THE STORY FROM THE ARIZONA TRAIL RACE THURSDAY

Made my way to Tucson, Arizona for the start of the Arizona Trail race. I had been really looking forward to this first race of the season – though as usual preparations were a bit of a rush having only just finished work on the mountain! Had trouble finding the taxi guy at the airport and then managed to lose him as we walked to his car – me lugging my big bike box around. Anyway – all was well and we made it to the hotel in Sierra Vista in plenty of time for me to get my gear ready! In fact too early to check in at first.

I needed some iodine pills and a new camelback bladder so after putting my bike together I went into town to buy theses few things. Successful trip so returned to the hotel feeling pretty pleased with myself. Realised I had a ridiculous amount of energy bars – my plan is to have one every half hour or so. As I was getting my bike ready I discovered that my Garmin was missing. Frantically searching – but cant find it anywhere! So I assumed I had left it back in Denver still plugged in. My only option seemed to be to buy a new one! I then trawled the internet to see if there was a store with one available – not a lot of luck there. So I thought I had better call Leonard to check my Garmin really was there! He searched at home and said it was nowhere to be seen – abut did find the lead I had been using! So in that case I must have packed it. The only thing I hadn’t unpacked fully was my sleeping bag and sure enough there it was tucked into the side of my stuff sac behind one of the straps.!! So, I had found my Garmin – that was great! Happy boy!

My taxi was booked for 5am and there was an iHop across the road open 24 hours so breakfast would not be an issue. So I could get off to bed nice and early!! Feeling good after breakfast the next morning. And was ready for the taxi. He dropped me off at about 6am, but unfortunately I had assumed the race started at the start of the Arizona Trail and so asked him to drop me at the Monument which turned out to be wrong. I just hadn’t paid enough attention! This is when my Garmin and I fell out big time!