Late this afternoon Team Cordura/Osprey Packs withdrew from Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT. The team is in good health, and suffered no medical issues, but one of the team members elected to not continue, and they decided to exit the race as a team.

All was not lost however, as the team withdrew at the checkpoint near Redshirt, a Native American reservation which graciously allowed them to use the showers in the locker room of the nearby school. It also happened to be the first day of classes for the returning students, who had the opportunity to chat with team members Kiviok Hight, Tom Zidek, and Scott Swaney, who explained to them about Primal Quest and the sport of adventure racing. Principal Barbara Ice showed the team around and introduced them to the students, who were intrigued by their visitors and all of their strange gear.

After spending some time at the school, the three athletes then toured the community, and met many of the locals. In fact, at one point, there were more than fifty residents from the town who came out to shake hands with the racers and wish them well. They had all been following the race and were excited to get th opportunity to meet some of the competitors in person.

It was a bit of a bittersweet day for the team. While their dreams of finishing Primal Quest came to and end, they did get to meet some very friendly people and serve as ambassdors to the sport they enjoy so much.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 19th, 2009 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Primal Quest. 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.