Hi everyone – we had a great meeting Monday night with most of
the team present. For those that couldn’t make it, this blog post will catch
you up!
First, Jenifer passed out the team shirts – which are VERY
bright, by the way! We may not need a headlamp and reflective vest after all….
They may be asking us to turn down the volume on our shirts, as we are scaring
the wild dogs and feral pigs! (Just kidding... we still need one...)
(Thank you, Cindy Featherston for this awesome photo collage!)
Hanh and Rosie, Jenifer has your shirts, so just coordinate
with her if you want to pick them up (or you can get them Friday night).
Now, on to the schedule and details for the weekend:
Friday Plans
We agreed that we would leave at 5:30 pm on Friday evening –
we will meet at St. Theresa Catholic School, and you can leave your cars in the
parking lot for the weekend. We will go straight to our weekend house in
Flatonia (which is on the way to Gonzales), drop off our stuff, and anyone that
wants to go on to Gonzales for the TIR party can do that – if you prefer, you
can just hang out at the house. The good news is that we do not have an early
start Saturday morning, so we can sleep in! Simon apparently is planning to
consume plenty of beer Friday night, so we now know we need to watch him…
Saturday/Sunday
Saturday morning start time is 10:04 am. We can either pick
up packets Friday night if we decide to go to Gonzales, or we can also just get
them before our start time. So we’ll coordinate what time we need to leave the
house Saturday morning, but we’ll all be together, so that will be easy.
We will obviously be spending lots of time in the vans over
these 48 hours! You pretty much know the schedule – run your leg, get in the
van, hang out (and for Simon, consume some beer). Melissa is really looking
forward to her midnight run through the woods….. Looking for volunteers to
accompany her for that one! And seriously, for any night-time legs, we should
consider having a companion running with the leg runner. But we can work all
that out in the vans.
Cindy has sent out all the leg information, with estimated times, so be sure to study it - especially if you have fans that want to come watch you along the way, so you can tell them where to be!
Packing
I previously posted the packing list from the TIR website,
but we have come up with a few other things you might want to bring. I have
noted below what you need to bring as an individual, vs. what we can share as a
group (and in fact, already have enough for the team). So just focus on your
individual packing list (unless you are bringing something for the team, in
which case your name is next to it).
INDIVIDUAL ITEMS
Clothing:
· Running
shorts/tops (including extras, if you want to change out of funky
clothes)· TIR team shirt
· Running shoes, and socks (including extras)
· Rain jacket (just in case...)
· Clothes for lounging/sleeping
· Shoes for lounging (so you can get out of your running shoes)
· Er… um…. Undergarments… (definitely bring EXTRAS!) J
Personal care:
· Travel size sundries (shower supplies, toothbrush, etc.) – we will hopefully be able to shower at the school gym in Wallis for $5
· Towels
· Baby wipes (or as the website states, “a creative washing method….”)
· Sun screen — spray on
Race gear:
· Headlamp/flashlight (we can share these, but if you have one, bring it)
· Mace (to repel the dogs and feral pigs!) (For those that weren’t there last night, we got off on a tangent about feral pigs – but I am not sure they will chase you – I think they are afraid of people!)
· Reflective vest (we already have several, so if you don’t already have one, we can all share – they are one size fits all)
· Watch/Garmin if you want…
· Sunglasses
· Cap/visor
· Phone
Lounging:
· Mat/sleeping
bag/blanket· Pillow
Food/drinks – bring whatever you want – we can go grab food for meals if you don’t want to bring actual food – we will be going through several small towns with small-town choices (i.e., local restaurants, and my favorite…. Dairy Queen!!)
· Water/Sports drinks/(beer?)
· Breakfast food for Saturday pre-race, and Sunday mid-race
· Snacks/energy bars/whatever you eat during the day
GROUP ITEMS
· Cell phone charger for iPhone (Caroline and Jenifer to bring) (if you don’t have an iPhone, bring your charger!)
· 2 coolers per van (one for food, and one for beverages) (Caroline, Jenifer and Paul to provide)
· Flip chart size of van 2 running legs, estimated hand-off times, etc. I have one for van 1 as well. (Jenifer)
· Zero Odor/Febreze (Jenifer and Caroline)
· Flashlights (Caroline, Jenifer, anyone else that has one – we’ll have plenty!)
· Trash bags (Caroline will bring enough for both vans)
· Texas State Map for each van (Caroline and Jenifer)
· Driver directions (Cindy/Amy to print out and bring on Friday)
· First aid kit (Melissa and Kevin) (Kevin, I think you said you had one…?)
· Toilet paper (Caroline will bring enough for both vans)
· Tarp for the seats of the van, if we need to sit on the ground, etc. (Caroline and Kevin)
