Primal Quest
reporting presented by Inov-8

This afternoon when I was about to leave the Storm Castle Campground, I spotted Dawn Taylor Mann (she's the pretty one on the left), and her husband, Don Mann. I asked them if I could get a photo of them for my Primal Quest blog and they said sure.

I'm very proud of these two. When it looked like Primal Quest was going away for good, this couple stepped in to make sure that wouldn't happen. Clearly, it has not been easy.

What I see at headquarters in Big Sky is a shadow of what "Primal Quest HQ" was when I worked inside it in Moab in 2006, and in the San Juan Islands in 2004. Every staff member in Montana is stretched thin, but they do their best. The days of the seven-digit budget are gone. But the fire in the hearts of the staff is as strong as ever.

Every volunteer is stretched thin as well. Volunteers have had to slingshot from one part of the course to another to cover checkpoints and transition areas that were not in their original scope of work. Did they complain? Not at all. In the spirit of adventure racing, they dealt with the unexpected, even though it was at times uncomfortable. Primal Quest volunteers give up their vacation time to be here. They pay their own fare to and from Montana. They are here because they want to be part of Primal Quest, the biggest brand in adventure racing.

And the teams? Most of them are so physically ruined right now, they may not have a lucid opinion of the "New PQ." From an organizational standpoint, teams have told me that Mann and his team have been finding their legs a bit this year. From a race course standpoint, every team I've spoken with has raved about the scenery. Even if PQ disappointed some teams with its organizational approach, I think it won teams over once they began to experience Big Sky Country.

Teams I've spoken with tell me they've had a once in a lifetime experience. No matter what went "wrong" or may yet not happen according to Mann's plans, teams came for an amazing racing experience, and that's exactly what they got. Good on ya' Don and Dawn. Can't wait to hear where we're headed next.

Labels: adventure race, dawn taylor mann, don mann, montana, primal quest, san juan islands, utah