What do you get when you combine a guy in a skirt keeping a mid-life promise to himself and the World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition?

You get the exploits of Todd Phillips; medical volunteer from Primal Quest’s past, chemical weapons inspector, inherent traveler, and the mule of Team Intrepid.  Follow Todd as he documents his training mishaps, travel stories, and anything else that crosses his mind as he prepares to compete in this year’s installment of Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT.  Week by week you will be able to make your input into Todd’s training, gear choices, and motivation as well as follow his progress as he attempts to transform himself from a debaucherous dilettante into a real live adventure racer.  Will he be able to do it?  See for yourself as we present his first contribution of the many he will offer from now until race day.

Quest for PQ: The Dream of Major Bull Project

It’s difficult to be witty when staring at a blank, white computer screen.  That level of repartee comes from conversations at cocktail parties and is doled out by political pundits.  I’m just not one of those guys.  Now if you want me to explain how I came to try and fill these pages, then that is where the story begins.

It was a dark and stormy night.  No, seriously…it was.  I was sitting in a horse pasture under the medical tent of Primal Quest 2004 in the San Juan Islands, Washington State.  I had been working as a medical volunteer for the first time, and I was freezing my proverbial “round, circular orbs of personal affect” off when I thought that for once in my life I would love to switch places with those who were, I thought, less fortunate than me; adventure racers.  The weather had been brutally uncomfortable for the first three or four days and I was sequestered under a leaking canvas tent, watching “Man on Fire” with Denzel Washington on my iMac, wrapped in every stitch of clothing I had borrowed to keep warm and basically doing my best at 2 am to be cheerful to those who wanted band-aids.

It occurred to me that I would actually prefer to be roaming around in the darkness with three strangers of reasonable acquaintance, getting lost, and getting miserably dirty in all the wrong places.  It was at that moment I realized that I may have the potential of being one of many things:  A) A member of the Donner party, B) a masochist, C) an adventure racer, or D) all of the above.  Since my timing was a little off on the whole Donner party thing, I figured I had to be a little part of the other two.  I was 34 years young at the time and like anyone who is delirious from cold, lack of sleep, and too much Ramen noodles, I made myself a promise that seemed to make sense;

I would race Primal Quest to celebrate my 40^th birthday.

So here I am, two marriages, two divorces, and 20 kilograms heavier.  I am sitting in the frozen tundra in the bowels of Russia for my work, and a nagging voice won’t let me forget that promise to myself.  I have been renewing it after each subsequent installment of Primal Quest since that moment.  I have maintained my momentum by continuing to volunteer my life to PQ and have never regretted a second of it.  I have always believed that the worst broken promises are to your children and yourself.  At the moment my daughter is just fine (thanks for asking), but there is that one thing left unfinished.

On the twenty-third of May, 2009, I will turn 40.  The time is now to fulfill that promise to myself.  I have the motivation of a collection of people who will nag me to no end if I don’t do this.  And then there is always the raging, purulent sore of regret that would fester if not treated.    I will race for those who have believed in me along the way.  I will race for those who said I couldn’t do it.  I will race despite my limitations.  I will race for those living vicariously through me.  I will race for the competition with friends.  I will race for the fun of it.  I will race, above all, for myself.  And I am taking you with me.

From now until race day, I will document my experience leading up to placing my feet at the starting line.  I am looking forward to making mistakes and learning from them.  I am hoping that if you have read this far, you will help me get there.  I am hoping for the stars to align and the planets to converge and that Elle McPherson will call me one day.  But that is a whole other story.  Check back for how this “Quest for the Quest” will unfold.

Until next time…..TODD

Want to send words of encouragement to Todd? Maybe ask him a question about his training and preparation? Drop him an e-mail at: quest4pq@gmail.com

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 2:59 pm and is filed under Primal Quest, Todd Phillips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.