This week has been a bit manic trying to get all my kit and everything ready. Some last minute bits of kit arriving just before the weekend and going through everything I’m going to take item by item making sure not to pack too much or too little.
Amazingly, the weather looks ideal for the race, low 20’s in temperature and little to no rain forecast, this means I can cut out most of the cold weather gear.
As such, I have managed to make my bike have a dry weight of 13kgs (excludes food and water).
I still haven’t spent too much time checking out the route but have made sure that it loads up onto my bike computer alright, it’ll be something to do for the journey tomorrow.
Saturday morning I will get the train from Cardiff to Haverfordwest and then make the cycle up to the campsite/start. We need to check in and there will be a lot of people staying the night in preparation for the start on the Sunday at 11am.
The first day looks to be a strange one, it is essentially a neutralised start as we set off and make our way to Pembroke for us all to get on the same ferry where the race will really start in Ireland at 7pm.
I’ve been trying to carb load the last few days and to build a bit (more) bulk in prep for it, essentially just an excuse to eat a lot of glutenous food. If I’m going to be cycling 12+ hours a day, then it’s going to be a lot of snacks to get me through the race without losing too much weight.
Rather than worrying about being cold, I might need to start to think about what to do if I start to get too hot. Ask a local if I can use their hose and hose myself down? Regularly pour my water over my head during the afternoon sun? Or go rouge and swap my sleeping pattern to sleep during the afternoon heat and cycle through the night?
Who knows what the optimal plan will be, but for now, I just want to get to the start line with all my kit in one piece.
My Belated Gap Year 
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