Primal Quest Badlands Web Episodes #10

Once more we have another video from Primal Quest Badlands courtesy of Adventure World Magazine and Randy Ericksen. In this clip we hear from a number of racers about what their experiences were like during the race, including what they found the most challenging, what they liked best, and so on.

I'm not sure if this is the last of the web episodes, but it seems to be wrapping up the event with some final thoughts from teams that were already of the course and relaxing at the hotel.

Primal Quest Badlands was a 600-mile long adventure race that took place last summer in South Dakota. It pitted coed teams of four against one another over a ten day period in which they hiked, biked, ran, paddled, and climbed their way through the Black Hills and Badlands. It was one of the most grueling and difficult adventure races ever put together, and certainly something to see.

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Primal Quest Badlands Web Episodes #9

The new year brings another Primal Quest Badlands Episode courtesy of Adventure World Magazine and Randy Ericksen. In the last episode, we saw eventual champs Team Orion Health cross the finish line, claiming victory in the 600-mile long race through South Dakota's Black Hills and Badlands. In this latest episode, we catch up with some of the teams still out on the course, with racers weighing in with their thoughts on PQ, while heading out onto the now infamous "Prairie Paddle".

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Primal Quest Badlands Web Episodes #8

Adventure World Magazine has posted the eighth, and quite possibly final, web episode from Primal Quest Badlands. This video, like the rest of the series, was produced by Randy Erickson, and shows racer winners Team Orion Health reaching the finish line and celebrating their big win. The exhausted team won the race after nearly 8 days of running, trekking, mountain biking, and paddling their way across 600 miles of South Dakota backcountry.

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Primal Quest Badlands Web Episodes #6

I missed posting this a few weeks back when it went up on the Adventure World Magazine website, but the sixth web episode from Primal Quest Badlands is now available for fans of adventure racing to enjoy.

This episode is a bit of synopsis of the race as a whole so far, capturing teams at the beginning of the race and catching up through roughly the mid-way point. It captures a number of interesting scenes from the 600+ mile event which took place in South Dakota this past August.

As always, thanks to Randy Ericksen for putting these together.

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Primal Quest Badlands Episode 5

Adventure World Magazine has another great webisode from this year's Primal Quest Badlands, that was held in South Dakota this past August.

In this episode, the teams have completed the climbing course, and we catch up with them in a transition area, where we see them moving from being on foot back to the bikes. The racers discuss the challenges of the race so far, and the conditions that they've been competing under.



These videos have been shot and edited by Randy Ericksen. For more from Primal Quest and other videos from Randy, click here.

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More Primal Quest Videos

I missed these earlier in the week, but wanted to share them now. Adventure World Magazine has two more videos from Primal Quest Badlands that follow along with the race as it developed this past August in South Dakota.

In the first video, which is actually the third PQ Web Episode, we catch up to the teams on the first, of what would prove to be many, mountain biking legs. The race has begun to take it's toll on some of the racers, but at this early stage, there is still nearly 500 miles to go on the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition.



The next video catches up with Team Bones, as the negotiate a rather challenging, but thrilling ropes course, which was one of the highlights of this year's race in the Badlands. Watching this video, you'll understand why. Good stuff!

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Primal Quest Badlands Web Episodes

Adventure World Magazine is always a great source of info on adventure racing, endurance sports, and just about anything else adventure related. The site is hosting the two videos from Primal Quest Badlands, which went down in South Dakota way back in August. I was lucky enough to be a part of the proceedings, but for those who weren't, these first two episodes will give you an idea of what long distance adventure racing is all about.

In the first video, the teams are at the starting line just before dawn. The PQ got underway when two cowboys, on horseback no less, shot off their guns in the air, signaling the start of the 600 mile long, 10 day race. First up for the teams, was a 26 mile marathon across the open range.




The second video shows the teams discussing strategy and navigation methods, and gives us a glimpse of the amazing cave system that all of the teams had the opportunity to explore in the early part of the race. The large, underground caverns were the site of an orienteering course that at times confounded and confused teams.

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The Future of Primal Quest

While I was in South Dakota a few weeks back for Primal Quest there was a lot of chatter about the future of the event, and whether or not we'd see another race. Many held a grim view of the topic, thinking that the Badlands event would be the last of its kind, while others speculated that a year off might allow the PQ to return to form. Some chose to remain optimistic and talk about "next year".

Once the race ended, and we all returned home, the rumors about the future of Primal Quest spread to the larger adventure racing community as a whole. Fans of the sport wanted to know if and when they might see another 10-day epic race from the Primal Quest crew headed up by Don Mann, the mastermind behind the event the past few years. Today, on the Primal Quest website, we responded to the rumors and speculation from the community.

In a nutshell, the plan is for PQ to return, possibly as soon as 2010, but more likely not until 2011. The economic downturn has been brutal on just about every aspect of society, and adventure racing in particular. A number of races had to be canceled this year, and some may never return. Sponsorship dollars have been tough to come by, and many teams have scaled back their racing seasons in an effort to save money as well. Hopefully, as the economy begins to turn around, the sport will bounce back to life as well.

I do know that Don is already planning for a 2011 race, discussing possible locations and funding. He hasn't ruled out a race in 2010, but it would require funding from the host site and a solid number of teams to commit to racing before we could move forward with the race. But, he is strongly committed to having the race return in 2011, and is working to make that happen.

So, for those who have been wondering, there you go. Primal Quest is one of the biggest, toughest races in the world, and it will be back. And you can bet that when it returns, there will be as challenging as ever.

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Back From Primal Quest!

I survived another Primal Quest, this year held in the Badlands of South Dakota. Of course, I wasn't racing the event, but it takes it's toll on the staff and volunteers as well. Once again, it was quite an event to witness first hand. Everyone associated with the race, from the athletes to the checkpoint volunteers, and everyone in between are incredibly dedicated, to the sport of adventure racing, and PQ in particular. In fact, it was much like a family reunion there, with old friends getting together for the first time since the last race in Montana. Everyone works very hard, has a good time, and loads of fun too.

This year, the course was more than 600 miles in length, and wound it's way through the Black Hills and Badlands, which offered a lot of diverse, and amazing scenery. The teams all commented on how difficult the race was, but beautiful at the same time, and I can attest to that. If you haven't been to South Dakota, I highly recommend a trip to the Rapid City area, where you are a stone's throw away from some very unique landscapes, and plenty of outdoor fun.

The race was won by OrionHealth.com, a team from New Zealand that has really left a mark on the sport in the past few years. They are easily one of the top teams out there, and ran an amazing race, although it got a little tighter than they had hoped in the end, thanks to a navigational error that drained 8 hours off their lead. With Team Nike not competing this year due to injuries to captain Mike Kloser just weeks before the race, there were many at Primal Quest who wondered what it would have been like to see these two teams go head to head. It is difficult to say who would have won, but I do know that that is a race I would have liked to have seen.

It was a lot of fun to watch the locals in South Dakota get into PQ, as most had never seen an event like it before. It was great to hear them talking about the teams and the course when you were out and about town, and when the home team, Team South Dakota, came across the finish line there were probably 500 people there to greet them. It was a fun sight to see, and a testament to how involved the community and state were in the race.

I had the distinct honor of being the only PQ staff member to see every team cross the finish line. That's not an easy thing to do, because they don't always cross at a convenient hour. The last few nights of the race I was up every hour or so to check the tracking system to know when I should go to the finish line to meet them, and the last day in particular I went on about 20 minutes of sleep for the entire night, as the racers arrived throughout the evening and into the day time. The result was that I was nearly as sleep deprived as the athletes by the time the race ended, but fortunately I hadn't started to hallucinate just yet, something that was common for teams in the field.

It wasn't all work though. I had the opportunity to visit Deadwood (too touristy for me!), the Black Hills (spectacular!), and the Badlands. The scenery was amazing, there was plenty of wildlife to see, and there were plenty of other surprises to take in as well. Below is a video that I shot while in the Badlands that I thought you might enjoy, and for more photos from the race, check out the PQ Flickr Stream.

I'll be getting down to work again here soon, with regular posts resuming. Plenty of things happened while I was away, and I have some catching up to do!

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Off To Primal Quest!

Tomorrow morning I'll set off for South Dakota for Primal Quest Badlands, which means that updates to this site will likely be sporadic at best over the next 10-12 days. But, that doesn't mean that I'll be resting on my laurels. I'll be resuming my duties as the Media Director for "the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition", which means plenty of updates to the PQ website, taking some photos and video, interfacing with media, and doing what ever I can to spread the word about the event.

The race is scheduled to get underway sometime Friday morning at an as of yet undisclosed location. Tomorrow, at 12 PM local time, the exact time and place will be announced to the public, but I can tell you that teams should expect an early morning start to their adventure. Over the next few days I'll be meeting with volunteers and staff to get ramped up on a plan for covering the race as best as we can, and considering the 600 mile course, that won't be easy, as well as touching base with some of the teams, doing some interviews and covering their gear and skills checks on Thursday.

There will be multiple ways to follow the action. On Friday, the leaderboard and live tracking will become active, thanks to the SPOT Messengers that each team will carry, and fans will be able to watch the teams move about the Badlands, tacking their moves and watching their navigational decisions. The PQ website will be updated as often as I can with stories about the teams, our sponsors, and notes from the field on what is happening as well. We'll also be using the Primal Quest Twitter feed to deliver updates too, so be sure to follow along there if you're a Twitter user.

It's going to be a crazy, chaotic, and fun event, as always. Ten days of non-stop racing across 600 miles of backcountry, on foot, bike, and kayak, with a bit of spelunking, swimming, and climbing thrown in for good measure. What more could you ask for? Oh yeah! A liberal dose of navigational challenges too. And with Team Nike out of the race, it's anyone's ball game!

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The Role of Support Crew in Adventure Racing

Last week I posted about PlanetFear's guide to the essential gear of adventure racing, and this week, the same website is back with another adventure racing themed article. This time, they take a look at the role of the support crew for an adventure racing team.

For those that don't know, in some longer adventure races, teams are required to bring their own support crew, which is usually a bunch of their friends who have volunteered (or have been drafted!) to meet the team at designated transition areas with all of the equipment the team will need. For example, the team may roll into the Checkpoint/Transition Area and will be going from a trekking leg to a mountain biking segment. The support team will have their bikes ready, cycling shoes prepared, and gear boxes open to restock anything the racers might need. They may also have some food waiting as well, so that the team can recharge and restore some calories before heading back out onto the course.

The PlanetFear article does an excellent job of breaking down the skills that are required to be a good support crew, and have some great tips for anyone filling that role. They discuss approaches to staying organized, setting up the TA, and even some thoughts on prepping the food as well. All in all, it's a really interesting article for adventure racing fans who have probably never thought about this aspect of the sport before.

This year's Primal Quest Badlands is an unsupported event, meaning that the race organizers are in charge of the logistics of moving gear around, but last year, while in Montana, I had the opportunity to see the support crew role played out to perfection. The teams love and appreciate their crew, and it showed when they would wander into a CP/TA, beyond tired and ready for some relief. The support crew would take over, spoil them with attention and goodies, and raise their spirits before they hit the trail once again. It was fun to watch them interact, and it will be very different to not see that this year.

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Primal Quest News: Nike Out of the Race!

More big news for fans of adventure racing today as it has been announced that Team Nike has pulled out of Primal Quest Badlands. This comes on the heels of the news that Robyn Benincasa, the captain for Team Merrell/Zanfel Adventure is also not racing in South Dakota in a few weeks, as she has undergone surgery on her hip and will not be ready in time. These two pieces of news change the landscape for the other teams competing in the race however, and guarantee that we'll see someone new at the top of the leaderboard.

Late last week Mike Kloser, the captain of Nike, was in a terrible accident on his mountain bike. The crash sent him to the hospital with five broken ribs, a broken collarbone, and a collapsed lung. Mike faces a long recovery period at this point, and will be healing up for awhile, so with superman on the shelf for Primal Quest, the rest of the team decided to not try to replace him (as if you could!) and gave up the opportunity to defend their title. It should be noted that Nike has won all five of the previous Primal Quest races, so their absence completely opens the door for other teams to make a move at the top spot.

One of those teams is of course Merrell, who have generally finished just behind Nike on the podium. That won't be the case this year, but without Robyn, how will they fare? Benincasa will be replaced by Denise McHale, who is an experienced endurance athlete, and was part of Team Peak Adventure last year in Montana, and she will no doubt be a worthy addition to the team. Can Merrell finally break through and claim victory in the Badlands, or is there a younger, hungrier, and faster team lurking in the shadows?

The news that Nike is out and Merrell is racing without Robyn is really interesting, as it means that we'll have a real shake-up at the top of the leaderboard. There are some very experienced and fast teams coming to the Badlands when the race kicks off on the 14th of August, and I can't help but think they'll be even more energized with the thought that the race is completely up for grabs this year. It's definitely going to be fun to watch, and exciting too, as we find out who will emerge as the new contender for Nike's crown.

Personally, I hope Robyn and Mike both get better soon, and I'd like to see them racing again ASAP. But their rather large shadows loomed over Primal Quest, and now the stage is set for others to step up and have a run at winning "the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition". I can't wait to watch it all unfold.

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Primal Quest Comes To HDNet

Adventure racing fans looking to get their fix this summer will be able to tune into HDNet in a few weeks to catch Primal Quest Montana shown in it's full high-definition glory. The race is set to begin airing on Saturday, August 8 at 10:30 AM ET and again at 2:30 PM ET, and will run for four consecutive weekends.

The four, half-hour long episodes will retell the story of last year's Primal Quest, which took place in the beautiful Montana mountains. The 60 coed teams of four raced across a 500+ mile course that featured plenty of altitude, wicked white water, and crazy action from start to finish. The usual adventure racing disciplines are on display, with plenty of running, mountain biking, and kayaking of course, but these endurance athletes will also take on a river boarding course, a tough orienteering section, and a world-class rock climbing wall.

I've seen all the episodes already, and they are excellent. I haven't seen them in HD however, so I'm looking forward to rewatching them on HDNet, who have some of the best picture quality around. The amazing footage, caught by a crack team of cameramen, is going to look amazing, and I know everyone on the PQ team is excited to have the race shown in the States in high-def for the first time.

Primal Quest Montana begins airing the week before Primal Quest Badlands, which is set to take place in South Dakota beginning on the 14th of August. The course this year is going to be longer and tougher than ever, with more than 600 miles of trail to cover. And watch for a BIG announcement coming in the next few days that will change up the leaderboard heading into Primal Quest. This year's race is going to be the most competitive yet!

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Primal Quest Media Registration Is Now Open

As many of you know, one of the projects that I'm involved in is a little adventure race called Primal Quest. Last year I had the opportunity to be a part of this event for the first time when traveled to Montana to work as the Media Director for the race, and I can tell you that it was quite an experience. The athletes that are involved in PQ are amazing from top to bottom, and watching them tear up the course over the ten days that the race runs was an impressive thing to see.

Now, we're less than a month away from Primal Quest Badlands, and it's going to be even more epic this year. The race gets underway on August 14th when co-ed teams of four set out to run, mountain bike, paddle, climb, swim and spelunk their way, non-stop, across 600 miles of some of the most impressive backcountry you'll find anywhere on the planet. South Dakota's Badlands and Black Hills will play host to the race, which has been called "the World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition", which I can tell you is a pretty fair moniker.

Late last week we posted the registration form for any media who are interested in covering Primal Quest. The race makes for quite a story, as these athletes are amongst the toughest in the world, and most take part in the race just for the challenge and fun of it. The fact that the race runs day and night, without stopping, only adds to the challenge and makes what they do all the more impressive.

Anyway, if anyone is interested in joining us in South Dakota as a member of the press looking to cover the race, be sure to fill out the form. And if you have any further questions, feel free to drop me a note at: kraig.becker@ecoprimalquest.com.

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Inside Primal Quest Video Line-Up

While back I mentioned that ecoprimalquest.tv had launched and would be showing all kinds of videos from past PQ races online, as well as fresh, new adventure racing content, in the days and weeks leading up to the start of Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT in August. Today, the team behind Inside Primal Quest has announced the schedule of videos that will be airing this week. Check them out below.

Friday, June 12th – Now Showing…Primal Quest Badlands Presented by SPOT
Saturday, June 13th – Traffic Jam - Primal Quest Utah 2006
Sunday, June 14th - Don Mann introduces Primal Quest Badlands
Monday, June 15th – Introducing Primal Quest Montana 2008
Tuesday, June 16th – Adventure Racer - The Human Powered ATV
Wednesday, June 17th – Pre-race Jitters – Primal Quest Telluride 2002
Thursday, June 18th – The Gun Goes Off – Primal Quest Lake Tahoe 2003

Even more exciting for fans of Primal Quest, and adventure racing in general is the news that beginning on August 10th, Inside Primal Quest will be at the race in South Dakota to bring you video updates every 12 hours so you can watch Primal Quest Badlands as the race unfolds. This will really change the way we follow the sport, as it is often very difficult to get news from the course or to know what is happening during an event, other than watching the leaderboards and trying to determine where teams are at any given time. We're hoping that Inside Primal Quest will be the Sports Center of adventure racing while PQ is underway. The prospects are very exciting!

Also, if you are into social networking, you can get the latest Inside Primal Quest updates at Twitter, Facebook, Digg and Zherpa. And you can sign up for the weekly prize drawing at www.ecoprimalquest.tv. This week’s prize is the Primal Quest Montana Presented by SPOT 2008 DVD. The producers of Inside Primal Quest are also taking video submissions. If you want to see yourself, your team, your gear or your sponsor featured on Inside Primal Quest, contact John Stann at john@racedayfilms.net.

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Introducing Inside Primal Quest!

Adventure racing and Primal Quest fans will dig this one. I'm happy to announce that Inside Primal Quest is now live at EcoPrimalQuest.tv with a great line-up of video from previous PQ events, with much more video to come soon.

The site is a collaboration between Primal Quest and Race Day Films, who have a long history of filming adventure races. The aim of Inside Primal Quest it to continue to add content in the days and weeks ahead, leading up to the August 14th start of Primal Quest Badlands Presented by SPOT. Expect team profiles, regular news updates, and plenty more.

Primal Quest is known as the "World's Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition", and the 2009 edition will only add to that moniker. The ten day, 600-mile non-stop race will have the best adventure athletes in the world going head to head on foot, bike, and kayak through the Badlands of South Dakota. The course will be long and demanding, as you would expect, and Inside Primal Quest will be there, leading up to the race, during the event, and after, to covering Primal Quest like never before.

Stay tuned!

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Primal Quest News: 2008 DVD now available and Twitter Feed!

A few tidbits on Primal Quest to mention while I'm still working on catching up this week. First, the Primal Quest 2008 DVD is now available to order on the PQ website. The DVD contains 4 episodes, each 26 minutes in length, covering the entire race as it went down last summer in Big Sky Country. The film crew that covered the race is amongst the best in the world at covering adventure sports, and they've worked on projects such as the Eco-Challenge, Survivor, The Deadliest Catch, and more. The DVD can be ordered from the PQ Store by clicking here. I got my copy last night, but haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but may go for a Primal Quest watch party with friends this weekend.

Yesterday we also posted a story that was put together by the folks out in South Dakota that re-affirms that adventure racing, and Primal Quest, are not just for men. Fans of the sport already know that some of the best racers are women, but the article does a great job of highlighting that for new fans of the sport as well.

Finally, PQ has had a Twitter feed for some time, but it has mostly gone quiet in recent months, but I'm going to change that, and start using it as a tool. If you're interested, you can follow the feed by clicking here. And my friends who knew about my reluctance to use Twitter can now continue to laugh at me once again.

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Change in Schedule for Primal Quest

We've had a slight change in schedule for Primal Quest Badlands presented by SPOT this year. I posted an announcement to the PQ website this morning that the start of the race has actually been moved up one day to Friday, August 14th to help better facilitate the event. That also means that the race will now end on Sunday, August 23rd, as opposed to the following Monday. Should work out better for everyone involved.

We've posted a schedule with a few more details on the site, and looking it over, you can get a few insights into what is going to happen. For instance, we're going to load up the busses starting at 3 AM on Aug. 14 and teams will be shipped out to the starting line to promptly get underway at 5:30 AM. This is a completely different kind of start from Primal Quest Montana, in which the teams started off at mid-morning instead. And on the schedule for the 13th is a "Surprise Event". What could that possibly be? I'm not saying! But you'll notice that we're holding the maps and passports until after that event! ;)

On a personal note, I'm excited about the change in schedule. August 14th also happens to be my birthday, and this year is one of those monumental ones. I'm going to be turning 40 on the day the race gets started, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate than to kick off Primal Quest Badlands. Should be a blast and I can't wait.

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Preview the Primal Quest TV Episodes Now

The television broadcast of Primal Quest Montana will begin soon in 35 countries worldwide on the Voom Network, with four half-hour long episodes that capture amazing footage of the race in an equally amazing setting. But you can now get a sneak preview of each of those episodes online by clicking here.

The team that filmed, edited, and produced the television episodes are amongst the best in the business when it comes to adventure sports, and the quality shows through in these episodes. Fans of the sport of adventure racing are in for a real treat when the show begins airing and the DVD become available this spring.

For someone who isn't familiar with adventure racing, these previews, and the episodes that will follow, are a great place to get acquainted with not only the sport, but with Primal Quest and the athletes who take part in it. These are some of the greatest endurance athletes on the planet, and you will be very impressed with what they go through just to reach the finish line.

The Voom Network has, unfortunately, ceased operations in the U.S., so the airing of the four episodes is not yet scheduled here. While I can't say a lot about what is happening to get Primal Quest broadcast here, I can tell you that there are on going negotiations right now, with several interested broadcast partners, so hopefully we'll have an announcement on the subject soon.

For now, enjoy these previews though, as they are a glimpse of what you can expect in the full episodes, and really help to demonstrate what Primal Quest is all about.

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The "Eco" side of Primal Quest

I had the distinct pleasure of speaking witn Anna Brones from Wend Magazine a few weeks back. We talked about Primal Quest's commitment to the environment, and the steps we take to ensure that we have as minimal an impact on the places we race through as possible.

Anna wrote a really nice article based on our conversation and has posted it in Wend's Greenery section of their website, which is dedicated to examining sustainable practices in our lives that will help protect the environment and preserve it for the future.

Essentially, I told Anna, as you can read in the story, that PQ adheres to the same ecological code as set down by the United States Adventure Racing Association, which, for lack of a better phrase, a "leave no trace" approach. Teams risk disqualification if they do not adhere to the rules and they are required to pack out everything they pack in, and I do mean everything.

The best part of it is that the athletes have absolutely zero issues with this policy. They are as committed as the race staff to protecting the environments, after all if we don't take good care of them we won't have any places to race in the future. The teams simply love the outdoors, or they wouldn't be racing in Primal Quest, and they all understand the value of being good stewards to the land.

Thanks for the awesome article Anna! It is much appreciated! :) (Photo by Mike Hedge)

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