I unpacked the vest on the bedroom floor of the Airbnb, back from the race, too tired to do it anywhere more dignified. A lot of what came out of the pockets had never been opened.

A full 500ml bottle of water. Two gels. Four packets of Tailwind. Half a tube of salt capsules. Two bars and two gels still in their expo wrapping. All of it carried 32.5 miles and 5,020 feet, and none of it opened.

Nothing in that pile was a mistake exactly. But looking at it, the thing that struck me is that I didn't pack for the race I ran. I packed for the race I was afraid of.

Running dry. That was the big one. My sweat test said I lose more fluid per hour than my vest can hold, which is a fun number to learn about yourself, and I wrote a whole post about the math in how I carry water on long runs. So into the Salomon ADV Skin 5 went two 500ml soft flasks up front, one water and one Tailwind, plus a HydraPak SkyFlask full of water in the back as insurance.

Bonking was the second fear. Thirteen Maurten gels, nine regular and four with caffeine, for a race I expected to take six and a half hours. Two an hour, with a cushion. Six packets of Tailwind. Twelve SaltStick capsules. The whole plan is in what's actually in my vest, and on paper it was a good plan.

Then there were the fears the race had on my behalf. Grindstone requires a whistle, an emergency blanket, a phone, ID, and 800 calories of backup nutrition beyond whatever you're planning to eat. I didn't want to fly with the calories, so I bought them at the expo: two Näak bars and two Näak gels. A beanie was recommended, not required, and I threw one in anyway. Sunglasses and a stick of sunscreen went in too, in case the sun turned up.

Aid stations happened, is what.

Grindstone's are close enough together that the race quietly took over my hydration plan. Water flask topped off at every stop. Tailwind bottle refilled twice, at Wolf Ridge and again at Sand Spring. The SkyFlask sat in the back of the vest the entire day, full, unopened, doing nothing but adding a pound to the climb. The longest dry stretch of the day was Wolf Ridge to Sand Spring, 9.6 miles with no aid, and even that I got through on what was in the front of my vest.

The gels went more or less to plan until they didn't. Eight regular, three caffeinated, and if the caffeine did anything I couldn't tell you what. Three hundred milligrams across the day and it registered as nothing more than a gel. By the last aid station I couldn't look at another one, which is its own story and is in the race recap. Two came home. Of the six Tailwind packets, I used two. Of the twelve salt capsules, six or seven, and I got more generous with them as the day wore on and my quads went from tired to gone.

The two items that earned their weight were the ones I'd have described as accessories the night before.

The first was a HydraPak SpeedCup, 200ml of collapsible plastic that weighs next to nothing. I used it at every single stop, to wash down salt and gels and to drink water after real food. Four aid stations, four uses, more than anything else I was carrying.

At one of the later stops I gave up on gels completely and started putting peanut butter filled pretzels in my mouth about as fast as I could chew them. Salt and real food, which was exactly what I wanted and none of what I'd planned for. The cup is what made it work. I could keep eating and take big gulps of water at the same time, and I'm not going to oversell a folded piece of plastic, but at that point in the day it was heaven.

The second was my phone, which was mandatory anyway, so it doesn't fully count. I took pictures with it. And for the last ten miles I ran music through my Shokz OpenRun Pro 2. Holding the music until mile 22 was deliberate. I wanted to stay in the day rather than get sick of a playlist early, and I expected that stretch to be where things got rough mentally. That's where I wanted the distraction waiting.

The whistle and the blanket never came out, which is exactly what you want from an emergency blanket. The Näak stayed sealed. ID, credit card, and car keys rode the whole way and did nothing but exist, which was the deal.

The beanie was a straight miss. Given the weather, it should have stayed at the Airbnb. Same for the sunglasses and the sunscreen, which in that weather were about as useful as a snorkel.

And then the bottle. The hydration post made the case for carrying a third one. The race declined to make me need it. On a hotter day I'd take it again for the Wolf Ridge to Sand Spring stretch and then dump it at Sand Spring, but for this race I carried a pound of water 32.5 miles for no reason at all.

For the record, shoes aren't on this list because I wore them rather than carried them. They got their own post: The Shoes I Trained In.

The SkyFlask stays home unless it's hot or the aid stations are farther apart. The beanie depends on the forecast. Everything else I'd carry again, including the two gels I didn't eat, because the alternative is carrying eleven and wanting twelve.

That's the thing about the unused pile. Most of it isn't waste. It's the price of not knowing, and you pay it every time.

All of it in a Salomon ADV Skin 5, over 32.5 miles and 5,020 feet.

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