Tour d'Afrique - Cairo to Cape Town by Bike

Now that I have received my registration package and have read through it, my excitement for the trip has increased ten fold. The list of gear items to acquire is growing furiously. Many questions I previously had have been answered by the information package; however the many more rhetorical ones remain: ...is my bike going to make it? ...how much sunscreen am I going to use? ...how many hard drives am I going to fill with pictures?

...how emotional is that finish line going to be?

That is the first hurdle and is often a larger one; putting your name on the dotted line (or more modernly, in the appropriate online box) committing to an event. Though I am still perplexed by the plethora of chores to be completed and gear to be acquired, the biggest question of "should I do it" no longer takes up memory space. By simply registering - which took me all of five minutes (including the pregnant pause while hovering over the final "OK" button) - I have shifted completely away from "should I really do this" and am now on board with "awesome, I am really doing this!"

I am now about the same amount of time away from the start of the race that the congratulatory hugs are from the first pedal stroke in Cairo, but I feel like the race starts tomorrow and I barely have enough time to get things together. With most races I have done, getting to the start line is half the challenge; in this case, it seems more than half.

The biggest step has been taken, I have registered!