Word from Primal Quest HQ is that Team OrionHealth.com may finish tonight around 11pm or 12 midnight.  These are rough estimates based on time trials — they may come in ahead or behind them — but the team is undoubtedly on the home stretch as they set out on the final 112 mile bike ride to the finish. 

Stay tuned!

Photo by Wouter Kingma. For more, check our flickr site at www.flickr.com/primalquest.

They’ve run a marathon. They’ve ridden their bikes over 180 miles. They’ve done a spectacular ropes course.  They’ve trekked and biked another 100 miles, and some have made it to Angostura Lake for the water section.  And they’re about halfway done.  Day 5 marks the middle point for most of the racers, who will take 10 full days to complete the 600+ mile course.  While lead teams are further ahead (Team OrionHealth.com is estimated to finish around midnight tonight), the rest of the pack is just hitting their stride.  I caught up with a few teams as they trekked along the Centennial Trail, most with soaring spirits despite the many challenges encountered during Primal Quest Badlands Presented by SPOT.

I first caught up with Team Bimbache Extrem / FlowMG.com – its racers bursting with enthusiasm.  They had just found a pile of ice some camper had dumped out from the cooler before leaving.  They pounced on it, stuffing ice in their hats, on their sore knees – anything that could use some cold.  “It’s a miracle!” they exclaimed.  A discovery like this, minor as it may seem, is a morale boost that powers the team for hours during such a grueling race.

A beautiful day in South Dakota as Team Bimbache Extrem / FlowMG.com hikes the Centennial Trail on the Peak Assurance Trek

Bimbache Extrem/FlowMG.com has worked well as a team and overcome a potentially frustrating language barrier.  Antonio De La Rosa, the team’s navigator, speaks only rudimentary English (though his teammates claim he understands everything they say).  Alberto Flores serves as the translator, but apparently when he gets tired, he translates the Spanish back into Spanish.  This always ends in laughter.  Their strategy, as racer Dan Abel put it, is “trust in the little man” – referring to Antonio. 

Kim, the female from Bimbache Extrem / FlowMG.com, said she first thought she’d start adventure racing when she saw an Eco Challenge involving horses. An avid horseback rider, she figured “I can do that!” and she just had to learn the rest.  She had really never run before that, but she started doing races and gradually increased distances to the expedition length.  She’s now been adventure racing for 10 years – and her biggest problem is the ropes course, as she is highly acrophobic (afraid of heights!). Even speaking or thinking about the ropes course made her hands get clammy. She pushed through it, though, saying “I couldn’t disappoint my teammates.”

Bimbache Extrem eventually caught up with Team Archipela, who were also having a great day on the Peak Assurance Trek.  Part of their strategy involved never sleeping at night – it’s too cold, they said, and you only end up shivering.  Instead, they catch rest during the day, when it’s warmer and they can sleep more fitfully.  In a continuing theme for the day, they raved about the navigation.  Having participated in just about every Primal Quest, they commented that the navigation for this race is the first time that the whole race has involved true navigation – not just following signs for trails and roads.  “It’s the way an adventure race should be” – and it truly allows the teams with superior navigation skills to thrive.

They said that part of what has made this race so challenging was the cutoff times early in the race.  They really had to push themselves to make those times, and felt that the effort took a toll on their bodies.  “It was like having a 48 hour race at the start of a ten day race.”  The early cutoffs were also difficult mentally.  Every team will have at least one bad day, and if the first or second day is the bad one, it has a chilling impact on your prospects for the rest of the race.  For example, if you lose 6 hours on a bad navigation decision, it is really inconsequential for the total time over 5-6 days. But with early cutoffs, teams cannot recover in the day or two required.

Following shortly behind Team Archipela was the melded team of Spanos and Big City Mountaineers. Team Spanos lost two teammates in the first few days of the race. First, one dropped out due to insufficient electrolyte intake (he has since recovered).  Later, they lost their female teammate, Lauren, after a brutal bike crash.  They said a stick got caught in her tire, causing her to crash head-first.  They were traveling with the Big City Mountaineers at the time, and the teams worked together to stabilize Lauren’s head and call for help.  Their work paid off, as all reports indicate that no spinal cord injury occurred. 

Team Spanos and Big City Mountaineers pose for a portrait of their blended family

Team SOAR is about to experience the same type of blended team chemistry.  After Team Native Eyewear was disqualified for being too far apart (racers must stay within a certain distance of each other, usually 100 yards – this is for safety but also to reflect the nature of this team sport).  Two of the racers appealed to race HQ to get back on the course (unofficially), and Team SOAR is excited to welcome them into their team.

Team #29 – Patent Docs - has also been having a jolly time on the course. Tracy, a native of Scotland, has been amusing her teammates with her thick Scottish brogue.  They, like many on the course, had a close encounter with a bison, nearly stumbling over it before it got up and moved away.  Custer State Park is the home to the largest publicly-owned bison herd in America. Just seeing these enormous animals transports you back to the wild west – it is no wonder that Dancing With Wolves was filmed nearby.  Team #29 went native too – they began foraging for ripe red raspberries after a South Dakotan native brought out a plate of wild berries and was shocked they hadn’t been picking them along the way.  When they took a moment to forage for berries, one team member turned around and noticed a stunning site – the Needles rock formation, site of the ropes course, visible far on the horizon.  They went to take a picture, but commented that picture or not, they would never forget that sight.

Team Paten Docs stops for a photo with the Needles Rock Formation visible on the far back horizon on the left side

Teams on the Peak Assurance Trek were in high spirits and enjoying the views.  They all agreed that Primal Quest Badlands Presented by Spot has been the best, most challenging Primal Quest so far.  Between the beautiful, varied terrain, the extensive mountain biking on remote, single-track trails, the navigation, and the soaring ropes course, the teams have raved about their experiences here – and remember, these teams are only halfway done!

Meanwhile, a few teams were further ahead, contending with the FaceLevel swim orienteering and the Warren Windows Lake orienteering on Kayak.  At this section, another struggle becomes obvious – how to contend with all that gear!  At one Transition Area, they have bike equipment, swimming gear, paddles, and kayaking accoutrements.  Plus, tents, food, lamps, clothes, and more.  Already sleep-deprived, exhausted, and not thinking straight, they have to keep track of what they need now, what they will need in the future, what they could possibly need if conditions change, and things they can put away (for now!).  A mistake in the gear can be time-consuming or make for a very uncomfortable section.  Organization and logistical skills come into play during this unsupported race, where racers cannot rely on a support crew to guide them through the transitions.

Team Aquan/iRule completed the FaceLevel swim orienteering just as night fell, and word on the course was that the Warren Windows lake orienteering was next to impossible at night – the exact quote being “the controls are in obscure locations, and the descriptions only make it worse.”  Instead, they strategized to sleep overnight and attack the course in the morning. This would allow them good rest, as the conditions at Lake Angostura were the warmest they’ve encountered on the course, and also prepare them to push hard for the final stretch of the race through the Badlands.

Team Aquan/iRule discusses their experiences at PQ at a group huddle / dinner

Racer Thomas Bastis, the team’s navigator, started discussing what draws people to the sport of adventure racing, and feels it’s not always simply a love of the outdoors. He says it’s the ultimate escape, especially for the navigator.  It’s 10 days of extreme focus – when you’re navigating or out during a race, you’re not thinking about taking out the trash, or feeding the dog, or your cell phone – you don’t have to be a “person” like you do at home.  Though the first day is the most mentally taxing (you’re finding out if you’ve trained enough, or whether you’re going to get blisters, or if some other minor thing will go wrong and you will have wasted the $12,000 entry fee and months of your life for it to all be over in 12 hours), eventually you settle into a groove.  You have achievements that may seem minor, but show the team is starting to gel.  He cited his team as really improving in navigation on the whole.  They are developing roles, such as tracking altitude, or distance so far, in support of the navigator and improving their teams effectiveness.  He knew this was the case when they worked for three hours, orienteering in the dark, and they “nailed it.”  The control was exactly where they expected it to be, and in that moment, he knew they were a team.

The entire team has been thrilled with their progress and with the course.  The mountain biking was “out of this world” – and they never felt like they were being tortured with the bike as they had in Primal Quest Utah, where you could ride about 25 feet in the sand and then you had to push the bike.  They even pioneered a new MTB technique, which they called “Prairie Edge Style” – because some of the mud was so thick after the storm swept through the course, they rode through the grass edging the trail. It had enough moisture on it to keep the bikes lubricated despite the mud that was caking on the tires and chains.  They said the technique was very effective, and they might have been the only team whose bikes came out of the section with minimal wear and tear.

Their experience on the ropes course mysteriously echoed comments by other teams – especially in the use of the terms “Adult Jungle Gym” and “Disneyland on ropes.”  Team Aquan/iRule hit the ropes at the best time possible, with no one in front of them and as the sun was rising.  They are still in awe that they, as relatively inexperienced rock climbers, were able to be essentially chauffeured through one of the most majestic and beautiful ropes sites in the world, and on a show-boating, stunt-climbing course, no less.  They were thrilled.

Team Tecnu Extreme / StaphAseptic arrives at the Lake and knows exacly what they're going to do -- "We're sleeping"

Team Acquan/iRule wasn’t the only team to opt for sleep at the lake. Team TecnuExtreme/StaphAseptic arrived at the lake around 11pm.  They decided to sleep overnight – “we’ve had a rough two days” – and head out for the FaceLevel swim in the morning.  While these two teams slept at the TA, 30 others were moving steadily through the night, having the kinds of experiences that change lives forever.  Even a 20-year old volunteer helping at the TA, Kyle, said this has been a life-changing experience.  Seeing the discipline, athleticism, and dedication of these athletes has inspired him to do great things with his life, and he is ready to plunge into the sport of adventure racing, with an eye on competing in Primal Quest.

Stay tuned for continued inspiration….

Photos by Frances Fisher. For more, visit our flickr site at www.flickr.com/primalquest.

Earlier today we had a photo from Angostura Reservoir that showed race staff huddled up in space blankets, with the wind whipping through the background. Now, the report is that things are improving for teams who are still having to deal with the swim and paddle orientation, but not before the wind swept away one of the paper punches used by teams to show that they have located the O-point. The on-site staff had to improvise, and came up with a code that teams will now write down when they get to that point. The code that was used? “2012″ the year that marks the end of the Inca calendar and the end of the world.

Tecnu Extreme/StaphAseptic Adventure racing completes the Swim-O and move onto the paddle!

Rescue swimmer Larry enjoying the stormy conditions.

http://twitpic.com/ees8t – Team Active Racing member comments on the tunnel vision you get during a race – he didn’t notice the beautifu …about 16 hours ago from TwitPic

“In the blitzing time of…. Really slow.”

“We’re going non-stopparoo!”

“We have to help Jimmy. I mean, he’s really the problem.”

“The Controls are in obscure locations and the descriptions just make it worse.”

“I don’t want to slow you down…” “That’s not possible.”

“I tell the boys they’re big girls’ blouses when they complain.”

“I gotta hand it to Jay Smith. He led us through a ropes course most people would give their left nut to be on.”

“There are definitely more uphills in South Dakota than downhills. The government should look into that.”

“We had Dehydration, Hypothermia, and Exhaustion. The triple Bonk.”

“Our butts were our mattresses.”