Primal Quest Montana was more than an adventure race.  It was a year of countless experiences and episodes that included training, racing, and–best of all–growing closer to the best AR peeps in the world–my very own Dirty Avocados!  The Dirty Avocados fielded two teams for PQ.  And that made every experience leading up to and during PQ twice as good! We as teams and individuals committed so much to this race.  This was essentially the center of our worlds for almost a year.  And it paid off!  The Dirty Avocados crossed two teams past PQ’s finish line, with very respectable 18^th and 30^th places. 

The race was simply epic!  Overall if can be boiled down to 3 things: big mountains, big water, and a big climb.  The mountain ranges we trekked (including Lone Peak and the Crazy’s and Bridgers) were absolutely amazing!  The rivers we battled (the Gallatin) and forged were brutal.  The whitewater was big, bad, and super intense.  This made for some absolutely amazing kayaking and–best of all–riverboarding.  Finally, the climbing was unbelievable!  We climbed, ascended and traversed more than 1,200 feet straight up.  So many times I felt as if I was in a Mission Impossible movie.

We (Dirty Avocados II) crossed the finish line in about 9 days; finishing the complete (long) course and every part of this amazing race.  Ultimately that was our one and only goal.  We knew when we started this all that if we could finish the long course that the rest would take of itself.  And it did.  We couldn’t be happier!  Thanks to everyone involved for the support.  This includes our crew, Aja and Matt, our fellow DAs, our family and friends, our sponsors, and the Bay Area AR community. 

See ya out on the dirt and water soon!

PS, Check out pics from the PQ fun here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dirtyavocados/sets/72157606052205922/

I spoke to Aja of the crew for Dirty Avocados II/Team #56, and Dmitri of the crew for Dirty Avocados/Team #62.

 Dirty Avocados II is still continuing unranked.  Susan is travelling with the crew and her feet are a mess.  PQ medical staff suggested that continuing could pose serious or long term problems.  Word from Aja is that Brian’s feet are also in pretty bad shape but they’re determined to press on. 

 Dirty Avocado’s is doing well.  They banked alot of sleep yesterday and are moving well.  Donato’s feet are in bad shape with large blisters on the heel.

 I am going to unable to access Internet until Saturday eventing but Aja may have web access to update this blog.

Team #62 just left CP 15,  the last assisted CP before the Crazy Mountains.  They’re still shown as ranked, sweet!  They’ll ride to CP 16 where they’ll drop their bikes and trek through the Crazies which racers at the other end are calling the most mountains they have ever seen.

It is possible that Jen is still racing.  Word first thing this am was that the woman on team 62 was going to drop due to a feet/leg issue.  Rumors were passed along and interpreted, and assumptions were made and passed along to me.  We all know what happens when we assume…makes and a** out of you and me, in this case just me.  It’s possible that there was a mix-up or that the team stayed at the TA so long because they were getting her back to racing shape.  If I get some hard facts I will pass them along.

 Susan is out for sure.  She called a friend, beer in hand, and said she was done.  Melissa was at the table with that person and they are now shown as “Unranked” on the PQ site.

There’s not much good to tell. 

The Bad: Both DAs are unranked. 

The Ugly:  Jen of team 62 has suffered a recurrence of her IT band issue and was unable to continue early this afternoon.  I just heard that someone spoke to Susan of Team 56 and her feet were very bad and she is also unable to continue.

The Good:  Both teams are continuing on the course.

Communication on the course must be tough because both teams are still shown as ranked on the leaderboard the last time I checked.

DA II; Mike, Brian, Will, and Susan finished the trek at 8:34 pm and have just started cycling for the first time in the race.

DA/Team 62 is just about 3 1/2 miles from the end of the trek.  It’s almost all downhill (1000′) from their most recent track location.

Aja contacted me and said the teams are doing great.

Thunderstorms right over the course.  I guess it makes up for the cancellation of the river section today.  I have reports that there were trees, logs, and all other sorts of large debris being washed down the Yellowstone River today

Check out the adventure team #29 had yesterday: http://team29.ecoprimalquest.com/

DA’s on Checkpoint Zero, unfortunately:  http://www.checkpointzero.com/primalquest/

Gulnur posted her pictures from Pre-race on the DA Gallery.  Check ‘em out!