Adventure Beat

 

The endurance racers in Primal Quest battled the desert heat in the second leg of the race, and race organizers hurried to get more water onto the course to keep racers (both two- and four-footed) hydrated. Gordon Wright reports from the desert in southeastern Utah.

After the excitement of a start, which left some racers chasing their horses - or worse, lying on their backs - teams competing in the 2006 edition of the Primal Quest expedition adventure race arrived at the first transition area (TA 1).  After the 23-mile "hike-with-a-horse," the general consensus from teams was that the horse's mood determined pace. 

More than one team said it was "the luck of the draw" when it came to a team's ability to effectively prod their beast of burden through the desert crags and canyons.

"Ours was a bit agitated and temperamental," said Nicholas Mulder of Powerade Cyanosis.  Mulder described the animal as "a bit stubborn."

Of course, some horses were more stubborn than others.

"Our horse stopped for about 30 minutes and we had to take all the packs off of it to get it going," said David Boyd, captain of team M.O.A.T.  His team still managed to enter the first TA in the top 10.

Other teams fared much better with some sturdy steeds. 

"I rode the horse almost the entire time," said Karen Lundgren of team SOLE.

Team Duesouth believed in treating its horse as one of its own teammates.  "We fed her water from our own water bottles," said Jeannette Walder.

As stubborn as some horses were, horsemanship still counted.  Just ask teams Supplierpipeline, Nike PowerBlast, Merrell Wigwam Adventure, Spyder, and HALTI, who were among the first teams to come through TA 1.

Racers generally left TA 1 in good spirits and smiling - telltale signs that the race had only just begun.  The mood could not have been more different at TA 2, where racers finished a desert trek of 23 miles. 

Soaring heat (more than one car thermometer registered outside temp at 101 degrees) singed the smiles right off the racers' already sunburned faces.  Dehydration was apparent, in part because race management chose to divert some of the athletes' water to their "fifth teammate"- their horses, because a truck due to deliver supplies to the horses got bogged down.

Race directors did have the foresight to secure emergency supplies of backup water sources to address these kinds of exigencies, but with athlete water usage even higher than expected, the need became even more critical.  Pulling additional supplies from a local Culligan, the race's transportation manager directed trucks and SUVs to checkpoints around the desert.

When lead teams reported that the distance between water on a couple of legs, most notably CP6 to CP7, was pushing the limit, the race immediately established a staffed water station between those CPs. For those racers who had gone through before the added water station, volunteers in 4WD vehicles followed those racers to provide them with water.

"We were desperately short of water," said Nike PowerBlast Captain Ian Adamson as his team arrived at TA 2 in first place.  "We were better off than most," he continued, then downed two bottles of Gatorade and several bottles of water.  Adamson's teammate, Mike Kloser, dumped ice water over his head.  Sweat had deposited white salt stains on his shorts and shirt.

Many teams ran out of water well before they reached TA 2.  Nike-Beaver Creek - one of the leading teams through TA 2 - earned sportsmanship kudos for sharing half of their own dismal supply of water with HALTI.  Like many teams, HALTI said it ran out of water almost three hours before refueling at TA 2.

"I've never been in a desert like this, this hot," said HALTI's Frida Rosenberg.  Parked cars and trucks offered the only shade in the transition area.  Rosenberg sat in the sand in the shade of a truck's front bumper while her team packed for the next mountain-biking section.  "It's never hot like this in Sweden."

Stay with Adventure Beat for the latest from somewhere in Utah's desert stretches.