Primal Quest Montana 2008
Adventure Racing Concepts
 

 

7-2-08

Where to begin...shower, that is for sure. of course the hot water ran out as i was 4th. DOH!  anyways, got the first layer of filth off for now. 2nd...Fat Tire Skinny Dip. This day is gonna be fun. I have a remarkable amount of energy right now as I am so stoked to have finished this race. I honestly cannot believe we finished the long course in a respectable but tentative 21st place. My personal inside goal was top 15, but i quickly realized that with no paddling, and an immense amount of the hardest trekking I have ever done day after day after day, that merely finishing this race was going to be a lifetime accomplishment. After completing only 1 of our previous 3 PQ's (San Juan Islands, WA), quitting this race was not an option despite how attrocious I and my teammates felt at one point or another. We seemed to really perform well on the course as we would be swapping between 21st and 35th place for the first few days.

I felt we were capable of higher, but the epic trekking sections would destroy us every time and it was hard to come off of a 30 hour trekking section where you were literally soaking wet, out of food for hours, and had to slog down some stupid road for miles in the dark only to come into transition at 3 or 4 am and trying to motivate to go ride our bikes in the ice cold hours. Of course we are going to rest and try to remotivate for the day's next task. We definitely could have slept less at times, but the team felt that resting for 1 or 2 more hours would far outweigh the gains in going out unprepared and having to sleep in a ditch somewhere instead. We did this a lot as well, but often for anywhere from 10-30 minutes at a time. You would be really surprised to see how much difference a ten minute dirt nap makes. You would also be surprised with how quick you can fall asleep when you know you are only getting a 10 minute break.

Anyways, the team and our stellar crew worked its' collective butt off this whole race. We had very respectable bike split times and decent trekking times. Everything went smooth and we raced our own race. the first few days we got caught up in chasing teams down and trying to drop, realizing that 2 hours later positions would get swapped around as we were moving slow. After day 1 we quickly realized that we just need to race our own race, make the cutoff times with time to spare, rest and eat whenever possible, and things would shake out as they should in terms of rank and placing.

Today's finish was by far the most emotional and satisfying of any race we have completed. The suffering and pain we went through in this race was unchartered territory for all of us. Tara and I have done well over 100 races and cannot ever come close to comparing this to anything we have done. It was really hard for Tara and I to not get very emotional this whole final day as we reflected on races past, past failures/accomplishments and what our future in this sport is. We have done and accomplished our primary goal...to complete and race in the world's biggest race. Even though we competed and finished Seattle PQ 3 years ago, the circumstances with the way the race played out, the race was not really even close to the difficulty we all went thru in Montana.

I need some lunch, so I will try to post again later after awards and the post race banquet. I must say THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. You have all brought us to tears in the transition area and on the course after our crew did such a great job getting us feedback and your awesome words of encouragement. You all were here with us, even though your are all around the country. Thank you to our extended support "family", you really did have a big part in keeping us going.

Talk soon,

El Capitan
D

7-2-08  

They're here!!! They crossed the finish line at 11:18:43 according to the
official Bill Florence watch!!

With many hugs and photos blasting away, we greeted the racers as they crossed
with a big Arizona flag held up by Tara and Jane. They're in great spirits.
Jim headed immediately to lie down in the condo in his words "before something
bad happens".

It was great to see them back safe and (relatively) sound. This afternoon is
the awards banquet at 3pm. ARC is listed as in 21st place in the full-course
teams. Only 25 teams will be full course finishers, out of the original 56.
An awesome accomplishment.

I'm sure they'll be adding blogs and pics etc after a shower or two and maybe a
beer, so keep checking the website. And thanks to Sean for the website, it's
been great to have a way to let everyone at home know what's up.

Congratulations to ARC!! WhewHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

Lee, Bill, and Joy

7-2-08  

It is 10:29am and ARC have just entered the gate to the resort, which means
they're TWENTY MINUTES FROM THE FINISH!!!

We'll be out there cheering for all of you.

Lee and the gang

7-2-08

Last race day!! 6:30am PQ HQ

 Team ARC finished the very long last trek last night, arriving at Ennis Lake at about 1am. Twenty hours of hiking, which has been typical for the teams on this leg. The TA reports that they're still sleeping this morning, along with 4 other teams. The race ends at 3pm today, so that gives them all plenty of time to get some good sleep and do the final bike leg which is taking teams between 3 and 5 hours. So depending on when they get themselves up and going, we're expecting them somewhere around noon. Bill, Joy, and I are here and really excited to welcome them home and give their smelly bodies a big hug!! 

Me, I'm headed up to the top of Lone Peak today to retrieve a ham repeater that was set there for the race. Unlike Dennis and the rest of the crew on Day 1, I'll be taking a snow-cat half way up, then walking the remainder of the distance. 

It's almost over.... I'm sure the team will be anxious to rest up and head back home to see all of you. I know I am! Lee

7-1-08

ARC was not able to complete the ropes course, there was one team ahead of them in line waiting to go onto the ropes when the course was closed.  They got back to our site at about 12:30.  This is the first TA that they had to wake anyone up, Kevin and I both fell asleep on the trailer floor, no sleeping bags, sleeping pads, or pillows.  We got them some food ready then Tara had her feet worked on for about an hour while Dennis prepped their packs.  I'm not sure how Jim and Jane do it, but they always seem to have everything ready to go without us doing much.

They then slept for a couple of hours and headed out for the final trek at 5 am.  They are pushing hard to get this done and have already passed the checkpoint, but still have 20+ miles left on this Trek.  We were expecting to see them at around 5am tomorrow but they seem to be moving really fast with a bunch of other teams.  Now we have no clue when they will be in but probably befor midnight.  That will give them plenty of time to complete the final bike. 

 

7-1-08

PQ HQ, Tues 7/01, 1pm

Back from a very eventful and tiring three days at the climbing/orienteering area. Last night Team ARC arrived by bike looking well and really excited to get onto the climbing course. Only a few mins after arriving, Jane came and sat with me, all ready to go, and we chatted while her teammates geared up and grabbed something to eat. She is the New Zealand version of the Every Ready Bunny, that girl! Their plan was to run/hike to the base of the climb 6m from the TA to get an earlier spot on the increasing lineup for the ropes.

 They'd been gone less than an hour when serious clouds began to build over the ridgelines. Scott (another TA volunteer) and I began watching the two ridges for lightening as thunder began to roll in from the north. Scott spotted the first strike, and then before I could radio the rap site, three large bolts struck on the ridge about a hundred feet above the rap, with other strikes soon after to the north of Storm Castle (aptly named, it seems) heading for the climb site. We radioed the sites, and the crews began to clear people off the ropes and get them off the ridges, but with three pitches, two ropes each, it took about 45 mins before the climb was cleared. Then everyone hunkered down under the trees to wait it out. Team ARC was by now at the base of the cliff, second in line to begin climbing.

 Unfortunately the storm continued to slam the area for the next hour, until Jay (the climbing director) finally decided for safety's sake to close the climb/rap area for the night and get people off the mountain, which basically shut it down permanently, since it was scheduled to shut down at 6am this morning. Sadly, Team ARC returned to the TA having had no chance to show their stuff on the rope course. The earlier racers had described the course as "spectacular" with 1200 ft of clear space below them and three terrific pitches of 5.7 and jugging, and a rap of 170 ft overlooking the river. They got some sleep and headed out for the last long and rather brutal trek (aren't they all?) at 5am and are now making really good time along the course. We'll expect them to finish the trek maybe around midnight, then 3-5 hrs of biking and it's done. We'll email the minute they're here.  Lee

7-1-08

Hi All,

From communications and race HQ last night was an interesting night. PQ had implemented a new cutoff that was confusing racers and support, 6:00am departure to the ropes section or 9:00am departure to the trek to ennis or they get short coursed and driven around to ennis by support crews. We also had 4 teams that were back at TA11 by the bridgers, they weren’t going to make the cutoffs unless they moved out but didn’t and wanted to skip legs etc. and still be on the short course list. HQ put a quick end to that two of them headed for TA12 on their bikes one just stayed put planning on driving to TA12 after the cutoff and then unranked over to ennis. The other team started biking on prohibited roads towards ennis so we had to stop them and get their support to come pick them up. In the midst of all this. . . . 

Lighting, it started on the ropes course and Jay the ropes leader had to pull everyone off the fin because they were all exposed. This included several teams that were mid face on parts of the multiple pitches they had rigged plus all the ropes guides. This was around 10pm and it took over an hour to pull everyone to a safe location. They waited for about another hour while a huge backup formed at the base of the climb, finally around midnight Jay decided that by the time the lighting stopped and they reset people to their previous locations they’d be bumping into the cutoffs. There was no way they could process even part of the backup and allow them to make the cutoffs so they called the ropes section. 

ARC was in the backup and returned with everyone to TA 12/13, looking this morning it looks like they got a quick start and are heading to ennis lake full course and should be able to finish today yea ARC!!!!!

The race HQ people are doing higher math to determine places so the leaderboard (which is down for the moment) should be taken with a grain of salt. They are working to jury all the time adjustments but with all the issues it’s taking a while.

Long and short of it is that ARC is looking to finish full course ranked sometime late today, they’re effort is just amazing, final placement may be slightly delayed but there’s no questioning the willpower of ARC

Bill F.

6-30-08

Update from the Crew - 9pm on 6/30

 Yesterday, was another brutal ‘death march’ through the Bridger’s.  They were completely exposed on that ridge the whole day.  I (Kevin) dumped snow out of a CamelBak bladder last night (I think it had twigs and tree bark in it also.  Oh well, whatever it takes.).

 All the positive words and thoughts have worked.  They banked some really good sleep and food last night prepping for the final push.  New weird food request – Wendy’s at 12:30am.  Everything but the Wal-Mart was closed so they ended up eating Filet Mignon steak’s, mashed potatoes and garlic bread at 2AM (except Jane, she had some kind of soup.  She’s amazing, I don’t know where she gets the energy).

 They’ve kicked it up big time and are making sure there’s no question of being short coursed.  PQ organizers have introduced a new cutoff saying that teams need to be off the ropes and on the final trek by 9am tomorrow or they’ll be short coursed.  We expect them off the ropes sometime around 2 or 3 AM and they plan on doing a quick TA and getting into the final trek.  Current strategy is to take sleeping bags and sleep as needed during the last trek.  Lee’s reporting teams are planning on being on that leg for 30+ hours.

 Got to go.  A storm’s rolling through that may close the ropes course.  I need to get back to the TA with the pizza and hoagie’s they wanted for the trek.

 Hopefully, Ennis Lake will have coverage and we can update again.

 Matt and Kevin

6-30-08  

Hi All,
I’m writing from the communications center where I’m pulling a noon to midnight shift keeping everyone in contact, passing messages between individuals, and dealing with 911 and help messages.  Lee has moved to TA12/TA13 at the climbing site providing on site communications to that very busy location.

ARC is on the bike after leaving the Bridger Mountains,  I haven’t been able to talk to them directly since the crazies but Lee talked with them at the start of the Bridgers and will soon see them again at the climb site.   From our eye in the sky SPOT they’re still moving strong especially on the bike sections but cutoffs for the full course are looming.  It looks like ARC should be clear of the next cutoff at the climbing site if they’re feeling good after their current ride.  There are a full 11 teams that will have to really push to make the full course at TA12/13.  It’s just amazing to see these athletes, from NIKE down to the last place team keep getting up and pushing down the course with knee problems, tendonitis, hamburger feet, even after an endow crash that knocks you out they still have the willpower to keep going.  The competitors here are amazing we’ve all seen Jim and Jane take off on a call after a hard training day, just picture 200+ people that get up and go after 7 days of continuous hard training.  Even more amazing is the great attitude these guys have even after 300+ miles.  All these racers deserve a cheer for the amazing effort they’re putting out.

While I’ve been writing….. talking……. Writing……. Talking,  ARC has moved up into the mountains and are almost to Little Bear Lake CP #24. 

 ARC Amazing

 Bill F.

6-28-08

 hi everyone. we did a huge trek on thursday way up high in the mountains. there was at least 10 to 15 feet of snow and some ice lake glacier things. pics should be posted soon. our crew is working their asses off and the pics take a bit of time when they have extra time. travelling on that snow was brutal but it was the most beautiful place i have ever seen. it was absolutely frigid as we were having to cross rivers with 33 degree water. oh yeah, no bridges sometimes so we were going thru them up to our knees. it has been constantly having soaked feet and my feet are once again giving me problems. i have had a few blisters which is no big deal, one of them was the size of a grape and attached to the end of my little toe. then another one must have formed and then exploded during the trek yeserday. it hurt soooo bad so we field dressed it and kept rolling. it felt fine once we taped it up. but i have done some significant damage to the inerds of my heels and the balls of my feet. they are incredibly bruised internally and going downhill is brutal. this has led me to hiking with a funny gait and now i somehow have this lovely muscle issue on the my left front shin. apparently the muscle is detaching itself from the bone and this can lead to a very major problem that would require surgery if it completely detaches. luckily today was a 95 mile bike section and it didn't affect the leg downthere. we have a big trek tonite that we are going to start about 1am. i am wrapping it up with a bandage and taking a "vitamin cocktail" every 2-4 hours to take the edge off. the bike section today was very interesting, on the pavement for 40 miles, thru a couple funky towns. had a dude and his 85 year old dad stop us and tell us how excited they were about primal quest. totally cool, he was so excited to talk to us. onto dirt and thru some beautiful countryside and then slogging up this horrible dirt road around a bunch of farms. it was really hot today and i think we didn't drink enough so the last 15 miles were brutal. esp ecially for Tara and I. 

we are on target time wise to finish the long course still. it would be a big letdown to not be able to finish the long course after we have been thru so much. i am personally a bit dissapointed that our placing keeps slipping, but there is usually a big shakedown over the last couple days so no big deal. finishing this race is always the biggest goal. placings come second. the teams that are racing this year are very good and we have been pushed to and beyond our limits every day. we have been sleeping a bit more than normal, but we are really needing it after killing ourselves to get thru the day. our team deserves to be higher placed, but i take responsibility for moving too slow on foot. I have tried to push us harder on the bike and our bike splits have been really respectible. the team seems to be having fun most of the time. we have had some incredibly trying moments at the end of really long sections. lots of sleep monsters and sleeping in ditches for 5-15 minutes until you are so cold you need to move on. it seems that after we kill ourselves for 20-30 hours the race course takes you along this horrible 6 to 10 mile section of road and we always hit it at 3 am and it feels like you are walking on a treadmill into hell for hours at a time. mind games all the time it seems! oh well, onward we go. sorry this stuff is so fragmented. i am very sleep deprived and fuzzy in the brain. also trying to figure out why my tongue is swollen and i am slurring. ahhh, the joys of expedition racing. 

tee hee...

dennis
el capitan

6-28-08 Update from the Crew - 6pm on 6/28

Long days and nites for all of us here. The team is looking great. They're incredibly upbeat. Tara's comment on the Crazy's, 'it was a double edged sword, epic and heinous at the same time'. Each of their individual strengths are really showing through. Dennis is the warrior on bike, Jane the warrior on foot ('I haven't had any issues on the trek's yet' after the Crazy's), Jim the constant navigator and Tara the team Mom as she calls herself.

Jim and Jane have pushed themselves harder and farther than ever before. Jim kept walking into the ditch last night coming into the last TA because he'd bonked so hard. He had to be held by the arm's and guided home.

We caught up on laundry again today and hit Wal-Mart again. Pierogie's are the new food request. Dennis requested twice baked potato's but I think that's beyond our capabilities. We can't get them enough real food. The word on this next trek is to carry lot's of water. It won't be available like it's been throughout the rest of the course.

Keep sending good comments to their site. We're getting all of it to them. They're going to keep pushing their bodies but are near their mental breaking point.

Crew out,

Kevin, Matt and Dylan


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6-28-08  12:30pm
Whew!! What a morning! First, I heard from Bill F. that Team ARC were pretty beat coming out of the Crazies last night so they got in some good sleep and have headed out this morning looking much fresher for the bike to the Bridgers. Hopefully Matt will have a chance to catch his breath and get a good update onto the blog.

We've had to send in SAR for three different teams this morning. One person was evacuated with serious HAPE requiring EMS response and a helo ride,  another team was just totally exhausted and unable to move a team member, so they were evacuated by SAR on foot. The last team became separated during the night in the Bridger mountains and moved in two directions, but we've now found  them all and they're fine. Imagine coordinating three rescues at once from base  -- it was quite the chaos around here for a while. But the comms/SAR people here at HQ are totally great, huge amounts of experience, and it shows in an emergency. 
Never rains but it pours, right? The good news is that ARC is moving well and
doing a FANTASTIC job!!

Lee at PQ HQ

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6-28-08 9:40am
I checked on the extra bike leg issue. This morning HQ decided to dump the additional biking, wisely. So no extra 8 hr. bike. Nike has slowed down considerably and is now expected to finish sometime late this evening,  possibly 10pm-ish.

LR

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PQ HQ June 28, 7am

I was heading for the climbing site this morning but it's been postponed because teams are backed up in the Bridgers and many (about half) are still working their way through the Crazy's, so it'll be a good 24 hrs before climbing gets busy. I'm going out there anyway today to see three teams through, but  that'll be about it.

The teams heading into the Bridgers to walk the ridge were warned last night about ice and snow at night, and helmets were mandatory for night  travel. It's a knife edge at the top of the ridge, but the teams can opt to walk the trail which is a little below. But it's still very steep and  The news around here is that there will be an additional 8 hr single track section added to the course to make up for the loss of the water course, somewhere around Ennis Lake (just before the last biking section home). It hasn't gone out to the support teams yet, so it's probably not official, but you're not in a position to tell anyone.  Personally, if I were a team, I would be royally pissed off thinking  that I'm so close to home and then have to add another 8 hrs. But I'm sure they'll  all take it in stride (or stroke).

More soon -- I'll keep you posted. Just got a call that another team is in trouble so I've got to take off.

LR

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6/27 Montana PQ HQ.
I know the blog is focused on Team ARC, but I thought I'd write just a short note about Bill and Joy. Since they arrived, they've been our main roving team supplying ham radio comms to the distant sites that we're having difficulty reaching. They've been working literally day and night, doing everything from bringing water to teams, to providing comms relays, to having Joy help with team tracking in check points when they get busy. Everyone is so impressed with them, and they've made a huge contribution to the race. So well done, you two!! This race would have been a lot less safe if you hadn't volunteered at the last minute (or was it that someone else volunteered you??). Amazing people, great friends.

LR

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6-27-08  6/27 4pm PQ Montana HQ
I spent the morning out on the course with one of the media people. We watched Team Merrell coming out of the Bridger Mountains, several members are hobbling badly but in spite of that, they spent less than an hour at the check point before heading off on their bikes. Pretty impressive. Lots of press around to take pictures, videos, etc. Most of the teams are now bunched up in the Crazy mountains. Bill F. will be at the checkpoint the rest of the day so he should be there when Team ARC arrives. Tomorrow I'm manning comms at the climb site. I definitely want to be there to watch Team ARC doing the climb and rap. I'll take pictures if I can get close enough to the site, which is about a mile away from the CP/TA.

It's such beautiful weather here, couldn't be better. Team Nike is flying. They're expected to cross the finish late this evening or early morning, so I'll be out there to see them home. And you can bet we'll all be there to see ARC cross, you can count on it!!

Miss you all --

Lee

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6-26-08  Hi All,

I’m writing this from a parking lot in Bozeman in my truck while waiting for some food. Last night I was providing communications in the Yellowstone valley and ARC was looking strong heading out for the bike trip to the east side of the crazy mtns. The latest update from HQ puts them about 1/3 of the way through the crazy trek. I worked an extraction for team 21 the night before until around 3am and am back in Bozeman because we just had to extract team 3 (third place) from the bridger mountains by Helicopter. I’ll be heading to the west side of the crazy’s next and should see ARC come out tonight sometime. I’ll be sending in some pictures and took a short video at carbella when they departed for the bike section. ARC is looking strong on a very hard course keep it up!

ARC All the Way!

Bill Florence


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6-26-08   We were grocery shopping in Linvingston and decided to go to Arby's right next door.  When we pulled in we see Tara Running out the door of Arbys yelling Crew! Crew!  They are doing amazing on the ride, I think they had 35 miles or so left.  We should be seeing them by 7 or 8 tonight.  They are planning on a good meal and some good sleep. Team ARC sends there love out to Emma, they got to see your picture this morning.  Send more pictures if you can.  

Matt
Kevin
Dylan

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6-26-08  Hello all...news from the trenches. hard to get any info to you guys frequently. this is the first time in transition that i haven't been shattered. we hammered on the bikes today. not a good bike in the morning after 40 hours of trekking. (absolutely heinous). but we got into transition, our crew took care of us with some food and we recharged and pounded out over 80 miles in just under 6 hours. mostly on pavement, but we really felt good and worked great as a team. we did a little on the road paceline training and we rocked it. all is good. we have a really hard nite ahead of us. 3 to 4 hour bike, and then 20-24 hours of high mountain trekking. should be a rough nite, but we will make it happen. we have had some really low points for all, but after 90 hours of racing we have had only about 6 hours of sleep. we are trying to bank about 4 hours right now as we know we need it and we finished the bike way faster today than we predicted. 

anyways, thank you all and keep sending the kind words. you have no idea how much it helps.


dennis
el capitan

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6-26 Update

The team came into TA6 at about 9am this morning, after being out for over 40 hours. Everyone looked good but tired. They trekked about 40 miles through some pretty rugged terrain and then rode 30 miles after having an unsupported TA, where we were allowed to drop gear and food for them. We dropped off a bunch of food (cold pizza included) and water.

Jim's navigation on the trek was perfect, at one point they passed about 6 teams. They are all ready to be off of their feet and onto the bikes. Today they are trying to get an 80 mile ride in before dark to get the next TA. They left TA6 at around 11 and have already done at least 35 miles and its only 2:30(We drove part of the same rode they were on). 

The whole team is getting tired of their standard race foods (crackers, chips, candies, energy bars, pretty much anything high calorie), and wanting some real food. At the next TA we are going to try and have a good assortment of pasta, potatoes, pizza, rice, etc prepackaged and ready to go. 

Matt
Kevin
Dylan


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PQ HQ -- 1pm
Quick update -- if you're watching the spots on tracking, it will look like ARC
is sitting still at the TA. Their spot isn't tracking properly again. I'm
assured by Bill F. that they left the TA several hours ago and they're well on
their way up the biking section and were doing great. We're going to have the
next TA try once again to reset their spot.

Nice to have some inside information on ARC.

Lee

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6/26 11am Blog from PQ headquarters

I heard briefly from Matt by cell phone that the ARC team is now in the transition area getting ready to begin their long bike section that will replace kayaking on the Yellowstone River -- flat as a pancake and on roads the whole way. The word from the TA is that the racers are all in remarkably good
shape so far. Beagles had one racer with a blown knee and had to be evacuated, and a couple of other teams have dropped as well, several going on as unranked with three. But no serious injuries for any racers to date. Hopefully Matt will have some time to get to a computer to give a better update on the ARC team later today.

Last night I went out to a bunch of the TAs and CPs on either side of the Crazy mountains to set up comms. We walked into the Crazy's for an hour or so, up the trail the racers will take out. It's absolutely beautiful country, amazing mountains. And a GREAT tavern in the town of Clyde nearby!!

Lee at PQ HQ

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Update from the Support Crew

ARC had some minor issues on the "duckys", Dennis and Tara's boat needed more air from about 10 minutes into the paddle and Jim and Jane's boat was extremely low on air for a long section of the paddle. Jim couldn't sit up or his half of the boat would collapse in on him so he had to lean way back and wedge himself into the floor to give the boat some rigidity. That meant Jane had to paddle a ton by herself. They came into TA3 and were getting ready for the Riverboard section when it was cancelled. There were some mixed feelings about this. Tara was bummed, Dennis was indifferent and Jim and Jane were happy. 

We helped them get ready and all packed into the van to drive to TA4. Here they took a few hours to regroup, eat some food and fix there packs for the next trekking section. Jim and Jane plotted out the next 40+ mile trek. They planned on pushing hard until after dark and then getting some sleep out in the woods.

We drove into town last night and stayed at hotel, resupplied, did dishes, laundry and finally got a few pictures uploaded. There are more on the way but we need to head out to the next TA. Also, the broken tooth was another team. The worst injury to this point is a blister on Jim's heel. They're doing great and still smiling.

Matt
Kevin
Dylan

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The first river section (rubber ducks followed by riverboarding) kicked everyone's butt. So much so that they closed down the river course about half way through. Actually, only a handful of racers finished the water portion. The rest had a really tough time getting through, in fact they closed the course and pulled everyone off so most people didn't get onto the river boards, and none of them minded too much. We had multiple river rescues going on, from swimmers getting pulled into streamers to serious hypothermia.

Jim, Jane, Tara and Dennis got through the first part of the course on the ducks, but got pulled (happily) before they hit the river boards. I couldn't believe that anyone was going into that white water.

I threw many rope bags to wayward river boarders and others who had lost their boards completely, and helped with a rather gnarly rescue of two guys who got thrown from their boat into a strainer and were stranded. So I got some rescues in after all!! Glad everyone was okay.

They've cut out all other water sections of the course now, the water is too high and no one wants to have another set of tv crews there filming away while we pull racers out of the water one by one. Mountain biking will replace the next long water section.

Talked with J2 and the team before they took off on the next hiking section.  They're all doing fine, smiling and quite glad to be on solid ground again.

Me, I need some sleep.

More soon -- Lee

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A very hectic day at PQ HQ. I spent some time with ARC when they came through CP3. They had a great time on the mountain. Then, according to their tracker, they sat at CP3 for about 4 hrs which wasn’t so, and then magically jumped 20 miles forward back into 22nd. By the way, the trackers are as much as an hour behind realtime, but it gives you a good idea of where the teams are, at least some time ago. We’ve already had one emergency (not much, a broken tooth – does that count??). Other than that, mostly we’re taking care of CPs and TAs calling for supplies and, of course, toilet paper. What excitement. 

We’ll keep everyone posted. 

Lee, Bill, and Joy 


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10:05am the racers are off up to the summit of Lone Peak!! The fog cleared, the helicopter circled above, and a big explosive charge went off from the peak to signal the start. I had the privilege of checking in team ARC earlier this morning, they’re excited and ready to go. With some big long hugs and a few tears between us (okay, okay, we admit it….) they lined up at the start. It’s a beautiful sunny day. I’ll keep you posted on their progress.

Lee 

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Wow, I have done a lot of races and the nerves usually are pretty tame before the start. I am ready for this thing to go. I am really nervous about this, but that should go away when the gun goes off. I think a lot of it is the pressure of the fact that this is the best team we have ever brought to this race and i need to perform and not let my teammates down. I am ready, physically and mentally. We just all need to work together and keep each other moving. Thank you all for your support and let's get it on...

Dennis 
El Capitan

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Hi All, 

Dennis the team captain here. Hopefully this note will find all of our awesome friends and family well. I just want to say please send out some prayers and thoughts our way. This is by far going to be the hardest adventure race in the world ever. It is for sure going to be true test of our team's mental and physical tenacity. It is staggering to look at the number of maps, elevation gain, and potential treachery we will face. The initial numbers are out and they look roughly like 200 miles of running/hiking/mountaineering with 50,000 feet of elevation gain. That is 2 times up Mount Everest from Sea Level. Good God...Then we have 200 miles of mountain biking with only 15,000 feet of climbing but we may be snow shoeing with our bicycles as the bike trails are under snow still. Ugh! Throw in 100 miles of kayaking in rivers that are completely swollen and over 150% of their average flow rate right now. River boarding in 37 degree water...then factor in hungry bears who have been hibernating. Wolves that are not used to seeing humans in their territory. Oh yeah, and if you are afraid of the Grizzly Bears, you should really be afraid of the 2000 pound meese, mooses, whatever the hell it is, that are historically more aggressive and deadly than grizzly bears. fun stuff...

anyways...a sincere thank you to our AMAZING crew Matt, Kevin and Dylan. Thank you to our staff at the shop that is keeping it all together while we are gone. Our amazing network of friends and family, Jason Devore of Authority Zero for providing me with some new music to help get me through the long cold nights, Sean who has thrown together an awesome site for pictures and updates. And of course to the best teammates I have ever raced with Jim & Jane, and of course my wife and constant motivation, Tara. We share a bond that is so strong and when this race is over and we cross the finish line, it will by far the biggest racing accomplishment of our lives. It will certainly be life changing and I am so proud to be able to race along side them. 

Hopefully the online tracking info on the PQ site will be as good as year's past so you can cheer us on from your home or office. send us words of encouragement thru Sean's email (sean@fawcetts.us). our crew will print those for us and get them to us when they feel we could use it most. you have NO idea how important it can be to hear from home sometimes during these things. 

Alright guys, off to bed for my last sleep in a real bed for 10 days. Think good thoughts and send some love our way!

Can't wait for the post race party at the shop after we are recovered. thank you all again and we love you all...

Well, Montana has a LOT of snow, but even more water in the rivers, so much that they’re now above flood stage and some of the water course will be downright scary.  But that’s for later…  Right now, the main focus seems to be just getting everyone onto the course tomorrow morning.  It’ll be a miracle, as far as I can tell.  The place is like organized chaos, without any organization.  I’m working in communications and medical, so I’m getting called by both sides to do all sorts of stuff.  When I arrived, I found out that comms had a major problem because two local repeaters had been taken out by lightening strikes, so two large sections (and very dangerous ones) had no radio coverage.  We talked about using local ham repeaters, but then there were only three of us (the two guys organizing comms and me) who are ham licensed.  So I immediately co-opted Bill Florence and Joy Florence to be new volunteer recruits, even before they’d left Tucson!!  They’re here now, got all the cool schwag, and working their tails off.  Today Bill and I checked one of the first large river section of course to find out which repeaters worked best.  Imagine, SARA has managed to turn me into a techno geek, just like the rest of you!!  Other than that,  my main job has been to give the same safety briefing over and over and over and over again, to 58 teams.

Jim, Jane, Dennis, and Tara are here and ready for the race.  They completed all their skills and pack checks today and got their maps and passports late this afternoon, so we’re assuming that they’re pouring over maps right now.  Bill, Joy, and I are heading to bed, probably for the last full night of sleep before the chaos really begins.  We’ll keep you posted on J2’s progress. 

Lee, Bill, and Joy from chilly Montana 

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PQ 6/22 Skills Testing and Pre Race Meeting

We spent last night packing ten days of food to carry in our packs. That is a lot of zip lock baggies full of goodness and lots of calories. There isn’t any other time in my daily life that I can walk up and down the isles of the grocery store and compare nutrition labels on items to purposely find the items with the most amount of calories and fat per serving. All of the things you don’t usually let yourself indulge in…those are the types of things that fill our packs along with sandwiches and the occasional slice of cold pizza.

We got an early jump on the skills testing that had to be done. Medical waivers and surveys, emergency contact info, all the boring stuff. Then we were off to the ropes. We ascended a ski lift tower then switched over to a different rope for the rappel back down. All pretty easy stuff for the ARC crew. We all feel pretty comfortable hanging from ropes. 

Then we were off to the water skills. Let me just preface all of this with the fact that Big Sky was getting 8 to 10 inches of snow a day just two weeks ago. So although there is no snow on the ground here at 7500 ft. right now...all that has melted off and that is what were were swimming in! BRRRRR! We started on our river boards had to show off our maneuvering skills and then a "swim " across the lake. Sort of anticlimactic knowing what we get to be in later on in the race. Then we got into the white water boats again showing off our mad maneuvering skills. Because we all know how much white water time us Arizona folks get.... Tipping the boats over taking a dip in the drink again....very chilly. Getting back into the boats. We went through the same deal in the hard shell boats. Just when we thought we were done in the icy cold water....we had to tread water for 10 minutes while getting asked a variety of boat safety skills. 

That concluded the water section check in. We all hurried back to the room to take warm showers. (a luxury we wont get for the next ten days so we are stocking up) We all had lunch together and then relaxed for a bit before the pre race meeting. 

The meeting was pretty uneventful. We were reminded of the many dangerous animals in the Montana wilderness...Bear (grizzly, and black) Moose and Mountain Lions. We are required to carry a can of bear spray on our belt at all times during the race. I think we all hope we don't have to use it. 

We had the pleasure of getting a google earth fly over of the course on the big screen. That was pretty neat. We also had a short glimpse of video footage from the course.

On a side note...we were at dinner last night and our waitress told us that all of the "trouble" bears from Yellowstone are relocated into an area that we will be passing through. Luckily we will be passing through this area fairly early in the race. So we should still be fresh enough to fight them off. =) 

We will start the race tomorrow morning at 10 am. We will start out on foot and head straight up Lone Peak to the top. Snow shoes and crampons... Should be spectacular! We will have lots of photos to be posted for sure! 

That's all for now...gear to pack...and sleep to get.

Bring it on Montana!! 
Tara =)

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June 20/21 2008 PQ Montana

 After many hours spent in the van, on airplanes, and a few long layovers in airports we are finally here in Big Sky Montana for PQ 2008!  Not many photos to share yet…all of the “fun stuff starts” tomorrow. The terrain and the views here are unbelievable! It will definitely be an incredible course. Jim has done a lot of map research and has pointed out many ridgelines we will be traveling on, some rivers with some serious white water, and some rock ledges that we will surely spend some time hanging from. The boys are a bit nervous for the white water kayaking and swimming due to the water we saw today. I (Tara) however…am jazzed beyond imagination! BRING IT!!       

Although the boys are on their way back into Bozeman to pick up Jane at the airport we were able to check in a bunch of gear and go through a few stations already today with out her being here. This will surely make tomorrows check in process even quicker.

    So stayed tuned for more updates and photos to follow…