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eply caustically.In between visits to the ATM Iwould check off each item on thelist of obligatory equipment.JJ realized his flip flops would notcut it for the 62 miles of trekkingwe had in front of us and founda great pair “fast” brand runningshoes for 12 dollars at a Chineseimport store. He was stoked. The last thing on our list was a pairof shoes for me.“Size 9 is the largest we have.Just try it on.” The salesladyencouraged.“But I wear a size 12?”“Not important. Try these,” Sheoffered, holding up another box.“What size are those?”“Size 9”“Uh-huh”that night thinking about 60 milesof trekking in rubber boots.PEDRO:The day before the race we metPedro for the first time. About thesame age as us, but looked like ayoung teenager. His attitude waspositive and we all liked him.He had an expensive new neongreen bike that seemed to weighabout as much my wheelset alone. “Are you ready?” I asked him. “Yeah. Absolutely.” He repliedwith confidence.PRE-RACE:Our support vehicle arrived: atricked out 2008 Land Roverwith a full-roof bike-rack, a dealarranged for us by a race director.We loaded up the vehicle with ourbikes and gear; plastered the largeHuairasinchi stickers on the sideand suddenly looked like we knewwhat we were doing.Inside the van, we crammed 8people into 6 seats for the 4 hour tripto the starting point. We reviewedsome tutorials on using a compass,and tapped on the face of the 30dollar altimeter that we assumedwas worthless. Maybe we can justfollow the other teams, we naivelyhypothesized. In reality, we hadno idea what we were gettingourselves into.Yet, as we ate ice cream and goofedaround at a rest stop, it did notmatter if we knew what we weredoing, we were going to have agood time.RACE DAY:At the starting line, we waitedApparently, nobody in Quito hasfeet larger than size 9, and all Iwas able to find were a pair of tallrubber boots. I lost a bit more sleepAdventure World Magazine May 2009 16