Hey everyone, I’m super excited to share with you about the Training Camp I attended these past couple of weeks in Georgia. During Training Camp, I met my squad for the first time and learned a ton a valuable information to prepare me for launch next year. There is so much to share that I’ll be breaking it up into a couple of blogs over the next few weeks. What I’ll talk about today are different field scenarios we experienced.
So field scenarios are mock scenarios of situations we may experience when we are actually on the field next year. Here are seven of these scenarios.
Number 1: Sleeping in Tents
We may or may not be sleeping in tents on the World Race. But during Training Camp, we slept in tents most of the time. I’ve never gone camping before, but it wasn’t bad at all. Just very cold. And I’m still working on improving my speed in packing my tent away.
Number 2: Losing Your Pack
It has happened to racers before that for some reason or another their pack with all of their belongings for the year gets lost. So we got in two lines to “check” our bags and half of the bags were “lost” which means they were put under a tarp and we didn’t have any access to those packs. So we had to find a partner and share a tent, sleeping pad, etc. It was a pretty cold night *shiver* but we survived!
Number 3: Bucket Showers
We may not have indoor plumbing in many of the places we’ll go to. So whenever we took showers during training camp, we had to fill up a bucket, go to a shower stall, and started pouring. Ice cold water in 40-50 degree weather!
Don’t ask me how many of these I took. 
Number 4: Chopsticks or No Utensils
We will be spending 4 months in Asia, hence the chopsticks. I’m not very good with these. When I went to Japan earlier this year I tried eating with chopsticks whenever I ate out. In one store they saw me struggling and gave me a fork and I’m like, “Noooo, I appreciate it but I’m still gonna use the chopsticks!”
Eating with no utensils is super messy. And not the most sanitary of options. Would it be okay if I just pull out my own utensils?
Number 5: Airport Layovers
When we travel from country to country or continent to continent, it’s very likely for us to have really long layovers. So we may end up having sleepovers at the airport! So fun!
To simulate this, we were put in a room with chairs put in place to mimic an airport. The lights were on, and loud airport sounds like people talking and announcements were playing. All. Night.
Key takeaways: it is crucial on travel days to have a sleeping pad, a pillow, and something warm like a sleeping bag or liner. And an eye mask and ear plugs are a plus??
Number 6: Fitness Hike
We are going to be living out of our big pack basically for these 11 months, so if we need to pick up and go long distances with our pack on, we need to be physically fit enough to do so. So one cold, early morning we had to walk (slash jog slash run) 2.2 miles in 38 minutes. It was brutal. I had only practiced three times prior to Training Camp and only on flat terrain (not many hills in Florida!). This was most definitely not flat terrain. But with encouragement from a few people who came alongside me I was able to finish in 34 minutes!
Number 7: The Marketplace
We may end up purchasing meals or other items from marketplaces. But there are a lot of things to watch out for. So my team of six were given some fake money and we had to purchase our dinner for the evening. We had to watch out for pickpockets, passing cars, and people selling drugs, and we haggled with vendors to lower the prices for our food. I had a lot of fun with that one.
So there you have it, seven different scenarios we experienced in training camp. Please be sure to subscribe to stay updated as I prepare for and go on the World Race in January!
If you would like to support me as I continue to raise funds to support my time on the World Race, you can donate here!
Jessica
