Mark Sells
Team Quixote, PQ

Hey JB,

My Numa’s were great in the PQ race (and thanks to a little electrical tape, I managed not to lose them!).  I thought of a great logo for your company too: “Numa’s hold up better than feet”. See the below for the full story.  

Mark

Here’s an account of our race:

Before I start my tale, I would like to thank those who made our adventure possible.  Our crew Kevin & Betty Totten and Amanda James, words cannot express how much we appreciate everything you did, from Kevin and Amanda keeping us feed and on track, to Betty who took care of our feet.  Our family and friends who supported us, bought our t-shirts and donated to the cause.  And a special thanks to Sid at AtmosClear Climate Club and Scott and Julie at Oomph Sports whose generous donations helped make this possible.  To Ronnie at Odyssey Adventure Racing for his guidance and friendship. To Chinook Medical whose foot care products came in handy.  To our product sponsors Numa Sport Optics, Stans’s NoTubes, Saltstick, Carbboom, Aqua-Bound Paddles, Yankz Lace Systems and KineSys Sunscreen.  Thank you one and all.

Now for the three Bs of Primal Quest; Beauty, Brutality and Blisters.  I picked the three Bs to describe our race, because those three things will forever be intertwined in our Primal Quest experience.

The Beauty; the southwest corner of Montana is arguably one of the most spectacular landscapes in America.  From the high plans to the snowcapped mountains, and every river and stream in between Montana’s Big Sky county is everything an outdoor adventure could ask for and more.

The Brutality:  thanks to Don Mann’s sick sense of humor the course was as brutal as it was beautiful.
There was something twisted about knowing for every postcard view there was a lung busting climb on snow covered trails to get there.  I don’t know how Don did it, but according to the race brief there was 228 feet more elevation gain then loss, nothing strange about, except the race started and finished at the same place.

The Blisters:  our ultimate undoing.  Of the many factors I thought could stop us, I never imagined a blister could stop us, as it turns out I was wrong.

From the moment we arrived in Big Sky, Montana the peak of Lone Mountain (11138 feet) watched over us, although we hadn’t seen the races maps yet, we all knew that we were going to have to climb that peak at some point and as it turns out we were right with checkpoint (CP) 2 setting right on top a mere 3 miles and 4000 foot climb from the starting line. Don always has a way of kicking you in the shin to start a race, and this was to be no exception.  The first section consisted on 45 miles of trekking thorough snowfields, streams, valleys and mountains.  Not to mention the snow which began around 7500ft with four foot drifts and at 9000ft the drifts had grown to eight-10 ft deep.  A lot of the race was up and over snow capped mountains which meant that on the way up your feet got wet from the fast melting snow and they stayed wet and
cold as you crossed over the snow covered peaks.  All
this made for our feet to get worn and weary.  There were blisters plenty for everyone.  Not to mention the constant creek crossing which, at times, were up to your waist in 40 degree water flowing rapid and strong.  The 17 mile leg between CP 5 and 6 is where our race started to go wrong.  We selected a route that we thought was correct and we were wrong, our route put us on froze field in the middle of the night with no way out but to retrace our steps.  Nothing is more demoralizing than frozen bonus miles to start a race. By the time we made the decision to return to a
know location, day was breaking.  In the daylight,
with clearer heads we decided to forego the return trip and instead we climbed down the cliffs to return to the correct trail. We found the trial and were back in the race. We thought.  On the way the CP 6, we missed a trail, again adding bonus miles.  By the time we reached the Transition Area (TA) we were worn, beaten and low sprits.  At the TA we were informed that the water section had been removed because the water was to dangerous and the U.S. Park Service had shut down all river activity.  That meant we had to get back on our feet for another 24 hours or so.  By the time we got to the first bike section we had logged close to 100 miles on our feet. 
The first bike section was straight forward; 89 miles of rolling hills.  Other than an almost “run” in with a skunk along the way we made good time for the first 70 miles or so then once again our luck changed for the worse.  Just outside Livingston, MT I had a flat, which my tubeless tire system should have auto sealed, but it won’t.  I tried everything to get the tiny pin hole to seal.  Finally we put in an inner tube and filled the tire.  However, we couldn’t get the tire to fill.  We couldn’t find anything in the tire to cause the problem.  To make matters worse we used all our
CO2 cartridges trying to get it to fill.    We got
lucky when we found a filling station with an air pump.  After working with tire it filled and we were on our way, for about five miles, when it lost air again.  Now what, no way to fill the tire and we still had 20 miles to go.  After much debt we decided it wasn’t worth the chance on riding on only to end up pushing and walking the rest of the way. So at an all night convent store we found a local who was willing to carry us the rest of the way.  We accepted the time penalty and kept racing, we still believe it to be a good decision. 

At the TA we got some sleep and got ready for the next section.  This leg called for short 19 mile 2500 foot climb to a bike drop and a 32 mile trekking leg.  This section was in a mountain range called the Crazy Mountains and we started out with a 9500 foot pass, only to find out that was the beginning.  For the next 36 hours we went up and down ridges, through snowfields and streams in search of the next checkpoint.  At one point the trees opened up and we saw that we were surrounded by 9000 foots peaks 360 degrees, which meant there was only one way out, UP and over.  For once everything went well, we even started pass a few teams.  For the first time in days we were racing again. 

At CP18 we switched back to bikes.  The first part of the ride was 38 miles of Montana highway.  In Montana, it must cost more to put turns in a highway, because I don’t think there was three bends in 38 miles of road.  The next part was a 56 miles back road cross county ride through Gallatin National Forrest.  If it wasn’t for the darkness, I’m sure it was a beautiful ride. Along the way we stopped for a break and I can never remember being able to see so many stars at one time.
It was amazing even in darkness Montana is a beautiful place.  The ride was not all good as Ellen and John both crashed twice on the way.  We later found out a lot of teams crashed along this part.  In one case a friend from team Pura Vida had to leave the race after crashing and hurting his shoulder.

We arrived at CP20 at around 930 in the morning having covered approximately 358 total miles.  We had thought the cutoff to reach CP20 was 1200 noon and we had made it with time to spare and would be able to get some sleep.  Again reality was there to meet us, the cutoff was to depart CP20 by 1200 noon.  That meant we had enough time to eat, gather our gear and get ready for another trek. 

We left CP20 around 1100 for what we though was a 24 hour trek.  This trek was a series of ridge walking and climbing over the tops of peaks.  We had three major snowbound peaks to climb to stay on course.
Each one consisted of climbing up and then down into the valley and then back up again.  The terrain was steep, taxing and unrelenting on the feet.  27 hours later we were still walking and had nine miles to go. As we later heard, this was the make or break section and in our case we broke. But not by our own doing. By this time in the race we all had feet issues, so with a short nine mile trek to go to the next TA we decided to stop and dress our wounds.  Patrick was assisting Ellen when he noticed puss in one of her blister.  Knowing this wasn’t good, but with little choice we got ready for the trek.  Before we started out, a hiker came by and heard us discussing our options.  The hiker volunteered to give Ellen a ride to the TA and the medical tent.  An offer we accepted knowing this could end our race, but at this point the race was secondary.  With Ellen on her way to get her foot looked at, the rest of the team had a decision to make.  Having split the team without race director permission we faced disqualification.  The thought of trekking nine miles only to be disqualified didn’t sit well, so we elected to call the support crew and call it a day.  Upon arrival at the checkpoint we found out due to a spreading infection in her foot and now leg, the medical staff had referred Ellen to the hospital for treat. Effectively ending our race.

For the rest of the team we had three choices; 1) continue and try to stay ahead of the cutoffs for the next three sections to the finish; 2) stay in place for the next 15 hours and purposely miss the a cutoff, which would allow our crew to drive us to the last check point for the ride to the finish or 3) withdraw. Our first though was to hit the road knowing we had to go non-stop for the next 36 hours and either make it or not.  But as we studied the time frames involved, it soon became apparent there was no way we could do it.  We then looked at the option #2, but somehow the thought of purposely missing a cutoff just didn’t sit well and we thought it was cheap way to finish.  So we elected to withdraw. 

In the end it wasn’t the mountains, the distance or the lack of sleep that beat us; it was a small infectious bacterium called Staphylococcus (Staph), in a blister the size of a quarter.  After 10 hours of sleep in eight days covering 380 miles on foot and mountain bike, I can live with that.

Mark Sells
Quixote Adventure Racing
“Life Untested is Life Unlived”
http://www.teamquixote.com

Dear JB,
I wanted to let you know that this Marine is a very satisfied customer. Your X-frames are much better than the O***** products floating around here.  Furthermore, I own a pair of S******** sun glasses and your polarized lenses are on par with theirs. 

As for toughness, if you could only see what you sun glasses have endured!  I left them on top of my Humvee that was traveling 40mph.  My buddy saw them fly off my vehicle, stopped and picked them up.  Only cosmetic damage to the frames.  The lenses are still great. 

Thanks for a top-notch product,

Sgt. Charles F.
The United States Marine Corps
Al Anbar, Iraq