So how’s your week going? Compare it to Jari’s!
Posted on 07/02/09 4:22 PM| by Kraig
Week number 1,034,287
Or whatever week I am really on. Doesn’t really matter, just how I train and feel. We are finally into summer here in the high country. I think that 3 days ago I finally felt that it was warm enough for me to consider it to be summer. Today the high was 78 degrees. Yipppie.
So lets start one week ago, the 24th of June. I suckered a friend into riding mt. bikes with me. Really it wasn’t that hard to twist his arm. It was a short fairly easy ride, only an hour and half and my heart rate was low enough that I didn’t have any problems talking and riding the whole time. I should mention that it is so green and there are so many flowers here that it is hard to not get distracted and just take it all in.
Then Thursday I did a fun run. We have a whole summer series of fun runs here. You can get a time but mostly it is a social thing. So I ran easy, 5 miles in 47 minutes and heart rate never over 140. I knew that since I was racing on Saturday that I didn’t need to go hard.
Continue reading ‘So how’s your week going? Compare it to Jari’s!’
Team Tecnu Extreme/Staphaseptic is normally led by captain “Earring” Doug Judson, a seasoned adventure racer who has years of experience in the sport. But Doug recently suffered a serious injury while training for Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT, and the team will now soldier on without him with Charlie Kharsa stepping in to the captain’s role while Judson recovers.
Sidelined until late Fall, Doug is currently rehabbing a partially torn calf muscle and Achilles tendon, as well as a broken bone in the same foot. None of those injuries compare to the sting of missing Primal Quest however, as he says “That’s [PQ] our Olympics and our chance as adventure racers to once again test the boundaries of human endurance with good friends.”
Doug also says he’s disappointed that he’ll be missing the epic course that the teams will be racing on in August. He expects the Badlands to offer incredible mountain biking legs, rope-work, and caving sections. But he also predicts “excruciating death marches” broken up by amazing sunrises and sunsets. Last year, in Montana, he was forced to withdraw after five days on the course due to near kidney failure, as a result of pre-race pneumonia, that put him into the ICU unit. A good run in South Dakota would have helped to dispel the demons of Primal Quest 2008.
Continue reading ‘Tecnu Extreme/Staphaseptic Loses an Earring, Forges Ahead’
Our friends at Bare Essentials magazine, one of our media partners for Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT, have put together another great article that takes an inside look at the race by interviewing Rick Emerson, the course designer who has come up with all the sadistic ways to punish the racers in August.
In the article, Rick discusses how he approached designing the course, balancing world-class challenges while showing off the best scenery that South Dakota has to offer. He also hints at how his own outdoor adventure experience influenced the design proces. As if that wasn’t enough, Rick also gives us some ideas on what we can expect in the Badlands in a few weeks time. He tops it off with his top ten things to know before you go that will be of interest to racers and fans alike.
To read this great interview for yourself simply click here.
Two great videos spotlighting Primal Quest have been released, one that looks back on the tremendous success of Montana and another that looks forward to Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT.
The first video was put together by Wouter Kingma, one of the talented photographers who came to Montana last year to chronicle the return of Primal Quest. Wouter shot many wonderful photographs, and he has compiled some of them together to create a great retrospective of last year’s race. Check out the video by clicking here and more of Wouter’s work can be found on his website OrangeExpressions.com. Great work Wouter!
The second video comes to us courtesy of KAMC TV in Lubbock, Texas. The video serves as a great introduction to adventure racing in general and Primal Quest specifically, with a glimpse of what teams can expect when they arrive in South Dakota in August. To view this video, click here.
Be sure to checkout both videos, and then head over to Inside Primal Quest to watch even more great video.
Seven weeks and counting!
As we all move into high gear for the final weeks before Primal Quest Badlands Presented by SPOT there are several important items to attend to.
Team captains are responsible for ensuring that each team member receives and digests this final Competitor Newsletter. There are several “Action Items” included in this document and we ask that you complete each task by the due date so that our pre-event planning goes smoothly.
We also ask that you honor our generous Partners by perusing their ads at the end of the newsletter. Their involvement has made it possible for us all to “play” in South Dakota this August.
Thank you for your continued enthusiasm and we look forward to seeing you soon!
Dawn Taylor Mann
Competitor Relations Director/Director of Operations
dawn.mann@ecoprimalquest.com
Most of us have dealt with the affliction from time to time; some of us more often than we would like to admit. The symptoms begin subtly but are soon too strong to ignore:
You know the entire REI staff by name. They look the other way when they see you coming.
The bike shop is the most dialed number on your cell phone this week, followed closely by that of a long distance teammate. You hope to have a bit of prize money in hand when your spouse sees the phone bill.
Your co-workers keep asking why you are so “out of it” the week before your “vacation.” You tried to explain last time but were so overwhelmed by questions about your best time in the mile and whether you thought you could finish a marathon that you decided to go incognito this time.
Recreational cyclists watch, aghast, as you, laden with a backpack, lights, map board, seven water bottles, and a paddle, ride back and forth along the bike path, making an adjustment every 50 meters. Their incredulity increases when you ask their kid to hang on to the dog leash attached to your bike seat to determine whether it functions properly.
Continue reading ‘Team Salomon/Crested Butte’s Top Five (Plus One)…’
