The Suburu Primal Quest, which is billed as the world's largest, most competitive
and best rewarded adventure race, will get underway tomorrow near Lake Tahoe,
California. One hundred co-ed teams of four will navigate through a 400+ mile
course kept secret until race day. The race will take up to ten days to complete.
Among the many participants will be a number of cross-country skiers. And best
of all, you can follow their progress online, in real-time!
Many of you already know about Justin Wadsworth. He is a member of Team Montrail,
one of the best adventure racing teams in the world. Team Montrail finished
second at last year's Primal Quest (before Justin joined the team). In June,
four of Justin's teammates won the Raid Gauloises in Kyrgyzstan, considered
the world's most prestigous adventure race. With Justin in the line-up, the
team has chalked up some pretty impressive results this year. They will, no
doubt, be looking for victory in the Primal Quest.
Team Montrail
Justin (left) with Team Montrail in the Canary Islands
Also racing is the husband-wife team of Pat and Tracey Cote. Tracey is the
cross-country ski coach at Colby College and ski races for Atomic. Pat is a
member of the Alpina-Madshus ski racing team, as well as Program Director for
the New England Nordic Ski Association (NENSA). They have also enjoyed sucess
this adventure season. Tracey was on the three-person team that won the New
York City Wild Onion Urban Adventure Race, and Pat and Tracey are currently
leading the Genesis Adventure Series. Pat and Tracey will team up with Vytenis
Benetis and Richard Anderson to form Team Racing Ahead for the Primal Quest.
Pat, Tracey and Vytenis were invited to join Richard on the Racing Ahead team,
based in part on their third place finish in the Appalachian Extreme Adventure
Race in May, put on by Racing Ahead. I had the privledge of being their fourth
teammate for that three-day race. A month before the Appalachian Extreme, their fourth
teammate got injured and I stepped in. Despite the fact that none of us, except
Pat and Tracey, had ever raced together before (and I had never done an adventure
race at all) we pulled off a third place and surprised a lot of people.
I will not be racing the Primal Quest – I'm just a beginner in this sport. Over
the next few days, as the Primal Quest is underway, I will share with you my
experiences from the Appalachian Extreme race in May. It will give some insight into what the Primal Quest racers are going through – but on a larger scale! Look for those article here on FasterSkier soon.
www.subaruprimalquest.com
promises to have live updates on the web, thanks to GPS locator devices on all
the team.
It will be an extremely grueling race. Elevation ranges fall between nearly
sea level and 11,000 feet. Participants will use the following disciplines during
their adventure:
Trail Running/Hiking
Flat Water Paddling
White Water Paddling
Night and Day Navigation
Caving
Ropes Work
Mountain Biking
Road Biking
The purse for this race is $250,000. The Subaru Primal Quest field consists
of every elite team on earth, including defending champion Smartwool, as well
as Montrail, Nokia, Seagate.com and Elite Adventure. Also, new to this year's
field will be a local Team Tahoe, which qualifies through a rigorous selection
process, and Team SPQV, composed of volunteers from last year's.
