Plotting points

Sunday 06.22.08

The race is tomorrow. Today, all the Primal Quest teams met and Don Mann described what they all got themselves into. A Google map flyover of the entire course was shown while dramatic music played. The room cheered when the course would find its way onto the summit of some ominous distant mountain peak or snake its way along a ridgeline. Team captains picked up their maps and booklet of check points and guidelines and were sent off to plot the locations of the check points.

The hotel room is a well oiled machine. While the team works at plotting and strategizing, the support crew is also busy. If it were not for them, the race would not be possible. Leslie’s husband Noel sews patches onto MOAT’s Primal Quest jerseys while their kids played quietly on the computer. Rick Sanders takes notes to prepare for the road ahead – getting the RV and critical gear to each transition area. I take pictures and blog, but otherwise try to stay out of the way. I’ve also been responsible for sending out e-mails and updating forums…Hopefully a lot of folks are following MOAT’s adventure!

As for photography, Primal Quest is officially NOT helping the press outside of Will Ramos’s photography team and the TV crew. This is for liability reasons. They can’t send me off to where the ‘good shots’ are because they could be sending me to my death. That means that I can get directions to the transition areas only, and I will not be given transportation. So if I want to get to the summit of a mountain, I’ll have to snowshoe up there while the official photogs will get a snow mobile ride. I’ll do my best and we’ll see what happens.

The unfortunate side-effect of being in the field is that internet access will be sporadic at best. Posts may be shorter, but I’ll try to keep the pictures coming.

The big show starts tomorrow at 10am, so wish us all luck!

Team MOAT hard at work plotting points.
The Primal Quest race course consists of 33 checkpoints spanning 500+ miles and over 100, 000 ft of elevation gain.
Noel Reuter sews the team and sponsor's patches on their jerseys.

Rick Sanders takes notes as the team discusses routes. He will be responsible for transporting critical equipment to transition areas requiring hundreds of miles of driving.