Sand gaiters - done!

Yay! This afternoon I finished sewing the gaiters for our team. Gaiters are probably the most crucial pieces of equipment that we're taking to the race. They're for the desert trekking stage - to keep the sand out of our shoes.

In thinking back to last year... we used mini gaiters last year, which stopped sand coming into the top of our shoes but did nothing to stop the flood of sand coming in through the mesh on the front. I cannot begin to describe how fine that desert sand is; it infiltrates and just does not stop. In fact, it pushes your toes out of the way so that within an hour you're walking with scrunched toes and you just have to stop to shake the sand from your shoes and socks. And each time you stop it probably costs you 10 minutes.

I don't know how many times we stopped last year but saying that we lost two hours is a conservative estimate... probably a lot more. With gaiters alone we should be able to improve our efficiency on this trekking section.

These new icy blue lycra gaiters in this picture are the Rolls Royce version of the sand gaiters I made for the Namib Desert Challenge, which I ran in the Soussousvlei area in February this year. I stitched them on to my shoes and purposefully dragged my feet through the fine dune sand. Limited infiltration. This new design is a half-leg variation because when you go down dunes the sand easily comes up mid-calf. I have also included a velcro strip on the front for access to laces.

The gaiters have been my biggest stress to get them done; I spent the whole weekend at it and finished the four pairs off today. Yay!

*I'm wearing one of the guy's gaiters - they're a bit longer than mine, thus the 'crinkle'