The fun begins on page 19 of the online magazine with a profile of what adventure travelers can expect in South Dakota, and the Badlands in particular. The story serves as a brief preview of what teams can expect in August.

From there, we turn to page 22 where you’ll find the interview with Badlands course designer Rick Emerson, which we linked to online a few weeks back. You can read that story by clicking here.

On page 24 of the ezine you’ll find an interview with Robyn Benincasa, captain of Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure. In the story, Robyn offers insights for women interested in adventure racing as well as sharing her thoughts on often overlooked essential items for women heading into the backcountry.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, on page 26 you’ll find a profile of Tecnu Extreme/Staphaseptic Adventure Racing which takes a closer look at the team’s approach to adventure racing and their thoughts on Primal Quest. The article also introduces us to the team members, although it was obviously written before team captain Earring Doug was forced to withdraw from the race, which you can read about here.

In addition to this great Primal Quest coverage, Bare Essentials also has plenty of other great content for the active outdoor adventurer, including tips on fitness, great gear, and much  more.

As their name implies, Team BCM has partnered with the Big City Mountaineers, an outstanding non-profit organization that is focused on assisting urban youth by introducing them to a variety of outdoor adventures and activities. In the process, these kids see a boost to their self-esteem, while receiving a greater understanding of their impact on the environment, and the lives of others around them. The team hopes to raise awarness and funds for BCM through their adventure racing efforts.

Big City Mountaineers has a unique approach to their fund raising efforts, having launched a program called Summit For Someone, in conjunction with Backpacker Magazine, in which particpants select from a number of guided mountain climbs throughout North America and by gaining sponsors to their climbs, they in turn raise funds for BCM.

As if racing for their team sponsor wasn’t enough of an incentive, Team BCM member Angela Woodland has an even bigger reason for wanting to compete in Primal Quest. Her husband Kevin suffers from ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), and she is dedicating her PQ experience to him.

Before being afflicted with ALS, Kevin was quite an adventurer himself, running, cycling, skiing and paddling throughout the U.S. But that terrible disase has prevented him from doing the things he once loved, and Angela says that one of his few regrets is that he never had the opportunity to race in Primal Quest or a similar adventure race. Because of that, she will race for him, and Kevin will be cheering her on all the way.

Good luck to Team Big City Mountineers both in the Badlands and their other efforts. We’ll see you in South Dakota in just a few weeks.

The team this year is comprised of adventure racing veterans from around the globe, each with a tremendous amount of Primal Quest experience. Having raced in Montana, the San Juan Islands, Utah and a number of other other international races, the team, which consists of Lucy Eykamp from Australia, Jim Doucette from Ontario, Scott Covey from Vancouver, and Steve Hay from Quebec,  is ready to be competitive and have fun in South Dakota.

“I am really happy with the level of maturity, and experience that the team has this year,” Steve, the team captain, says. “We gel so well together and in training it is like we are the best of friends.” He goes on to add, ” This really is going to be a great race and we are all looking forward to the experience in South Dakota…except for the snakes. Fortunately, Lucy is a snake charmer so we should be good.”

For Hay, the Badlands also represent a shot at redemption after being pulled from the race last year by the PQ medical team due to a severely pulled hamstring. “Montana was a great learning experience” explains Steve. “From building good training habits, to understanding team dynamics, to believing in yourself and your team is an extraordinary feat. Being pulled out of the race was enourmously frustrating.”

Steve has been generating some great press for himself and the team as well. French speaking fans of Primal Quest might find the following articles of interest:

• Une course unique et hors du commun pour Steve Hay (A Unique and Out of the Ordinary Race for Steve Hay)
• Steve Hay repart à l’aventure! (Steve Hay is Returning to the Adventure)
• Le Primal Quest approche pour Steve Hay (Primal Quest Is Approaching for Steve Hay)

Good luck in South Dakota Team Archipela!

The team would like to thank Plasco Energy Group and CycleLogik for their generous contributions to the team.

“The great folks of South Dakota continue to show us a wealth of hometown support as our organization brings in new racers, volunteers and staff,” said Don Mann, Director of Primal Quest. “Being able to share the land for passage and checkpoints is important to us. South Dakotans are providing their time and energy as volunteers and we are excited to have them cheering and motivating the athletes as they travel through the course.”

Rick Emerson of Rapid City is the Course Designer for Primal Quest. He has met with more than 100 different individuals from landowners and permitting advisors to representatives from public and private agencies. Results have been positive and all are on board to make the race a success.

Examples of how individuals or communities can get involved include:

• Host a stand with inexpensive snacks and cold beverages along the course;
• Provide meals and company to volunteers who may be camped out in your community for days at a time;
• Host a special gathering or welcoming with teams as they pass through;
• Offer discount coupons for local businesses to be given to athletes and volunteers before the race;
• Encourage athletes by posting supportive signage;
• Cheer athletes on as they pass through;
• Attract local media;
• Patronize the event’s sponsors posted on the Primal Quest website; and
• Follow the real-time action on the Primal Quest website during the race, August 14–23.

Specific details of the course must remain confidential up until the evening of August 13 in order to maintain the navigational integrity of the race. If you are interested in finding out if your community will be a part of the course, please contact Rick Emerson at (605) 381-5372. If you are interested in the key spectator spots on the course, stop by Primal Quest Headquarters at the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn in Rapid City beginning August 14 to receive information.

“Communities and individuals have been very easy to work with. To be successful with an event like Primal Quest, we truly need the support of the area businesses and residents. This is all a testament to the open hearts and pioneering spirit of South Dakota,” said Mann.

Primal Quest: Badlands is a 10-day expedition adventure race consisting of more than 35 co-ed teams of four racing through 600 miles of the Black Hills National Forest, Badlands National Park and the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.

The Rapid City Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) partnered with the South Dakota Office of Tourism through the Million Dollar Challenge program to bring Primal Quest to the state. The Million Dollar Challenge program is part of the 2010 Initiative to double visitor spending in South Dakota. Program requirements, applications and additional information are available at www.SDVisit.com. The Office of Tourism serves under the direction of Richard Benda, Secretary of the Department of Tourism and State Development.

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.

On Friday I went to Gunnison with another friend and we swam.  It was the first time for me to actually swim laps and train in the pool (we are the deprived here when they do maintenance on the pools all at the same time).  I swam a little over a mile in a little less than 40 minutes.  I love to swim.  Then a little bit later I spun on my mt. bike for 30 minutes.  We were having the Crested Butte Fat Tire Festival and there is this wonderful pass called Kebbler and they race down it chainless.  Being is Crested Butte fashion most people were dressed up and having a wonderful time.  We spun easy up the road to check it out.

Then on Saturday we raced!!!!  The Fat Tire 40.  40 miles of almost all single track.  It puts a smile on my face just thinking about the course.  I had a little bit of a mechanical at the beginning but once I worked the kink out it was on, like Donkey Kong!!!!  5 hours and third place.  One small crash.  And the best tack single track you can dream up.  About 15 minutes after finishing I was at the Gas Café ordering the most amazing hamburger and french fries.  Took a few minutes to get it and by then I was so hungry.  Did I mention 5 hours on my bike?  It was so worth it.

So on the 7th day I rested.  Ok, only sort of.  I took a photographer from Bike Magazine and rode most of Doctor Park.  A super super duper trail in the area.  I’ll consider it an off day, my heart rate was no more than 100 bpm.  I went home after work and opened a puzzle and kicked my feet up and just chilled.

Monday, ahh Monday.  No blues here, just more sweet single track.  I road with a friend up 401 (could possible be the most famous trail in Colorado without a doubt here).  Since you can’t quite do it as a loop because the top is still under snow we road that as an out and back also.  It was 7 am, not a cloud in the ski, warm (even by my standards), and nothing out there but us, breathing hard and hearing nothing back.  Riding through single track that disappears ten feet in front of you behind walls of plants so green that you would swear they were faked.  And the flowers.  The flowers!!!!  We were out for 2 hours and I think that for the first 45 minutes my heart rate was about 150ish.  I was working moderate.  Not racing but not slacking either.

Then Tuesday I had a massage.  1 hour 15 minutes.  And the sweetness there makes me euphoric.  Yep, I could pretty much walk through walls at that point.  Worked a few areas, I have crashed twice on my right knee and I need a little extra love there.
So Today I ran with a friend and we road our townie bikes out to Tony’s trail and ran it to the Upper to Whetstone through the gold course to the Upper to Tony’s and biked leasurily back home.  1 hour 10 minutes on the run.  A few times (up the steeper parts) my heart rate was 165 but mostly kept it around 150.  Was very thirsty afterwards and had a hard time staying hydrated for the rest of the day.  Now I am making a rhubarb pie that is in the oven as I write.

Race hard and eat pie.  That could be the lesson for the week.

So now I am resting it up for the Firecracker 50, the US national marathon mt. bike championships.  Two laps of 25 miles around Breckenridge CO and we get to start the parade off.  It is my one day of living the Tour De France.  There are 30,000 people cheering you on as you start down the road and enter the 4 and half hours of pain.  I am already anxious for it but for now only time will tell.

I am feeling strong and the races that I have done to prepare myself for the adventure racing season and 24 hour mt bike racing seem to be paying off.  I will know if I have to tweek my training after this weekend.

Keep your fingers crossed and if you happen to have any extra energy Saturday send it my way.

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.

For their part, the team is not only preparing to race without Judson, but they are very optimistic about their chances. Kharsa says that the team is very well rounded with a great deal of experience in expedition length races. He says that they are world class paddlers, great on the mountain bikes, and very strong on foot as well. “We feel that our strengths are that we genuinely like each other, respect each others abilities to NOT quit, and we don’t have any glaring weaknesses,” Kharsa adds. But he cautions that in any race the length of Primal Quest, adversity always appears in some form, “the true measure of a team is how we will tackle it together when it does”.

Mark Richardson is the man tasked with filling Earring Doug’s rather large shoes, but Judson says that “Mark is a great navigator, level-headed, well rounded, and a VERY welcome addition to Tecnu Extreme/Staphaseptic adventure racing.” He adds that Richardson has meshed very well with Kharsa, as well as his other  teammates Jared Hanley and Melissa Griffiths. “We are optimistic about where they will end up,” he says, referring to where the team will finish in the Badlands.

With less than two months to go until the start of the race, the team is very happy with the progress of their training. With their fitness levels at an already high level, they have been more focused on team dynamics, or as Kharsa says, “We are just working out the kinks, fine tuning our race minds so that they work as a collective unit come race day. ” He adds that they are all healthy and excited to get to the starting line together.

The new captain says that the team is very much looking forward to racing in South Dakota and can’t wait to get out on the course. The spiritual and historical significance of the Badlands is not lost on Tecnu Extreme/Staphaseptic either, with Kharsa saying “We are looking forward to respectfully racing, leaving no trace, on some of the most historically rich land in the United States.” He says that they are particularly excited for some of the caving and trekking sections, where they’ll be crossing backcountry that has seen little traffic since Crazy Horse and his people wandered the region.

As for Doug, he offers the following advice for his teammates who will be racing without him in August, ‘Enjoy the journey.  We will not be able to do this forever.  This sport allows us to see and do and accomplish amazing things.  Things most on this planet would only dream of. Race hard. Travel light and fast. Remain Safe.  Remain friends, and NEVER forget first place.  The pain will fade, but the memory of the journey with good friends will last till we are old and sitting on the front porch drinking O’douls.  Life well this life! And don’t forget to take some pictures.  The summit is worth remembering.” Wise advice indeed!

Finally, the team would like to thank the following sponsors for their support: Tecnu Extreme/Staphaseptic, Keen Footwear, Hot Chillys, Asolo, Lowe Alpine, AT Paddles, Princeton Tec, Nuun, Headsweats, O2 Rainwear, Rudy Project, Kinesys, Superfeet, Leki,  and Blue Seventy.

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.

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

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.

You have checked and re-checked the airline website in an effort to determine whether an extra bag or overweight bag costs more.  You’re having recurring nightmares about seizure of your “carry on bag” and “personal item” because they are really a large racing backpack and a slightly smaller racing backpack.  You have no idea whether or not that nice check-in person who put your bike on for free last time will be there again, but you’ve spent some extra time on your knees next to your bed at night, just in case.

You’re sleep deprived, already, and your spouse keeps asking about what exactly you have been spending so much time on (you ask yourself the same thing after tinkering for hours) and why the lawn isn’t mowed.

Recalling that the race also includes physical elements, you finally get around to a bit of training well after dark.

It’s Week Before You Leave for the Race Scrambling Like Crazy Syndrome, and sometimes it’s almost harder than the race itself!  As I prepare to head out for the Best of the West AR in Canada next week, I hope these tips might provide a bit of guidance towards what—or what not—to do during that big week before PQ in August.

1.      Remember the essentials. While racing, I always carry the following items within reach: small tube of Sportslick, electrolyte pills, ibuprofen, chapstick, sunscreen (I like the small sample pouches made by Protech), safety pins, a small tube of toothpaste (sloshing around a bit in the mouth with some water a few times a day seems to decrease mouth sores), and some sort of caffeine.  At transitions, I plan for easy access to more Sportslick (the importance of this product in battling blisters and chaffing cannot be overstated), a headnet for bugs, and diaper rash cream, which usually becomes a team favorite and necessary carry on item after a day or two.
2.      Read those e-mails. If your team is like ours, you probably have dozens of e-mail threads spread out over the last six months.  Checking up on conversations about gear and strategy is important; pity the poor soul who forgets the tent and strobe he promised to bring late one night in February.
3.      “There’s those thinkin’, more or less, less is more.” Eddie Vedder had it right in composing these words for the Into the Wild soundtrack.  Although making a list and checking it twice is important, getting to a race location and having too much junk to schlep around can be a hassle.  Having too many choices slows transitions.
4.      Check and Test Your Lights. While I have been lucky enough to use bomb-proof, super-light biking and trekking lights from AYUP (an Australian company, ayup.com.au), I still check each light and battery before a big race.
5.      It’s a balancing act. I may have set a world record for tinkering yesterday.  Several trips to the bike shop, failed tubeless tire conversion attempts, trying to get my two-piece paddle separated again (if you live in the area, there happens to be a guy with an iron grip at the paddling shop downtown who finally fixed it), messing around with this and that, trying to figure out which clothes to bring, etc.  At the end of the day, I had to remind myself that I would only spend more time preparing when I actually arrive at the race site, so everything probably does not need to be completely prepped.  I realized that I could leave reading the watch instruction manual for the plane ride and final bike adjustments for after the plane ride, when things get tweaked anyway.  Also, keeping family in mind before the race is crucial as well.
6. Oh yeah, possibly most importantly…if there’s ever a time to go nuts on ice cream, brownies, and other goodies, this is it.  Go for it, and remember that all of this stuff is “fun”!

Good luck out there,

Travis Macy