by Jess Evans
February 9, 2018
I am not sure what this has to do with AR but I will find a connection. I have a degree in Anthropology from Purdue University. I remember the numerous discussions of “Lumpers vs Splitters” throughout my education, because anthropologists have to categorize everything – either by choice or necessity, I am not sure. Is this primate a monkey, ape, or lesser ape? Do these people live as hunter/gatherers, horticulturalists, or agriculturalists? It goes on and on.
Well… it turns out, I am a “Splitter”. When I create folders on my computer, I must have folders within folders to be more specific as to what I am filing. When I make lists for adventure race preparation, I do not have broad reaching categories, I am specific. I do not just have a food category, I have 4 columns with “pre-race food”, “pack food”, “TA food”, and “post-race food”. For expedition races, I even have columns for “calories per food type”, “quantity of that food type required”, and “weight of each food type”. For example, my homemade biscuits (which do not last an entire 6 day race, I discovered) are about 400 calories and weigh about 0.25 pounds. (Yikes! That is a heavy biscuit.) I took 18 of them with me on the Cowboy Tough 6-day race, but ended up throwing away half of them… so sad.
While being a “Splitter” may appear to be tedious, I think it has served me well. I can tease out exactly what I require for a short or long adventure race due to my various lists. I am still refining my lists and updating the data collected, but it makes me feel better knowing that I have the categories, the numbers, and the specific information required to pack for an adventure race of any length.
