Valli from The Fast And The Fabulous gave us a challenge to list what we pack to a race. Instead of just throwing mine into her comments section I decided to make a full-blown entry about it.

The first thing you need to know about me is that I am a notorious overpacker.  I can be gone for two days and feel the need to take with me half of my wardrobe.  I know I am an overpacker and I can’t help myself.  So what I take to a race is just one of those plastic backpacks that everyone takes. All tracks I have been to so far don’t seem to have an issue with them (of course mine is a Tony Stewart one). I usually end up bringing way too much stuff to a track too but here is a list of everything I manage to stuff into my little plastic backpack:

• Sweatshirt
• poncho (what if it rains?)
• Sunscreen (somewhere between spf 50 and 100 and its reapplied several times)
• Chapstick or lipbalm with spf in it.
• Hat
• CellPhone (why I dunno…it’s not like I could hear it ring if I wanted to).
• Keys (especially important if I am the driver)
• At least one digital camera..sometimes two.
• At least one spare chip and one spare battery for the camera. Sometimes an extra camera lense.
• Digital camera brush and cloth for dusty conditions.
• wallet (and everything that goes with one of those including id and money)
• Advil
• bandaids
• Hand Sanitizer (both gel and wipe form)
• extra set of contacts
• contact lens drops
• my glasses
• face wipes
• A sharpie
• A pen
• a note pad (you never know when you need to write something down)
• gum
• Those little crystal light packets to add in water
• A big bottle of water

That’s all jammed in one of those little plastic driver backpacks.  How I do it I don’t know. Maybe next race I go to I will take a picture of it all stuffed in the poor little thing.