Australian magazine Bare Essentials, an online publication designed for the active, adventurous woman, has published several articles focused on Primal Quest in their November/December 2008 edition. You’ll find all three articles on pages 43-45.

The first story is a brief overview on the history of Primal Quest and adventure racing in general, while the second article gives a preview of Primal Quest Badlands and what teams can expect in South Dakota next August. The final story is an interview with mother-daughter racing team of Kathy Roche-Wallace and Melissa Hughes who competed in Montana in 2008.

The Bare Essentials web interface is a slick and easy to use, with plenty of content to read. It’s easy to page through the virtual edition, or jump directly to any article you like by typing it in at the top of the page. Thee are also tools for zooming in on the page or printing the stories that you like. 

Thank you to Bare Essentials for this outstanding coverage for Primal Quest fans down under.

Photo by Andres Vargas

The GoFar Podcast has released another very interesting episode this week that continues a string of shows with a focus on Primal Quest. This time, show host Fred Abaroa interviews Lara Usinowicz from Restop and John Dark of SPOT, two of the sponsors for this year’s race. 

The first half of the episode is focused on Restop and their personal portable sanitation systems that allow hikers, campers, boaters, or anyone else in the backcountry to safely and cleanly dispose of human waste, protecting themselves and the environment in the process. This approach to keeping the environment clean is shared by Primal Quest, which makes us proud to have Restop on board as one of our partners for the 2008 race.

In the second half of this episode, we learn a lot more about the SPOT Messenger, which has quickly become the must have new gadget for outdoor enthusiasts. John talks about how the Messenger can be used by friends and family to track someone nearly anywhere on the planet, and doubles as a personal locator beacon allowing someone to call for help, even in remote locations. Each Primal Quest team will be carrying a SPOT Messenger, which will link directly into our online tracking system which will give fans of the race nearly real-time updates of where teams are at on the course, while also updating the leaderboard as well.  SPOT is the presenting sponsor for Primal Quest Montana and we couldn’t be happier to have such a great partner assisting us in bringing race coverage to an entirely new level. 

You can listen to the entire episode by clicking here, or as always, subscribe directly to the show through iTunes. 

From EndurancePlanet.com: 

It’s called “The World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition”. It’s Primal Quest. And while some of the best adventure racers on the planet are gearing up for the big event, the creators of Primal Quest have created some shorter races to attract novices. Today on Endurance Planet we hear from Primal Quest CEO Don Mann.

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“I can’t say enough how lucky I feel to have raced with the same three guys for four years,” says Jari Kirkland. “I know that this is the exception to what a lot of people have experienced, and I would never take it for granted.”

Jari (whose name is pronounced “Yari”) races on Colorado-based Team Salomon Crested Butte with Jon Brown, Bryan Wickenhauser and Eric Sullivan. “They really are family to me. I look forward to a few more great years with them.”

Prior to getting started in AR, Jari had been racing Xterra. She met Jon at a race, “another 24 hour solo race where, in the middle of the night, you ride up to about 11,500 feet, put your bike on your back and hike over a 14,000 foot peak. It was a bit crazy.” Jon told her that his team was looking for a girl to compete with them in a race called Primal Quest.

“So I lipped off and said I would do it – when really I knew nothing about it. Then, less than three weeks later, I was in Tahoe at Primal Quest!” Jari had practically no training, and most of the gear that she raced in was borrowed. “But that is how it started, and it’s a perfect fit for me.”

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If trends mean anything at all, Bob Miller and his team should do well at Primal Quest this year.

Canadian team Supplierpipeline finished a respectable tenth at PQ 2003.  The following year, they bettered that with ninth place at PQ 2004.  Then, in 2006 they moved right up to fourth place.  If Bob, along with teammates Denise McHale, Greg McHale and Scott Ford, can maintain this momentum, we should expect to see them cheering at us from the podium at PQ 2008.

“Our goal is to win!” affirms Bob.

Although the team will be racing under a new banner this year (they are currently looking for a new sponsor), the core group of Bob, Denise, Greg and Scott will remain the same.  Bob is the first to admit that there are some Canadian teams who have been on the international AR scene longer than they have, and also some Canadian racers who are doing extremely well competing on American teams.  But, as far as recent performance goes, this team is undoubtedly right at the top of the Canadian AR scene.

Bob explains that, after a strong year in 2006, this past year has not been a good one for the team.  “We attended Bimbache Extreme last March in Spain, where I managed to fracture my femur in a mountain bike crash.  I’m still recovering, and not yet able to run.  We’re hoping PQ 2008 will be our next big race together.”

Bob has been focussed on the Adventure Racing circuit since 1998, when he decided to slow down on all of the other things he was competing in – mountain biking, triathlon and running events – to devote himself to AR.

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ad·ven·ture
n.

1. An undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous nature.
2. An unusual or exciting experience.
3. Participation in hazardous or exciting experiences: the love of adventure.

Primal Quest would like to introduce you to Kraig Becker and The Adventure Blog. Kraig’s blog is a great source for news, commentary, and insights on adventures and adventurers from around the globe. Becuase the topics he covers are more or less first cousins to adventure racing we are happy to announce that selections from Kraig’s blog will be available on the Primal Quest website.

To kick off our latest feature, we bring you a recent interview with Primal Quest Director Don Mann. Read the full interview below and see what new things Don has to say about Primal Quest 2008 as well as learn about his recent mountaineering exploits and future plans.

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