My Life in Grams

Just 9 weeks until the race! It’s all getting very real. Gear is rapidly coming together with the help of some hard core time management and amazing sponsors. The biggest challenge is weight efficiency, as most backpacks for the race will come up to 9 or 10 kg. Add on the water they give you and you’re pushing 12kg on sand dunes.

All that is to say, I’ve become unhealthily obsessed with how much everything weighs and the latest installment of the Sahara Race Preparation might as well be called “My Life in Grams” (which just makes me sound like some drug addict but oh well). Seriously though, the last few weeks have seen me ask some questions I never thought I would ever have to ask in life. Among the strangest questions:

1. Are the GLAD ziplock bags really lighter than the No Frills ones? (And am I really wasting minutes of my life standing in the supermarket trying to figure this out? Screw this I’m going to ask the cashier to weigh them on the fruit scale!)

2. How much does this compass weigh?

3. What is “lean muscle cannibalisation”? (Proceeds to Googling for answer. By the by, let me just say that Google is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. In other words, Google is 42.)

4. Which one has more calorie density, bak kwa or beef jerky?

5. How much does this boring Swiss knife weigh compared to this snazzy looking one? (Will I even care about the snazziness of a Swiss knife after 190km into the race?)

And now, check out some weight-efficient essentials and be wowed by innovation!

SPF-rated buff

Country flags to be sewn on to our shirts – Hong Kong pride!

SwissCard – the 21st century’s answer to the Swiss Knife

The extra-compact, featherlight Marmot Hydrogen sleeping bag

Innovative origami bowl before it’s folded

Origami bowl in folded form

Huge thanks to Chong of Runner’s World for patiently helping me pick out the perfect pair of Asics for the race. It took us a whole hour switching between models. I told you we should’ve just stuck to my original Kayano 16 :p

(Shoes are like Harry Potter wands. We can use them all but only one truly fits. And when you’ve found The One, you stick to it.)

Asics Kayano in gold, just like the desert