sandalbucket
Race weekend! Camping overnight beforehand. It should start raining at about 11 pm. Race will start at 9am. 25k / 16-ish miles with ~4000 feet of climbing, and it will be raining the whole time.
I just picked up some goops for extra calories and a new rain shell. It packs up small so I can stuff it in my pack once I get too hot and accept my inevitable sogginess.
It’s going to be an experience. I don’t have any other events planned for after this one, so we shall see if I can keep the training up.
Big fan of the IRC team. They invited me to Ghana. I did not take them up on it (no passport yet). They’ve got some incredible stories.
To give you an actual answer, and you will probably not like this answer - you eat everything. Eventually. And it won’t end well.
You have only your hands, so you won’t catch any meat. You could try to make tools to make traps or catch fish, but that’s really hard.
For the first week, you probably won’t eat much at all. The hunger will fade after the first 24 hours. But after a few days it will come back, and it will come back strong. You’ll do what babies do - taste everything.
You won’t have tribal knowledge passed down, so you’ll rely on the backups - smell and taste.
Put a little bit of whatever it is in your mouth. If it’s bitter, spit it out. If it makes your mouth tingly after a few minutes, spit it out. Otherwise, swallow it. Wait an hour. If you’re still alive, and feel okay, that thing is probably okay.
You’re going to eat lichen, moss, tree buds, flowers, lots of roots, and strange berries. You’re going to turn over rocks and eat grubs and worms. You’re smart enough to shy away from mushrooms - at first.
Eventually you will be so incredibly hungry, and you will see mushrooms with mouse chew marks, and you’ll think to yourself: “if the mice can eat it, so can I!”. You’ll probably be right, and regardless, the gamble between a new food source and death will seem like a win-win.
Eventually you will get it wrong, and it will hurt the entire time that you’re dying. Life sucks. Your best bet is a few lucky guesses on something relatively abundant so that you can stop guessing.
Longer term, eventually you will figure out those tools you were attempting between foraging runs. Even longer term, you will re-invent farming, and even might not die of a vitamin deficiency. Good luck!
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Practical answer: don’t do that. Ignore food. Get rescued. Go downhill. Most of civilization is on the coastlines and/or riverbanks.
And drink the water! If you only have gross water and no way to filter or boil it - drink it. The difference between death by dehydration and death by bacteria is about one to two weeks, which is more than enough to be rescued. The hospital might be able to fix you sick. They can’t fix dead.
Running!
Last weekend was the end of peak week, did 11 and change around a reservoir. I’ve managed to be consistent since then, between 3 and 5 miles per day.
I’m not sure what the running plan is this weekend, probably relaxed a bit / no long runs.
The race is next week, and I’m feeling prepared. I could do it tomorrow if need be, but it would be tough. Having a few rest days leading up to race day will be excellent.
I’m still on my shoes from last year. The soft parts are basically smooth. No tread. I’ll get new ones after this race, it’s too late to break in new ones now.
imo we should launch our boat off the exposed hull of yonder upturned schooner, and whilst in midair, fire our torpedoes into a helicopter.