Most in the adventure racing world know the story, but it’s hard not to be inspired every time you hear it:

In December of 2006, 35-year-old Danelle Ballengee lay helpless in a gulley in Moab after slipping on ice during what she thought would be a routine two-hour trail run with her dog, Taz.

The adventure racing champion and one of the best multisport women athletes of all time spent the next 52 painful hours wondering if she’d live or die, unable to move more than a quarter mile (to a puddle she’d drink from) by dragging herself across the canyon floor. She had broken her pelvis.

Temperatures dropped into the 20s during the two full nights she lay there, and Danelle, wearing only thin, long pants and a short sleeve shirt, did sit-ups to try to stay warm. Her dog Taz, a three-year-old German Shephard, Golden Retriever mix, lay his head on her stomach the first night, but the second night, Taz paced back and forth and wouldn’t come near his wounded owner. On the third day, Taz took off running, but returned with help.

In the meantime, a neighbor had noticed that Danelle hadn’t been back to her house in over 24 hours called Danelle’s parents, and soon the Moab police were notified.

On the third day of her disappearance, Moab authorities found Taz running along the side of the road. When they called the plucky dog, he turned around and headed back up the trail. The authorities followed, and after five miles of following Taz, they found Danelle. She was immediately airlifted to a hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, then flown to Denver Health Hospital, where she had a surgery that put a metal plate and numerous screws in her pelvis.

Danelle’s physical and mental toughness—and her wonder dog Taz—surely saved her life from ending on the desert floor. And it’s that same strength that has gotten her back to the sports she loves within months following the accident.

Rehabilitation hasn’t been easy for Danelle, who also suffered severe frost bite in her feet and toes, but laying on the couch grew tiresome, ironically. Confined to a wheelchair earlier this year, she had her mom take her to an outdoor mall so she could wheel around doing laps as fast as she could, just to get the blood flowing. By spring, Danelle was hiking—albeit painfully—on the trails near her Dillon, Colorado condominium. And in May, she stunned all by competing in the Adventure Xstream 12-hour adventure race in Buena Vista by herself, completing the day in just under 12 hours. A month later at the Teva Mountain Games’ four-sport Ultimate Mountain Challenge she competed in downriver kayaking, mountain biking, trail running, and a hill climb time trial on a road bike. She placed fifth.

Today, Danelle says she might hold off on signing up for races until she feels she can compete at a higher level. “It just takes so long for me to recover these days,” she said via cell phone while hiking one of Summit County’s peaks with her dog, Taz, and her boyfriend’s dog, Caribou. “My pelvis is pretty secure with the screws and everything, but my muscles and everything just hurt so much after doing something like that.”

Danelle spends most of her time mastering a new adventure; she and her boyfriend recently bought Milt’s Diner in Moab. “I make milkshakes all day,” she laughs. “It’s a lot easier than adventure racing.”

Besides running the blender and flipping burgers, Danelle has joined Primal Quest as part of its management team, and is enjoying working on staff for the 2008 race. “It’s been real fun so far,” she says, “I’m excited to still be a part of the sport, hang out with the people and still be active, even if I can’t race at that level.”

Those who know of Danelle’s long resume—three-time Primal Quest champion, two-time adventure racing world champion, four-time Pikes Peak Marathon winner, the women’s record holder of hiking all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks (which she completed in 14 days, 14 hours and 49 minutes), and six U.S. athlete of the year awards to name a few—know that if she chooses, Danelle will be back at whatever level she wants.

For now, she’s happy serving up dinners at the diner and working with Primal Quest, and we feel extremely lucky to have her racing expertise and strength of spirit on our management staff.

Primal Quest CEO Don Mann on Danelle Ballengee:

After Dawn and I heard of Danelle’s accident, I decided to call her and ask her if she would like to work with us on the Primal Quest team. I was not sure what she would be able to do, but thought she would like to stay involved in the sport during her recovery.

I was and always will be so impressed by Danelle’s response and her amazing attitude. She told me she would be very excited to contribute to the sport that she loved and that she couldn’t wait to break out her maps and begin work. Danelle designed a beautiful and challenging preliminary course in just a few short weeks.

Her very humble attitude matched with her unbelievable strength in body and character has inspired me a great deal as well as everyone else who knows her. Danelle is not only one of the most accomplished multi-sport athletes in the world, but a world-class human being. We are all very fortunate and grateful that she has joined our team.

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To aid in Danelle Ballengee’s recovery, you can mail checks to a fund in her name at FirstBank, P.O. Box 347, Silverthorne, CO, 80498, or you can drop them off at any FirstBank branch.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 11:32 pm and is filed under Interview, News, Primal Quest, Staff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.