You last heard from Team Enduring Freedom before our departure for the ten-day, 550 mile adventure race across Montana called Primal Quest (Tri-DC Issue 3, Winter 2008). We’re back home, still healing, and eager to share our story.

Team Enduring Freedom is Michael Spiller, Patrick Henry, Christine Bone and Scott Olson.

Primal Quest is a ten-day race, consisting of running, climbing, hiking, padding, and biking, covering approximately 550 miles. This year’s race was described by a member of an elite team as “huge” and the most grueling Primal Quest or Eco Challenge ever (we heard this the day before the race started). After two days of “check-in,” including gear checks, certification tests, and purchasing bear spray (yes, you read correctly – bear spray- mandatory gear for all team members and support crew), the team eagerly and confidently stepped up to the start line on June 23rd at 10:00 a.m., at the base of Big Sky Ski Resort, approximately 6,000 feet above sea level. The start of the race was signaled by the detonation of a 35-pound explosive charge on top of Long Peak, which towers over the resort at around 11,500 feet above sea level. The teams had 30 checkpoints to find during the race, and the first checkpoint was at the top of Lone Peak. Team Enduring Freedom went up and back in about four hours covering 8.5 miles.

Primal Quest is made up of 500 miles, 30 checkpoints, and 14 transition areas. Transition areas are locations plotted out by the race director that allow support crews like ours to support their teams. The teams can eat, change clothes, care for their feet, pick up gear, and sleep if they choose. Team Enduring Freedom’s support consisted of me and Michael’s wife, Vanessa.

Once into Transition 1, the team left for an all-night trek to the next checkpoint at Sage Creek. They covered 37 miles in about 16 hours. In Transition 2, the team chose to sleep for two hours, eat, and then don their wet suits and jump into rubber river rafts for a 25-miles paddle in class three rapids on the Gallatin River. The team enjoyed this portion, despite the 41-degree water temperature and extremely dangerous conditions. They covered the distance in about three hours and arrived safely at the Transition 3 at Moose Creek. Shortly after they climbed out of the river, race officials closed it because of dangerous conditions, which meant that the team was not permitted to get on their river boards for the next eight miles of the river. The racers were shuttled to Transition 4, Stone Castle, where they prepared for another all night trek. By then it was 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. The team left Transition 4 after very little sleep, some food, and the drilling of toenail to relieve the pressure from a blister underneath.

Team Enduring Freedom trekked for approximately 36 hours (sleeping for about four hours on the trail), covering 45 miles of brutally rugged terrain. At the unassisted Transition 5, Trail Creek Road, they picked up their bikes and some food that we had left for them. They had expected this trek to take about 24 hours. It took much longer, so the food tha we had prepared and left had spoiled in the sun. Enduring this setback, they biked 36 miles and arrived at Transition 6, Carbella, at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday. Here the racers were to transition to kayaks for an 87+ mile paddle down the Yellowstone River. Unfortunately, because of the large volume of snow melt, the rivers were running dangerously high with a lot of debris, and the race officials cancelled this portion. In a 550-mile race, you tend to cherish the times you can be off your feet. They substituted this section with a 100-mile bike. Ugh!! (Truly the only word to describe how the team felt when faced with a 100-mile bike at this point.

After only 90 minutes in Transition 6, the team remounted their bikes at around 2:00 p.m. on Thursday and biked 100 miles, arriving at Transition 7, Otter Creek/Big Timber around 9:00 p.m. on Thursday night. They climbed into the RV and slept for a well-deserved five hours. This was the longest the team had slept since Sunday night, four days earlier. We woke them up around 2:00 a.m. on Friday morning, to feed them and get them back on their bikes by 3:00 a.m. for the short 15-mile ride to the bas of “The Crazies,” so named for their magnitude. They reached the base, as planned, at the first sight of daylight, to start a 26-mile trek up and over Crazy Peak. It was late June and the “The Crazies” were still snow-covered, rising 5,500 feet from where the team sat, “if we can make it through this trek, we can finish this race.”

Team Enduring Freedom hiked “The Crazies” all day Friday, through the night and most of the day on Saturday. The terrain was brutal and beat them up very badly. Everyone’s feet were torn up. The team at this point was stopping every few hundred feet to rest blistered feet, re-apply sunscreen, and mentally prepare themselves for the next few hundred feet. One member had a horrific near-death fall from a 50-foot ice ledge onto a bed of rocks. He truly thought he was falling to his death, and the experience left the whole team physically and emotionally drained. The team came walking out of “The Crazies” 31 hours later, having covered 31 miles, thus averaging one mph. It was then 2:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon and the race had started the previous Monday. It was now six days into the race, and the team had slept a total of nine hours.

The team made it into Transition 9, Lower Cottonwood, ate, and rested for a few hours. At 7:00 p.m. on Saturday night, they saddled up their bikes again and headed out of transition. They rode through the night to complete the 93 miles, and arrived at Transition 10, Springhill/Corbley Gulch, at the base of the Bridgers Mountain Range, at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning. They were dehydrated and delirious and told stories of hallucinating while on their bikes. If I recall correctly, it was elephants they saw on the back roads of Montana. Buffalo, yes. Elephants, no! One racer had a few bad wrecks because of falling asleep and riding into ditches.

Besides sleep deprivation, blistered feet, and sunburn, the biggest challenge for the team was that they were bumping up against a “cut-off-time.” They had to be out of Transition 10 before noon or they would not be permitted to do the next section of the course. We got them fed, the requisite medical attention for their feet, and put them to bed for a few hours. At 11:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, they departed the transition for a 28-mile trek through the Bridger Mountains. At this point, we (the support crew) packed up and got to Transition 11, East Gallatin Recreation Center, around 3:00 p.m., on Sunday afternoon, and started tracking the team. It was clear from the GPS tracking system that the extremely rugged terrain, coupled with the deteriorating state of their feet was forcing them to move at a very, very slow pace.

Slowly the team kept at it, continuing to move throughout the day on Sunday and all through the night on Monday.

At 12:30 p.m. on Monday afternoon, the phone call came. The team was going to have to drop out. The injuries had them moving at about 1 mph. They had run out of food and water six hours earlier and were facing ten more miles of mountain trekking until they saw us at Transition 11. This meant another ten hours without food and water. It was time to make a decision whether to continue or stop racing. At this point, all were hurting, and numerous injuries brought them to a team decision to officially withdraw from the race.

Yes, they withdrew after eight complete days of racing and with a little over 100 miles to the finish. Did they reach their goals? Perhaps not the main one. Some may disagree, but in many ways the team did reach a goal. They experienced Primal Quest, which was a goal each and every one of them had at the start line. Their accomplishments over the eight days of racing were admirable, especially when you consider that the team had no experience in a race of this length and scope. They raced for eight days, slept less than twelve hours, and covered 400 miles. They all agreed it was one of the hardest things they had ever experienced, and yet one of the most exciting and rewarding. So don’t be surprised if you see some or all of these racers at Primal Quest again!

Michael Spiller and his wife Vanessa co-founded NVRacing, LLC, in 2006. Michael is a seasoned adventure racer and has completed over thirty adventure races of various lengths, including Primal Quest in June 2008. NVRacing is an adventure racing/triathlon social training club, based in Northern Virginia. The goal of NVRacing is to introduce and promote the sport of adventure racing and triathlons to the Greater D.C. Metropolitan Area. NVRacing’s current sponsors include: Hudson Trail Outfitters Ltd., UnderArmour, Trakkers, Hammer Nutrition, Superior Paving, IIF Data, Riptide Swim and tri, Potomac River Running, and Haymarket Bikes. For more information, please visit www. nvracing.org.