at this point only say that for next race I am doing I have learned many thing, and hopefully wont make the same mistakes again. I'll try to get my first race report ready for later today.