Well, after months of dreaming, planning and
preparation, it’s finally here – Racing The Planet Iceland starts tomorrow. The
finalising of the formal admin begins this morning with competitor briefing at
8am followed by check-in, where our kit will be (checked) and packs weighed.
Cramming what’s needed for seven days of
running in cold and wet conditions is no easy feat – I think the time it has
taken to plan and prepare the kit, mostly made up of mandatory requirements,
and then do Houdini to squeeze it all into my 25L pack will be longer than the
30 plus hours it’s likely to take me to run this race.
Right now I’m feeling excited, afraid,
filled with anticipation, and more than a tad daunted by the enormity of the
challenge ahead. As if the 250km distance with a 9kg pack on my back is scary
enough, rumour has it that the RTP course director Carlos is quite a sadist
when it comes to route setting – if there’s a geological obstacle of any sort
to be gone up/over/across rather than around, it’ll be guaranteed the route
will be via the roughest section, even creating the top of said obstacle rather
than the saddle.
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my food & kit for the next 7 days |
Add to that the prediction of bad weather
forecast for Wednesday onwards, and we have the ingredients for an even spicier
challenge.
I’m enormously privileged to be here,
running this race. Iceland is a place that has always fascinated me, but one to
which I knew I was never likely to travel to. But life often happens as you
don’t quite expect it to, and for me a strange combination of circumstances
unfolded in the first half of this year saw me able to sign up for this
incredible race.
One of the reasons I’ll be giving RTP
Iceland my absolute all is to raise funds for Solomon’s Haven, a wonderful
place of safety for abused and/or abandoned children in Mitchell’s Plain in
Cape Town. I’m trying to raise as much as I can for this special haven, and I
really need your help!
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some of the kids at Solomon's Haven saying hi! |
Please
remember folks, every donation – big or small – counts for a lot. Let's do it,
together!
Labels: Racing The Planet Iceland, Solomon's Haven