Fears and doubts

I've had a reality check this morning. My brother-in-law has just had to withdraw from a long-distance trek because of exhaustion. If a fit guy has that experience, then I may well be punching above my weight.

Hearing the news has triggered more questions. How do you manage exhaustion when you're on the trail? Is food or water the key? Both? Is it something else? Clothing? Shoes? What makes the difference? What training is going to be best to prepare?

What do you do with wastes - I doubt they have conveniently placed port-a-loos along the way (all the really big questions, as you can see).

This has also come after realising yesterday that I have a long way to go to get my fitness up to peak. I did weights and boxing classes yesterday, back to back. I enjoyed them and got through them fine (incredibly sore today, mind), but what was most concerning was how shattered I was for the rest of the day. It completely wiped me out. And that was just an hour and a half. For the GeoQuest race, I will be working at that intensity in continuous intervals for two days!

Even so, I'm still stupidly keen on doing this. It's just that now I realise I have to work harder to get into condition. That's cool - fun even.

t

a decision

I've decided to train for an adventure race.

About a month ago I was checking my emails. A newsletter for an outdoor retailer came through and at the end was an ad for GeoQuest.

I can't say exactly why it caught my attention, but it did so I clicked through and had a look at the website. In a very bizarre/fateful/impulsive/dumb moment I decided that competing in next year's race was the challenge I needed.

Since April I had lost the drive to stick with my training, so I was looking for something that would inspire and motivate me to keep working harder. This was it.

Two nights later I was out for drinks with Melissa and I mentioned my plan. She was keen and we started making plans; we were so excited. Melissa has rogained in the past and had wanted to do something like this for some time.

GeoQuest has a half-distance race that involves two legs of mixed disciplines, like trekking, rogaining, mountain biking, kayaking, estuary swimming etc. You need a team of 4, plus a support driver.

I need to learn a few important things, like how to mountain-bike (in fact, I need to buy a mountain bike and get used to wearing a helmet and having scary hair every time I remove it!), but I'll get there.

We've set an interim goal of competing in some smaller events in August and have planned regular sessions to build fitness and skills.

I'm so excited about it, but kind of overwhelmed by the size of the goal. What keeps me excited is how amazing it will be to look back over the year, at all the new things I will have introduced to my life.

taryn