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I still haven't managed to catch up with the Rabbits. They made it out of CP28 on Poison Spider mesage at 7:38 earlier this evening. That would put them in Moab (and Denny's) at around 8:30. Ahead of them is the rest of a grueling bike leg and then a transition to trekking in the mountains at TA9/CP29.

The Rabbits hopped out of TA8 at 8:19 this morning. That should put them in Moab sometime this evening. I'm going to do what I can to catch them on their way through town. If not I'll try again tomorrow morning at TA9/CP29.

They put in at Ruby Ranch at 8:15 Tuesday night and hit the take out at TA7 at 7:28 yesterday morning. That's quite a bit longer than it should have taken them to paddle that leg so chances are they stopped for some shut eye.

From TA7 the left on the canyoneering section at 8:47 AM and got to Hell Roaring Canyon and the 400' rappel at 6:30PM. It'll be hard to catch them until they hit TA8 which will probably be sometime this afternoon.

I wasn't able to catch up with them on the course today, but the Rabbits have moved ahead in the rankings from 42 to 27 since yesterday. Their strategy of steady even progress is paying off. As of 8:15pm they were out of Ruby Ranch 179 miles into the course.

I spoke with the Rabbits a couple of times today at TA4. First when the road in off the long biking section and again when they completed the river swimming section.

When I asked Jen what she made of the whole water situation she said they really didn't have any problems on either the horse trek or on the desert trek that followed. I mentioned that many of the top teams were complaing about there not being enough water stations and she laughed. "They're just not carrying enough. We each carried two 100oz bladders and two 25oz water bottles and did just fine."

It was primarily the leaders that were griping late on Sunday. Jen's theory is that they were carrying less water thinking that because they were planning to push hard and race fast they'd be spending less time in the desert and could get away with skimping. I tend to agree.

In addition to pacing themselves and bulking up on H20, Jason mentioned that they'd camped out in the shade at TA2 from about 1pm to 3pm (the hottest part of the day) in order to stay cool rather than press on and wear themselves out.

They spent much of the night on their bikes and hit the back to back water sections today at 11:30. At first blush you might worry that they're fairly far back in the pack. I think that's misleading. While the teams out front are testing themselves against all the desert has to throw at them the Rabbits are clearly taking a more strategic approach.

I'm betting that they won't have to pass that many teams to rise into the top ten...many of the teams in front of them will either drop out or slow down as the heat and dehydration takes it's toll.

The Rabbits are grieving.

Despite months of preparation they have come face to face with a horror they could never have imagined. The desert wastelands of southeastern Utah are teeming with long eared jack rabbits...and predators.

"I just wasn't prepared to see so many dead rabbits," sobbed John, as Jen slowly rubbed his back and whispered that everything was going to be ok.

"You know I understand that it's the cycle of life and all that crap," commented Jason, "but come on...there are prairie dogs out there too. I'm telling you...the coyotes out here are committing genocide and nobody even knows about it."

I noticed that Rick had wandered off and was sitting quietly against a tree with his head in his hands. I asked Jen if he was ok.

"He started counting how many dead rabbits we came across and just lost it when he got to like 34," she replied slowly...looking concerned. "He seemed so happy when we finally hit the highway, but he had forgotten about the whole roadkill thing."

Ok, it's not TV, but there is a video interview of the rodents...er...Rabbits waiting for you to check it out on the PQ site.

I caught up with our favorite furry racers this morning just after they picked up their horse at the start. They were feeling rested, well fed and loved. I scratched behind their ears and stroked their tails...ok we'll leave that alone.

Suffice it to say, they were dialed in and ready to race. I chatteed a bit with Jason about their take on the heat and how much food and water to carry. Basically their going to evaluate their fluid intake as they go and gauge how much to carry out of each Water Station based on the rate they're guzzling up to that point. You gotta strike a balance between not bringing enough and weighing yourself down.

He also mentioned that they'd packed a ton of food to ensure they wouldn't run out of...pellets...before they got to their food boxes up the course.

They're going to be wearing the same clothes for 3 days at least. Right after I finish this post I'm going to check and see if smellyrabbits.com is already registered.

Oh ya, I had the fortune to ride around the course today with the Outdoors Editor of Men's Fitness magazine, Noah Johnson. He's a New Yorker through and through and came packing an iPod stuffed with a fat library of great music I've never heard. What do you want...the music scene in Greenville, SC just isn't what you're gonna find in his stomping grounds. We got chatting about the Rabbits and he mentioned that he's been talking to them about a piece in a future issue.

As of this post the Rabbits are hopping along in 42nd place. Frankly a comfortable spot in the middle of the pack might be the place to be this early in the race. Given the heat I experienced today, odds are at least half the teams in front of them will simply drop out for having pushed too hard too early. That and the fact that between them our crew is sporting 16 lucky feet bodes well Rabbit fans :-)

I'm hitting the course early tomorrow morning. Be back shortly thereafter with pics, quotes, smart remarks and more of the same non-sense you've come to love and expect.

Hop on hommies,
Yak

This race report is filed by Rick's future self on June 29th, 2006... somewhere in Colorado...

We've been going for 4 days, 17 hours, and 43 minutes now... sleeping a total of 13 hours and have been running on a steady stream of chicken tetrazzini MREs (Meals Ready To Eat)...until we took a three-minute nap and woke up to find John polishing off the last six of them.

Jason has been singing "Beat It" for the last 11 miles ever since desperately eating that stand of small wild mushrooms (see note about chicken tetrazzini, or lack thereof, above).

Jen thinks we're in Nepal en route up the South Col of Mt. Everest, however it's just some unnamed peak in western Colorado with a 25 cent viewing machine at the edge of a 7-11 parking lot.

Other than the cotton candy machine that's been stalking me since early this morning, I'm having no problems!

We saw another team run up a ridge in their barefeet with their race bibs tied around their heads like turbans. Not sure who they were or where they were going... but looking forward to running into them again! Can get a little lonely out here...

The Rabbits are happily looking forward to getting to our bike boxes where we've stashed our pirate outfits, most of the pieces for our bikes, and a bounty of Clif
Bars (Mint Chocolate Chip, yaaaaarrrrggh!!).

Stay tuned for more from Checkpoint 39 on the other side of the border, safely back on the Mormon side of things!

Dead Eye Rick, signing off. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarghhhh!

...one of your teammates makes a remark about a piece of the required gear, and you immediately quote the gear list verbatim rocking back and forth like rainman.

...you start having "flash-forwards" about the race (similar to your acid flash-backs, but far more disturbing and often involving phantom blisters)

...questionably brilliant ideas start forcing themselves on you at inopportune moments. ("license and registration please." "you know, if you wore edible clothing, you wouldn't have to carry as much food...")

...the staff at your local outdoor store finally call the police to escort your out after seeing you 12 times in 4 days and assuming you're just a no-good vagrant there to use their bathroom.

...you get a call from the same outdoor store's CEO thanking you for single-handedly increasing their revenue to previously unimaginable levels.

...that damn Primal Quest ticker finally counts down to ZERO.

While the Rabbit's aquatic skills might be something to marvel at in the Adventure Racing world, past and future Olympians at the Stanford pool were not exactly impressed by what they saw this morning when they got to practice.

"I thought I'd walked onto the set of Road Warrior or something," said lanky 19 year old swimming prodigy who wished to remain anonymous. The Rabbits were there for a final dress rehearsal of their swim gear for the upcoming Primal Quest. During the as yet unreleased swim section of the Quest, the race directors are requiring enough body armor for the invasion of a medium sized 2nd world nation with a GDP on the order of 300-400 billion dollars.

Helmets, elbow pads, knee pads, thigh pads, shin guards, and on and on, will be required for what some think may be an American Gladiator-like showdown between teams and the imaginary monsters of their sleep-deprived brains. The Stanford swimmers were, as noted, not impressed with what they saw when the Rabbits launched themselves into the pool. However, when John broke the world record for not only the 50 meter freestyle, but the 100 meter butterfly as well, the would be Olympians took notice, and were seen later in the day looking more like competitors ready to challenge the likes of LAZER and BLAZE in a giant q-tip fighting contest.

until my next internet access time for good behavior...

In preparation for what will likely be an EPIC ropes section, the Rabbits have been hitting it hard. "The word on the street is that the ropes sections of the race could make or break some teams, so we're watching certain sections of Clifhanger (starring the great Sylvester Stalone) over and over and over again. I tell you what, our skillz are 'en fuego.' No really, I was jumaring so fast the other day the rope caught on fire," said a ripped Rick Baraff. "We're really focusing on working as many different techniques as we can. We want to be ready to climb one handed, one legged, NO handed, or even 3 handed if we have to. There's just no telling what PQ will throw at us," replied a newly minted level 8 yoga master Jen Ratay.

With only a week until the Rabbits flee the Bay Area, it's becoming cruch time to get all those bits and pieces fine tuned. John, the master of minute management and measurement, is having a bit of trouble getting the lengths of his leg loops perfectly dialed.

"My inseam is 34 inches, but my OUT-seam is 43, which happens to be a prime number. Prime numbers are notoriously difficult to parcel when using a geometric regression...which is how I'm trying to determine my most efficient leg loop length. I know what your thinking...your thinking 'why use a geometric regression when you could use a logorithmic regression.' Well, it gets complicated when I take into account the force-angle produced by my vastus medialus. What I don't want is counter torque that could cause a fraction of rotation friction that could slow me down by like 3 seconds over a 3000 meter rope sect..."

We apologize. we had to cut John off. His medication apparently wore off and his OCD is, as Rick would say 'en fuego.'

Race starts in less than 2 weeks...but the insanity started years ago.

The Rabbits are worried. On more than several occaisions now each of us have had that creepy feeling that we're being watched. None of us have seen anyone or anything, but we're all convinced we've either got a stalker or a private dick on our heels.

We had a team meeting last night to talk about it and at first everyone was being sort of coy...no one wanting to be the first to speak out for fear of being ridiculed, but then when Rick described the hair on his neck leaping to attention while he was was window shopping at Krispy Kreme (no doughnuts while training) and caught a glimpse of something moving behind him in the the window's reflection...we all realized we aren't crazy.

We know we're all paranoid. If you were a gorgeous, skilled, talented, accomplished, awesome, cool, badass, adventure racer with the PQ crown so close you can taste it...you'd be paranoid about the risk of jealous rivals pulling a Tanya Harding too.

The question is...are we paranoid enough?

The RABBITS heat training for PQ has gotten a little ridiculous lately. We've taken to wearing multiple layers and a parka for everything we do. In the Bay area no one even looks at you twice, they just figure you're one more dot-com-er who's wearing his entire wardrobe waiting for the next big thing. But at a recent viewing of the new X-MEN movie while wearing 3 long sleeve polypropylene tops, a fleece, a rain jacket, a winter hat, and 2 pairs of pants, I had an epiphany (though some might call it a heat induced hallucination). I don't really remember the movie (probably because I was in and out of consciousness), but I do know that I discovered the key to staying hydrated in the wicked desert conditions that PQ will present.

That's right, a THIRD kidney...but not in parallel, like the ones we've got now. No this one in series with the other two so that it can hyper-concentrate the urine, saving every last drop of water.

The calculations are amazing. Mathematically it will be possible to do the entire race drinking only one 8 ounce glass of water. Now, all we have to do is get the extra kidneys...

Anyone want to take an all expenses paid trip to Mexico? What? No you won't wake up in a bathtub full of ice in Tijuana with a strange pain in your side. Actually, now that you mention it, I donâ??t feel all that well. Maybe I'll take off one layer before hitting the sauna this afternoon.

Oh, the new X-MEN movie? Well, I'm not actually sure I even went into the right theater. Two days later the only proof I had was a sweaty ticket stub to Nacho Libre (which hasn't even opened yet).