Day 0: Preparations

Hi, we're Madeline and Lizzy, two sisters who really, really need a third sibling to tell us when we have a stupid idea. Sometime last winter I (Madeline) came up with the idea to attempt to run the entire Katy Trail, and Lizzy, instead of telling me I was insane, was instantly on board with the idea.

We're both runners. Lizzy's been running since high-school, with an impressive sub-3 hour marathon PR, and I've been running consistently for four years with no particularly impressive PRs to boast of, but neither of us had ever attempted anything like this. (Lizzy here, this is a lie, Madeline has an impressive 1:40 half marathon PR)

We originally planned a 2-week trip covering 10-20 miles per day, but we both had somewhat restrictive summer schedules, so we decided to attempt the trip over eight days. Our planned mileage over the first seven days would range between 25 and 38 miles and carry us from Clinton, MO to St. Charles, MO. We would cover the 12-mile stretch between St. Charles and Machens on the 8th day.

We live in different cities, so we did most of our planning via a shared Google Drive spreadsheet. We decided to do this as a self-supported run/hike, and both ended up carrying running packs. Feel free to skip on to Day 1 now if you're not interested in the nitty-gritty details of what we carried.  If you're planning your own trip and have a question about logistics we're happy to try to help!!

Planned Daily Mileage:
May 15: Clinton to Sedalia, 36 miles
May 16: Sedalia to Pilot Grove, 26 miles
May 17: Pilot Grove to Rocheport, 25 miles
May 18: Rocheport to North Jefferson, 35 miles
May 19: North Jefferson to Bluffton, 32 miles
May 20: Bluffton to Marthasville, 33 miles
May 21: Marthasville to St. Charles, 38 miles
May 22: St. Charles to Machens, 12 miles

Food:
Our goal was to take in 3000-5000 calories per day. We hoped to eat 1000 calories for breakfast and dinner, eating at restaurants in town, and eat the remainder of the calories during the day on the trail. We mixed Tailwind Nutrition (which I CANNOT RECOMMEND ENOUGH, THIS STUFF IS SERIOUSLY AMAZING) into our water, and also carried tortillas, almond butter, Larabars, and the best trailfood ever, Payday candy bars.

What We Carried: (M for Madeline, L for Lizzy denoting whose pack it started in)
PACK: OMM Classic 25L (M)
TENT: 2-person REI tent borrowed from M's friend Lewis (M)
FOOD
- 1 30-serving Mandarin Orange Tailwind (L)
- 1 30-serving Tropical Caffeinated Tailwind (L)
- 4 Payday bars (enough for 2 days, planned to purchase more when needed) (M, L)
- 8 Larabars (enough for 4 days, planned to purchase more when needed) (M, L)
- 8 tortillas (enough for 4 days) (M, L)
- freeze dried fruit (M)
- almond butter (L)
CLOTHES (in addition to what we were wearing)
- 1 extra shirt (M, L)
- 1 extra pair of shorts (M, L)
- 2 extra pairs socks (M, L)
- 1 extra sports bra (M, L)
- 1 hat (M)
- 1 light rain jacket (M, L)
- Garmin watch (M, L)
STUFF
- warm-ish sleeping bag liner (M, L)
- space blanket (L)
- 3L/2L water bladder (M/L)
- Water purification tabs (M)
- 1 small first aid kit with bandages, band-aids, moleskine, ibuprofin, allergy meds, tweezers, safety        pin, and maybe some other stuff I don't remember but also didn't end up using (M)
- sunscreen (M)
- body glide (M)
- toothbrush+toothpaste (M)
- map (M)
- phone + watch charger (L)
- hand sanitizer (M)
- soap (M,L)