It is never to early to crank the engine on your team’s very own media blitz.

While everyone would love to have their very own stipple drawing show up in the Wall Street Journal, even a mention in your local paper can lead to bigger and better things. Two early case studies are PQ 2008 teams #23 Lucky and #71 Bagel Works. Both teams have received great press coverage recently including Team Lucky’s piece in Thursday’s Sacramento Bee, one of the five largest newspapers in California.

Check out their stories below and then start pitching your own team’s story to your local press! Then be sure to share with us your success and we will help spread the news via the PQ site!

Read their stories after the jump!

Continue reading ‘PQ Teams In The News’

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.

Continue reading ‘Staff Highlight: Catching up with Danelle Ballengee’

[thumb:1961:r]Primal Quest wants to know your adventure racing stories of glory and/or woe!

Tell us about your racing, training, and/or team support adventures. Simply fill out this form and your stories may be featured on the Primal Quest website - a great way to get your team out there for your sponsors-and potential sponsors!

Please forward this opportunity to everyone you know who is involved with adventure racing. Submit soon and submit often, the more stories we get by THIS FRIDAY, August 10, the better!

Jamie & Chris Webster (f/k/a Chris Rumohr)
Directors of Competitor Relations

Jamie.Webster@ecoprimalquest.com
Chris.Rumohr@ecoprimalquest.com

Primal Quest is happy to announce that photojournalist and race director Tim Holmstrom, a member of the PQ family from the beginning, has returned for another round of adventure.

Having served as Photo Director for the previous four races Tim is currently designated as “Race Management,” a catch-all title that allows us to take advantage of his many and varied talents.

Said Primal Quest Director Don Mann, “We are all very excited and fortunate that Tim has joined the PQ Management team. Tim brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience in the sport of adventure racing. I have known Tim for many years. He worked with us at an early BEAST, and was one of the main photographers for The Complete Guide to Adventure Racing. As part of the management team, Tim will be contributing in the areas of photography, graphics, course design and race management.”

Since 2005 Tim has also been producing, promoting and staging his own events in Costa Rica and is the Race Director/Event Founder for The Coastal Challenge, Expedition Run, a race going into it’s fourth year in 2008.

Tim will return to Costa Rica in October for The Coastal Experiences, a much kinder and gentler version of The Coastal Challenge and a great way to be introduced to a staged running event.

Tim is also busy working on a couple long-term book projects including one documenting disappearing or endangered indigenous cultures such as the Ainu in Japan or the Inuit in Canada, as well as endangered cultures in Southeast and Central Asia, and Latin America. He also is working on a series of interviews with lighthouse keepers in the United States for a book titled “Light over the Water, a Quiet Way of Living.”

Photo Credit: Dan Campbell

[cpg_albumrand:10,1]Registration for the 75 announced team slots for Primal Quest 2008 opened thirty days ago on July 1st. Twelve hours later the 75 slots were filled and a waiting list began. Over the past thirty days that list has nearly doubled in size. With the tremendous interest in next year’s race we decided to open registration to an additional 15 teams.

Today we announce the first 79 teams confirmed for the 2008 race. Racers next year will represent at least eight countries including Australia, Canada, Ireland, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, United Kingdom, US. Five of the top ten teams from Primal Quest Utah will once again pick up the gauntlet of “The World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition.”

See below for a list of confirmed teams. Check back often for the posting of additional teams… is one of them yours?

Team list updated 8/15/07 Continue reading ‘Announcing 79 Teams (with more on the way!)’

Do you often find yourself trying to explain this thing we call expedition adventure racing? Show your family and friends (and potential sponsors) what Primal Quest is all about with a DVD from a past race. The just opened PQ online store has DVDs available from the 2002 Telluride race, the 2003 Lake Tahoe edition, and last year’s Primal Quest Utah. Keep checking our site as more Primal Quest products will be available soon! Visit the store today!

With volunteers from five continents and nineteen countries, Primal Quest 2008 will truly have an international flavour. In less than one month’s time more than 200 people have applied to help support the World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition. Meanwhile, applications continue to pour into race headquarters.

The nineteen countries represented so far include Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Hong Kong, Israel, Lithuania, Mexico, The Netherlands, Philippines, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden as well as from all across the United States.

What are you doing next June? Volunteering is a great way to get a first hand, up close look at real expedition racing. Sign up today!

Photo: Volunteer Coordinator Christina Moon shows off her swag at PQ Utah.