A few weeks back I posted about the possibilities of Primal Quest returning in 2012, much to the surprise and delight to racers and fans across the globe. Since then, I've had emails and Facebook notes from a lot of people asking for more information. Of course, I couldn't spill too many details at the time, and to be quite honest, they are still filling in, but here is a note that I wrote last night that was posted on the Primal Quest website earlier today:
To The Adventure Racing Community:
For the past few weeks there have been a number of rumors circulating around the Internet regarding the possible return of Primal Quest in 2012. We can confirm that those rumors are true and that wheels have been set in motion to bring this legendary event back from its hiatus.
While we can’t share specific details at this time, we can tell you that the Primal Quest team is already in negotiations to hold the race somewhere in the western United States. We have high hopes that those negotiations will come to fruition, and that we will have exciting news to share in the very near future.
For now, stay tuned and start training. Because “the World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition” hasn’t gotten any easier!
What I can share with you at the moment is that progress is being made on bringing the race back in 2012, and that the entire PQ team is very optimistic about the chances of that happening. We hope to make an official announcement within a month's time that will share details on the location and possible dates as well. For now, all I can say is that we're aiming for a seven day race to be held somewhere in the Western United States.
The Gear Junkie has always been a big fan of adventure racing. He's even competed in some of the biggest events around, including the Wenger Patagonia Expedition Race earlier this year. Today, he's got a great interview with Team WEDALI, the reigning U.S. Adventure Racing National Champions.
In the interview, WEDALI talks about the keys to their success, their primary strengths, and their pre-race strategies for competing. They also talk gear, what their favorite items are, and share some tips for better performance. The interview ends with the team sharing the news that the team is organizing its first race this summer, at the 10th Annual Adventure-O in Minneapolis, MN. on July 9th.
This interview is a good one for anyone interested in starting in adventure racing or is fairly new to the sport. There is so much to learn and it is nice to get a good perspective, and some useful tips from, from a successful team that has been competing for awhile.
I had a chance to meet the team at Primal Quest a few years back (GJ even uses one of my pictures in this article!) and I can tell you that they are a great group of racers. While they are very talented, and highly focused, they still have a lot of fun out on the course, which is something some teams have forgotten how to do. Team WEDALI works hard and have a great mindset for the sport, and I'm happy to see them racing so well.
Today has been an interesting day. While working away to catch-up on a variety of deadlines, I received a fantastic text from Don Mann, the race director behind the legendary Primal Quest adventure races, and my boss for the past two PQ's which took place in 2008 and 2009. The text simply read:
"Hello Kraig. Would you be interested in doing another PQ in 2012?"
Of course, my emphatic and immediate response was YES!
While the details are still very light, I can tell you that it looks like PQ will be back next year, with a seven day race, to be held somewhere in the Western United States. I know that's not much, but I promise to share more when I get more details myself.
This is, of course, great news for adventure racers, who not only have another fantastic race to look forward to, they'll also get to compete in one of the truly legendary events in the history of the sport. A word to the wise however, you had better start training now, as everything you've heard about the difficulty of the PQ courses is true, and I'm sure that Don Mann will be coming back strong next year.
Once more we have another video from Primal Quest Badlands courtesy of Adventure World Magazine and Randy Ericksen. In this clip we hear from a number of racers about what their experiences were like during the race, including what they found the most challenging, what they liked best, and so on.
I'm not sure if this is the last of the web episodes, but it seems to be wrapping up the event with some final thoughts from teams that were already of the course and relaxing at the hotel.
Primal Quest Badlands was a 600-mile long adventure race that took place last summer in South Dakota. It pitted coed teams of four against one another over a ten day period in which they hiked, biked, ran, paddled, and climbed their way through the Black Hills and Badlands. It was one of the most grueling and difficult adventure races ever put together, and certainly something to see.
The new year brings another Primal Quest Badlands Episode courtesy of Adventure World Magazine and Randy Ericksen. In the last episode, we saw eventual champs Team Orion Health cross the finish line, claiming victory in the 600-mile long race through South Dakota's Black Hills and Badlands. In this latest episode, we catch up with some of the teams still out on the course, with racers weighing in with their thoughts on PQ, while heading out onto the now infamous "Prairie Paddle".
Adventure World Magazine has posted the eighth, and quite possibly final, web episode from Primal Quest Badlands. This video, like the rest of the series, was produced by Randy Erickson, and shows racer winners Team Orion Health reaching the finish line and celebrating their big win. The exhausted team won the race after nearly 8 days of running, trekking, mountain biking, and paddling their way across 600 miles of South Dakota backcountry.
This episode is a bit of synopsis of the race as a whole so far, capturing teams at the beginning of the race and catching up through roughly the mid-way point. It captures a number of interesting scenes from the 600+ mile event which took place in South Dakota this past August.
As always, thanks to Randy Ericksen for putting these together.
In this episode, the teams have completed the climbing course, and we catch up with them in a transition area, where we see them moving from being on foot back to the bikes. The racers discuss the challenges of the race so far, and the conditions that they've been competing under.
These videos have been shot and edited by Randy Ericksen. For more from Primal Quest and other videos from Randy, click here.
I missed these earlier in the week, but wanted to share them now. Adventure World Magazine has two more videos from Primal Quest Badlands that follow along with the race as it developed this past August in South Dakota.
In the first video, which is actually the third PQ Web Episode, we catch up to the teams on the first, of what would prove to be many, mountain biking legs. The race has begun to take it's toll on some of the racers, but at this early stage, there is still nearly 500 miles to go on the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition.
The next video catches up with Team Bones, as the negotiate a rather challenging, but thrilling ropes course, which was one of the highlights of this year's race in the Badlands. Watching this video, you'll understand why. Good stuff!
Adventure World Magazine is always a great source of info on adventure racing, endurance sports, and just about anything else adventure related. The site is hosting the two videos from Primal Quest Badlands, which went down in South Dakota way back in August. I was lucky enough to be a part of the proceedings, but for those who weren't, these first two episodes will give you an idea of what long distance adventure racing is all about.
In the first video, the teams are at the starting line just before dawn. The PQ got underway when two cowboys, on horseback no less, shot off their guns in the air, signaling the start of the 600 mile long, 10 day race. First up for the teams, was a 26 mile marathon across the open range.
The second video shows the teams discussing strategy and navigation methods, and gives us a glimpse of the amazing cave system that all of the teams had the opportunity to explore in the early part of the race. The large, underground caverns were the site of an orienteering course that at times confounded and confused teams.
While I was in South Dakota a few weeks back for Primal Quest there was a lot of chatter about the future of the event, and whether or not we'd see another race. Many held a grim view of the topic, thinking that the Badlands event would be the last of its kind, while others speculated that a year off might allow the PQ to return to form. Some chose to remain optimistic and talk about "next year".
Once the race ended, and we all returned home, the rumors about the future of Primal Quest spread to the larger adventure racing community as a whole. Fans of the sport wanted to know if and when they might see another 10-day epic race from the Primal Quest crew headed up by Don Mann, the mastermind behind the event the past few years. Today, on the Primal Quest website, we responded to the rumors and speculation from the community.
In a nutshell, the plan is for PQ to return, possibly as soon as 2010, but more likely not until 2011. The economic downturn has been brutal on just about every aspect of society, and adventure racing in particular. A number of races had to be canceled this year, and some may never return. Sponsorship dollars have been tough to come by, and many teams have scaled back their racing seasons in an effort to save money as well. Hopefully, as the economy begins to turn around, the sport will bounce back to life as well.
I do know that Don is already planning for a 2011 race, discussing possible locations and funding. He hasn't ruled out a race in 2010, but it would require funding from the host site and a solid number of teams to commit to racing before we could move forward with the race. But, he is strongly committed to having the race return in 2011, and is working to make that happen.
So, for those who have been wondering, there you go. Primal Quest is one of the biggest, toughest races in the world, and it will be back. And you can bet that when it returns, there will be as challenging as ever.
I survived another Primal Quest, this year held in the Badlands of South Dakota. Of course, I wasn't racing the event, but it takes it's toll on the staff and volunteers as well. Once again, it was quite an event to witness first hand. Everyone associated with the race, from the athletes to the checkpoint volunteers, and everyone in between are incredibly dedicated, to the sport of adventure racing, and PQ in particular. In fact, it was much like a family reunion there, with old friends getting together for the first time since the last race in Montana. Everyone works very hard, has a good time, and loads of fun too.
This year, the course was more than 600 miles in length, and wound it's way through the Black Hills and Badlands, which offered a lot of diverse, and amazing scenery. The teams all commented on how difficult the race was, but beautiful at the same time, and I can attest to that. If you haven't been to South Dakota, I highly recommend a trip to the Rapid City area, where you are a stone's throw away from some very unique landscapes, and plenty of outdoor fun.
The race was won by OrionHealth.com, a team from New Zealand that has really left a mark on the sport in the past few years. They are easily one of the top teams out there, and ran an amazing race, although it got a little tighter than they had hoped in the end, thanks to a navigational error that drained 8 hours off their lead. With Team Nike not competing this year due to injuries to captain Mike Kloser just weeks before the race, there were many at Primal Quest who wondered what it would have been like to see these two teams go head to head. It is difficult to say who would have won, but I do know that that is a race I would have liked to have seen.
It was a lot of fun to watch the locals in South Dakota get into PQ, as most had never seen an event like it before. It was great to hear them talking about the teams and the course when you were out and about town, and when the home team, Team South Dakota, came across the finish line there were probably 500 people there to greet them. It was a fun sight to see, and a testament to how involved the community and state were in the race.
I had the distinct honor of being the only PQ staff member to see every team cross the finish line. That's not an easy thing to do, because they don't always cross at a convenient hour. The last few nights of the race I was up every hour or so to check the tracking system to know when I should go to the finish line to meet them, and the last day in particular I went on about 20 minutes of sleep for the entire night, as the racers arrived throughout the evening and into the day time. The result was that I was nearly as sleep deprived as the athletes by the time the race ended, but fortunately I hadn't started to hallucinate just yet, something that was common for teams in the field.
It wasn't all work though. I had the opportunity to visit Deadwood (too touristy for me!), the Black Hills (spectacular!), and the Badlands. The scenery was amazing, there was plenty of wildlife to see, and there were plenty of other surprises to take in as well. Below is a video that I shot while in the Badlands that I thought you might enjoy, and for more photos from the race, check out the PQ Flickr Stream.
I'll be getting down to work again here soon, with regular posts resuming. Plenty of things happened while I was away, and I have some catching up to do!
Tomorrow morning I'll set off for South Dakota for Primal Quest Badlands, which means that updates to this site will likely be sporadic at best over the next 10-12 days. But, that doesn't mean that I'll be resting on my laurels. I'll be resuming my duties as the Media Director for "the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition", which means plenty of updates to the PQ website, taking some photos and video, interfacing with media, and doing what ever I can to spread the word about the event.
The race is scheduled to get underway sometime Friday morning at an as of yet undisclosed location. Tomorrow, at 12 PM local time, the exact time and place will be announced to the public, but I can tell you that teams should expect an early morning start to their adventure. Over the next few days I'll be meeting with volunteers and staff to get ramped up on a plan for covering the race as best as we can, and considering the 600 mile course, that won't be easy, as well as touching base with some of the teams, doing some interviews and covering their gear and skills checks on Thursday.
There will be multiple ways to follow the action. On Friday, the leaderboard and live tracking will become active, thanks to the SPOT Messengers that each team will carry, and fans will be able to watch the teams move about the Badlands, tacking their moves and watching their navigational decisions. The PQ website will be updated as often as I can with stories about the teams, our sponsors, and notes from the field on what is happening as well. We'll also be using the Primal Quest Twitter feed to deliver updates too, so be sure to follow along there if you're a Twitter user.
It's going to be a crazy, chaotic, and fun event, as always. Ten days of non-stop racing across 600 miles of backcountry, on foot, bike, and kayak, with a bit of spelunking, swimming, and climbing thrown in for good measure. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah! A liberal dose of navigational challenges too. And with Team Nike out of the race, it's anyone's ball game!
For those that don't know, in some longer adventure races, teams are required to bring their own support crew, which is usually a bunch of their friends who have volunteered (or have been drafted!) to meet the team at designated transition areas with all of the equipment the team will need. For example, the team may roll into the Checkpoint/Transition Area and will be going from a trekking leg to a mountain biking segment. The support team will have their bikes ready, cycling shoes prepared, and gear boxes open to restock anything the racers might need. They may also have some food waiting as well, so that the team can recharge and restore some calories before heading back out onto the course.
The PlanetFear article does an excellent job of breaking down the skills that are required to be a good support crew, and have some great tips for anyone filling that role. They discuss approaches to staying organized, setting up the TA, and even some thoughts on prepping the food as well. All in all, it's a really interesting article for adventure racing fans who have probably never thought about this aspect of the sport before.
This year's Primal Quest Badlands is an unsupported event, meaning that the race organizers are in charge of the logistics of moving gear around, but last year, while in Montana, I had the opportunity to see the support crew role played out to perfection. The teams love and appreciate their crew, and it showed when they would wander into a CP/TA, beyond tired and ready for some relief. The support crew would take over, spoil them with attention and goodies, and raise their spirits before they hit the trail once again. It was fun to watch them interact, and it will be very different to not see that this year.
