Welcome to Death Valley!

No Internet out here, but I can send texts to my blog from my phone, so that might be the plan for the race updates as well on Monday/Tuesday.

Our 5-person crew (plus Chris!) all arrived at Furnace Creek today so we're ready to roll. There isn't much civilization out here in Death Valley, but Furnace Creek (at about mile 17 of the race course) has a nice little resort and gas station (and that's it!), so all the racer crews use it as a home base before the race. When we arrived (at 2:30pm) I went for a run on the course right away to get a good feel of what it will be like on race day. I could go on and on here trying to explain how hot it was, but I lack the literary skill to properly do it justice. Let me just say it was 123 degrees with a hair dryer breeze that made it feel like 150. The wind filled my mouth, nose, and eyes with extremely dry heat that made it unbelievably more uncomfortable than when the wind was at my back. It's no understatement that I'm really hoping for a tailwind on Monday!
Even now, at 9:30pm, it's still well over 100 and not much more comfortable than the afternoon. As my fellow crew member Mark said when we walked outside after dinner, "for the first couple seconds, it doesn't feel so bad...but then the 3rd second comes."
We're off to bed now with a busy day of meetings and briefings tomorrow (and another acclimation run for me!). I should be able to post another update tomorrow night, and hopefully a couple on Monday during the race...as long as my cell phone doesn't melt!