After three flights we arrived in Ulaanbaatar (UB to us locals:) yesterday afternoon. Except for the South Korean TSA confiscating my mini multi tool, we had no real hiccups. Our bags arrived with us. We immediately exchanged some dollars into Tugrik (about 3500 T per $) and got local SIM cards for our phones to avoid roaming charges. 

we set up a van to pick us up at the airport and met several other race competitors awaiting it. There was some confusion about when/if it would arrive. We'd met a local driver when we arrived who pointed out where to exchange money. He was still around so River and I took a ride from him. We weren't staying at the race hotel the first night anyway. 

it was about an hour drive through crazy traffic to get the 20 miles to our hotel. We witnessed a truck knock over a street light and the final stages of the local fire department extinguishing a giant TV advertising sign that had caught on fire. 

Once at our hotel we dropped our bags, wandered the streets a little then ended up eating some of our freeze dried food and going to bed by 6p. 

This morning we were up at 4:30a so we went for a run. There is a complimentary Japanese bathhouse in the hotel so we hit the sauna and cold plunge. The hotel breakfast was elaborate and we ate our fill of eggs and granola and fruit, etc. 

Now it's nap time then we move to the race hotel. We plan to go to the National Museum and sightsee later. 

Hello-

Well the time is truly drawing near now. I have been counting down the days on my gym's whiteboard:All the days of long runs in the rainy mountains, ordering/testing gear, reading books and blogs and the Racing the Planet website, survivng challenges like the Goggins 4x4x48 (running 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours), Last Fool Standing (running a 5km loop every hour for as long as you can: I got 93 miles done in 27 straight hours) and a 50 mile race with a full pack have prepared me well for this coming challenge. I also spent two weeks with my wife running and hiking the Grand Canyon and parks throughout Utah last February.  And Memorial Day weekend was spent in the dry heat of eastern Washington with River testing gear, food, sleeping pads and ourselves. I am confident that "the hay is in the barn" and we are about as prepared as we can be.  No serious injuries during training, no issues with gear nor vaccinations nor scheduling our lives around the event (thanks Lori, and the PRFS Tribe-the members of the group of clients I train who will be making-due/enjoying-the-break-from-me while I am gone).

Crom can't believe how heavy my bag is!

We board a flight to Los Angeles at 6pm on Tuesday, then one to Seoul South Korea around midnight. We finally arrive in Ulanbataar on Thursday at 10am local time (5pm Wednesday West Coast time). We will try to keep you posted as the adventure reveals itself.

Clay

Howdy-

The much-anticipated Gobi March is coming up fast.  River and I have been preparing for this adventure for about nine months and it is surreal to think that we will be on the plane crossing the Pacific Ocean around this time next week. A TON of preparation, thought, training and expense has gone into preparing for this epic journey. But now the endless details swirling around are slowly coalescing into a sense of being prepared and anxious to kick the party off.

So here is our timeline at this point:

Our training has moved into the “Taper” stage: still working out but with an eye towards slowly winding down so we are recovered by Sunday June 18^th when the event starts.

All our purchases are made and we are in the process of organizing. We carry all our food so we are dividing everything into Days 1-7 and vacuum packing them into individual bags (much thanks to my wife Lori for assisting with this!)

I get a couple vaccinations (Hep A & B) tomorrow and pick up a mild antibiotic in case of severe stomach bug issues.

Tuesday June 13 we board a 6pm flight to Los Angeles, then a plane to Seoul, South Korea and finally fly into the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, arriving Thursday morning local time (which will be Wednesday at 5pm here in Seattle).

For those who don’t know, the event is a 7 day Stage Race across central Mongolia. There are 124 competitors signed up from dozens of different countries. We travel about 25 miles a day for the first four days. The event coordinators supply tents or yurts/gers for us and aid stations with water every 6 miles or so. And at the finish line each day they will have camp set up for us. River and I are sharing a yurt with a Canadian husband and wife. At the end of each day/stage we have the remainder of the day to cook our meals, lick our wounds and generally recover and prepare for the next day’s start at 0800 hours.

Stage five is called the Long March: it is a 50 mile leg that has a 48 hour cut-off. The final stage is relatively short (though I doubt it will feel that way after ~150 miles) to the finish line.

After the race we are put up in nice hotel, have an awards banquet and then go our separate ways. River and I will then start a private tour of the Gobi Desert, flying out of Ulaanbaatar on Monday and returning on Thursday. Saturday July 1 we fly back to Seoul, this time staying a couple days to see some sights (we are planning a tour of the DMZ with North Korea, including a tunnel that the North Korean dug underneath into South Korea). We arrive home on July 4.

We will have the opportunity to update this blog every day during the race so you can check in for details later. And you can monitor our progress live at http://www.racingtheplanet.com/gobimarch/live.

Clay