Ok, if you read all the way to the end of my recent article in Trail Runner Magazine (Primal Quest Montana:  Primed for Success (PDF, 128kb)), then you know that PQ was almost certainly going international and almost certainly heading to British Columbia. Oops, turns out a lot can change between an early July deadline and a late September press conference (it’s ok, because adventure sport athletes and adventure sport journalists are nothing if not adaptable)!

Earlier this week wire stories began trickling out from local stations in South Dakota/North Dakota (thanks Google Blog Search!) with news about Primal Quest: Badlands and today we have confirmation with a newly re-badged and very ominous looking website that is chock full of news about next year’s race.

Some highlights:

• Location: Badlands of South Dakota
• Length: Longest ever PQ at 600 miles
• Support Crews: None
• Disciplines: trekking, mountain biking, orienteering, swimming, and paddling plus spelunking and climbing. And navigation, lots and lots of navigation.
• Local Wildlife: deer, buffalo, bald eagles, prairie dogs, turkeys, elk and big horn sheep.

PQ Badlands is sure to be another race for the ages. To see what the Montana version of “The World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition” looked like, check out my photo gallery.

Registration opens 12:00PM (EST) on November 15, 2008 but I’m going to submit my leave request now and start pitching story ideas. See you in S. Dakota!

I spent quite a few of my days in Montana driving around the middle of nowhere with Alexandra Alter (seen in photo above), feature writer for the Wall Street Journal. She was great company as we searched for stories and photos and video that might capture the essence of a race chock full of amazing stories, fantastic quotes, and some of the most beautiful scenery you can imagine. Her story, following Team #28’s Kathy Roche-Wallace, is in Friday’s paper and online now.

As someone who has recently struggled to get my version of the race pared down to under one thousand words (see the October issue of Trail Runner), Alexandra’s version does a great job at capturing the many challenges a race like PQ Montana presented to racers. Go pick up a copy of the Journal at your local newsstand or read it online right now! Oh and be sure to watch the video. My left arm and camera make a cameo at 20 seconds into the film. Just don’t blink!

Iron Mom

Alexandra Alter follows a 47-year-old woman out to conquer 548 miles of mountains, snow and exhaustion.

By ALEXANDRA ALTER
July 25, 2008; Page W1

Big Sky, Mont.

Four days and 263 miles into a backcountry race and Kathy Roche-Wallace isn’t even halfway to the finish. She’s limping on a big toe that is infected and swollen. She has a purple bruise the size of a grapefruit on her left thigh from a spill down a mountainside. Her sweat smells of vinegar and ammonia, a sign her fuel-starved body has started burning muscle. |Read Full Story|

Primal Quest Montana – Race Day 4, originally uploaded by Brian Knight Photography.

Wow was that ever painful. I’d like to take this moment to track down and kick the ass of whomever came up with that cute little diddy about sticks and stones… Clearly they never tried to be a writer, professional or otherwise.

I am happy to report that when inspiration finally and truly took hold I was driving down 395 in rush hour traffic. Instead of zoning out to NPR or cursing my fellow commuters for their crappy driving skills I started talking to myself. A little kernel of an idea snuck into my brain and I started working it over and over until I had a couple decent paragraphs going… When I pulled up to my house twenty minutes later I rushed inside, fired up the Mac, logged into Google Docs, and started typing on a fresh new page. Four hours later I was done. Whew.

And now I leave you with this classic West Wing moment:

CHARLIE
Aren’t you supposed to be writing?

TOBY
I am writing.

CHARLIE
I don’t see paper.

Toby walks up to him and sits down.

TOBY
“We can sit back and admit with grave sensitivity that life isn’t fair and the less-advantaged are destined to their lot in life and the problems of those on the other side of the world should stay there, that our leaders are cynical and can never be an instrument to change, but that, my friends, is not worthy of you, it’s not worthy of the President, it’s not worthy of a great nation, it’s not worthy of America!”

Paper’s for wimps.

Well, the race continues, but it’s time for me to head back to reality.  Got to say I’m a little bummed about leaving early, but I’ve burned through all of my vacation and now there is also that pesky July 8 deadline staring me down from across the room.

I’m sure I’ll have more thoughts on this most recent version of Primal Quest and I’m sure they’ll end up on the blog here.  In the meantime though, I need to shake these cobwebs lose, jump in the shower, and get out of the room before house keeping comes calling…

For those of you playing along at home and watching the SPOT tracking and leader board you’re probably already aware that Teams 3 & 4 (Dart-Nuun & Bones) have left the final TA and are now biking their way back to Big Sky.  From the leader board it seems Dart-Nuun has a slight 8 minute advantage, but from the tracking it looks like Team Bones is trying their best to catch up (if they haven’t already).  It’s going to be exciting to see how this segment of the race finishes tonight!

Update  29 June, 9:15 MDT :: Just refreshed the tracking and looks like Bones has pulled away.  In case any of you back home were wondering, “Hey, are these guys racing together or what?” the answer is, no, not any more!

Update  30 June, 00:06 MDT ::  Ok, nevermind.  Still waiting for both teams to cross the finish line, but a little bit of the drama has been erased on account of one team has a two hour time bonus after the o-course. In other excitement tonight a team accidentally activated their SPOT 911. Luckily PQ Comms was able to contact the team via cell phone before the initial SAR team got too far into the woods.

So I ran into Paul at the finish line this morning… It was an unexpected sight.  A crowd had gathered to greet Team Merrill come in for a second place finish when I looked back and saw someone wearing a VentureQuest 5 t-shirt. It was Paul. The very same Paul who was supposed to be out running support for Team #37, Pura Vida (Michelle, Miguel, Andy, and Victor) (cooking meals, organising gear, and taking care of feet), not kicking back at the Big Sky Resort.

But why was Paul here and not waiting for his team at a TA someplace?  Turns out that Miguel crashed his bike on a sweet section of unpaved, country road somewhere between the Crazies and Bridger mountains.  And why did Miguel crash? Well, according to Miguel (who was just in HQ describing his crash), it was daylight, he wasn’t sleepy, and the team was cruising downhill at 48.8 miles per hour.  Then the road turned less sweet. Miguel ran over rutted ground.  He hit ruts and lost control of his bike.  He fought to regain control as his wheels slid back and forth, but it was to no avail.  In an instant he shot forward landing head first into the ground. His helmet was cracked, there were several new ugly scrapes along the left side, and his shoulder possibly seperated from his body. His spirits were fine, his bike was fine, but his race was over.

Miguel has not been alone in crashing in this area.  I’ve heard reports of at least three other crashes in this area.  The latest resulted in an unconcsious racer (they were out for ~45 seconds), but to show the resolve and dedication of these racers, the teammember (after being medically cleared) opted to stay in the race!

It’s just past 8pm at Big Sky and a crowd is growing, anxiously waiting for Team #1, Nike to cross the finish line. Their SPOT is tracking properly and shows them about 7 miles away… they’re on bikes, traveling mostly uphill, and should be here in about a half hour.

More updates soon…

Taking a little break from the course this morning to catch up on my notes and photos (and sleep).

Team #1, Nike took some time to sleep too it seems.  When I left HQ last night around midnight they were projected to cross the finish line (in first place) around 1 PM this afternoon.  I’ve just got word from Frances that it’s going to be more like a 9PM MDT (11pm EDT) finish.  Luckily there is still plenty of daylight left in these parts (sunset today is 9:17 MDT).

Going to hit the shower now, have some lunch, and get back to work on the computer.  Stay tuned for more exciting updates from the finish line!

The first day of the race was spent in the shadow of Lone Mountain which meant I had really great mobile phone reception, which meant I could blog events as they occurred.  In addition to the many notes I was writing down into my Moleskine notebook (“the legendary notebook used by European artists and thinkers for the past two centuries” – woohoo!) as well as in addition to the many, many photos I was taking with my several cameras, I managed to capture a few shots with the cameraphone and email them to Flickr, which then automagically crossposted text and image to the blog.  Days two and three have taken me further and further away from the start and into decidedly less cell phone friendly areas.  And so while I have continued to fill the notebook with near illegible notes and have continued to take many, many photos with my several cameras, I have not been able to “live blog” the race.

Today, Race Day #3, was spent out on the course and once more I found myself with only the spottiest of cell coverage. I would write more now, or edit more photos now, but I drove over 300 miles and need to put myself into hibernate mode for a few hours. There’s a pretty good chance that my dreams are about to be filled with images of teams trekking, biking, and sleeping out in the cold and the dark.

Was out on the course for a good portion of the day (and without cell coverage, thus no live blogging).  Started at TA2 (kayak put-in) and then ran down to TA3 to see how the transition from kayak to river boarding was going. Along the way we pulled over to watch teams paddle past us.  At TA3 we were able to witness some sift water rescue action! Photos and words later…