The Primal Adventure

by Kim Dunkin
(Texas)

BIKE LEG a million miles...I mean 206 miles

We were in the toughest endurance race on earth, or so it is dubbed. At this point I believe it. My legs are shot from running the trail marathon. I was towed by my teammates, all world class athletes.

We went straight in the Orienteering section. We were no slouches there either, putting in one of the fastest O course times.

We had moved up 4 places and were up to 12th place. You talk about a team that was stoked. We transitioned so fast. We expected to do well, but not this early. We were on cloud 9. I kept thinking I cannot wait for Phil (my husband) to see how good we are doing.

The bike leg ended up being very tough for me. It was the Centennial trail in South Dakota which was to be a beautiful trail. We hit it at dusk.

The trail was a single track trail that climbed and climbed. It was not terrible as there was lots of switchbacks. But for me it was tough. My legs were jello due to the marathon.

I ended up walking, yes walking, all the hills. This was only the first night of the race and I was so disheartened. What should have been a few hours for a ride took us most of the night.

There was an end though and I tried to make up for it. While they say you cannot make up time on the downhills I tried. I flew (ok I felt like I was flying) down the hill.

We had one more long, long climb on a jeep road before strolling into the caving section.

I found a building with rat droppings to sleep in. Yes really. But it was better than sleeping outside where it was freezing. We grabbed an hour nap and headed to the caves.

We knocked out the caving section and got back on our bikes. Yeah day 2, no rest on the bike!

We were riding jeep roads now and were passing teams. This felt great.

We knew we had a cut off coming so we booked it to some single track trails. I rode like I have never rode before. I rode so hard, trying to make the cut off. We rode miles and miles of rolling beautiful single track.

Then we came out on another jeep rode

It began to hail. We rode on, we had to make the cut off. The hail was gathering n my jacket and it tasted so good to eat.

We rode so hard, but missed the cut off. We came into the check point dejected. Until...we found out they extended it. We were ecstatic and had new energy.

The staff here was incredible. We met 2 military Texans and a police woman, who were volunteering. They really helped lift our spirits.

From here we hit mud. Lots of it. So no longer do we bike, but we carry our bikes. Once we finally leave the mud we hit a jeep road were we get lost.

We backtracked 3, yes 3 times! We were discouraged, but finally after 3 days of riding, sore backsides, and very sore backs, we made it to the ropes.

Coming off the Bike Leg we were in 15th we thought, rumor had it we were higher, but we are at least 15th. We had a goal of top 20 so we were happy. We tore down our bikes, loaded up 30 pounds of ropes gear and headed out into the night on foot walking right by Crazy Horse.


To see the rest of my Primal Quest story and find out how we finished and what we did for the last 6 days, just check our: racing news from the Badlands.