Sunday, June 18, 2017

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)

9 comments:

  1. I want to know where you camped along the way. I am trying to plan a trip.

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  2. Hi, it should say on each entry where we camped that night. On day 1 we camped at the Missouri state fairgrounds in Sedalia ($10), on day 2 at the city part in Pilot Grove (free), day 3 we did not camp, day 4 we planned to camp at the Noren Access campground in Jefferson City but opted not to because of thunderstorms. At that point I was by myself and mailed my tent home because it was too heavy for one person, but if you're interested I can tell you where we planned to camp, but didn't actually end up staying for the remaining nights. We mainly used the info on bikekatytrail.com to plan where to stay each day, it was super helpful!

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  3. Hi! Your whole experience sounds awesome! I would love to do this hike. I have a somewhat silly/vain question though: where did you shower? Do the campsites have showers? I don't know of I could go two weeks without one haha. Thanks in advance!

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    Replies
    1. Hi, so sorry - somehow I didn't get an email notification about this comment! Some of the camp sites had showers - for example the state fair grounds in Sedalia had showers. Most sites we stayed at for at least the first (western) half at least had running water so we could wash a change of clothes and do some sponging off. We intentionally planned to stay in a hotel or b&b at least every third night for exactly that reason!

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  4. An impressive feat on your feet!

    I did a 60k walk (ended up being a little over 64k) a couple of weeks ago to celebrate turning 60 years old last December, from Marthasville to St. Charles. I agree about the stretch around the Family Arena. That was probably my least favorite part.

    I'm considering doing the whole thing, but likely will have to get to where I'm can run a significant amount of it.

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    Replies
    1. The 60k walk is quite an accomplishment! I LOVED the portion coming out of Marthasville where it transitions into farmland/open fields.

      I highly recommend doing the whole thing - it's a big undertaking, but not HUGE since there's not massive elevation gain. I also felt like I got to experience more of the trail than I would have had I biked it.

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  5. Do you have training suggestions for this?

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