We tore the ugly carpet runner off our stairs last winter:
http://www.frugalwoods.com/2014/04/19/how-to-refinish-a-staircase-for-under-50/Conceptually it isn't bad. There's not much skill involved (see: I did it!) but there's a lot of grunt work.
In our case, there were roughly 1 million staples holding down the pad and TWO layers of carpet. Some of them came out with the carpet, but most needed to be pulled with a cats paw. About 1/10 would break while pulling and would need extra attention.
Then, of course, you need to fill the 2 million holes left by the staples.
(
OK, maybe not 1 million. I actually counted the number of staples in one of the treads: 133. What trigger happy troglodyte shoots more than 100/staples per tread!?)
Sanding was a chore, but we also don't have any power sanders so it was hand sanding galore! Plus we were also painting the balusters, and those contours took tons of time.
Going from carpet to sanded, staple-less stairs took about 15 hours of work for 1.5 people (Mrs. FW helped). So in your case it might be cutting it a little close depending on how much time you're willing to put into it before wednesday.
Don't hesitate to hit me up with questions. It is certainly a worthwhile project, and the materials cost is tiny compared to the eventual visual impact. Good luck!