6/25 - 7/4/2006, Moab, Utah
by Kim Dunkin
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Day 1 – Sunday, 6/25
5:00 AM Middle of nowhere
We arrive in the morning freezing from the bus ride. The team had decided to go with just one lightweight long sleeves and no other outer clothing. I knew better and knew I should take my fleece and or jacket but didn’t…peer pressure at 37-now that is sad! I started out the race freezing…But that would soon change as in the canyons temperatures soared to 120 degrees.
Tim and I got in line for the horses as Ebeth and Jenny got our GPS (the nifty gadgets that let family and friends track us). In line we did a pre-dawn interview for the camera by my favorite crew woman Jackie. We received our horse Badger and the cowboys checked out how I had saddled the horse. Things were good and we were off to this start.
I decided to ride to the start and my horse liked Ian’s horse (For those new to racing, Ian Adamson is the best adventure racer in the world). I rode up beside Ian and after some silly comment I made, he told me horses were social animals and then continued to study his maps. Phil and I had joked about me going to the starting line with Ian, so this was quite humorous to me.
6:00 AM
We wait patiently for the race start. They are waiting for the sun to come up over the horizon for the cameras. The horses are restless and I have to continually try to get Badger not to eat.
6:35 AM
The sun came over the horizon…helicopters came up from behind the cliffs…a cowboy shot his gun…horses bucked and went wild…the race was on.
The horse in front of me went vertical and a lady was bucked right off the back. I really thought she might be paralyzed. I later met up with her and said she just had a headache. She was one tough lady! Other horses started bucking people off and running away. After it settles down I think, “I am sure glad I didn’t get bucked off.”
All of the sudden the helicopters circle again, as if to say lets see all that again. A horse in front of me starts bucking and heading straight at me. My horse starts bucking. Being a Texan I figure I should be able to ride this out. I stay on for a few bucks and then go flying off. My only fear was that my foot would get stuck and I’d be dragged. I came right out, did a karate role and was on my feet. My horse ran away. I took some burrs in the back, had a trekking pole stick me in the back, pulled my groin a little bit and fell on my wrist. But in just a few hours I had forgotten all that and it never bothered me again. I glanced at my watch 2 minutes and 45 seconds into the race….I was racing Primal Quest!
We were to hike 3 miles to the vet check. After about a mile I realized my shoes are too small. I panic as my toes won’t move. I had done the last few training session in my Merrells (I am now wearing my Solomon’s), so I am wondering did my feet grow….did I pack the wrong shoes. Then I think I’ve figured it out. It is the gators pulling my shoes tight. When we reach the 3 mile mark, I take my shoes off and realize it is sand making my shoes too small. Almost all the racers will battle this, and this is what took the skin off the tops of my feet. Some racers prevented this by emptying their shoes about every 15 minutes. Our team was too excited passing everyone and we neglected to do this.
At just 3 miles into the course, there was a line for the cowboys to check the horses and walk us down a ravine. We were number 87 out of 89 teams in line since my horse ran away. That was a little dejecting.
As we came down the ravine and onto the course, we were moving fast. We started to pass a lot of teams. Many times I am jogging to keep up. I need to empty my shoes but the team is wanting to pass team’s. The mentality is, if we stop we’ll be passed.
Finally we do stop to take care of some hot spots. My duct tape is not sticking and I asked for some more. I was told not to bring any, as the med kit would have plenty. After I asked for tape I was told it was in the bottom of a pack in the med kit, so they didn’t want to take it out. We were being passed and that would take too much time. So I use my duct tape that is not sticking which just came right off and eventually caused the hamburger heels.
We have now put our packs on the horse and are just trekking behind the horse. Some teams horses won’t move for 4 hours! We were lucky as our horse won’t stop. My only complaint with our horse was that Badger would not let me get a drink. It was like after he bucked me off, I was not his friend. Every time I tried to get my hose he would run away! I got a bit dehydrated on this 23 miles desert/horse trek, because of Badger!
After about 10 more miles I really needed to dump my shoes again and fix my feet. Most teams were doing this every mile or so. A teammate said we would do that right up here. Then in a few minutes I am told we will do that right up here. I think it was forgotten. We never stopped. I am new to this team so didn’t speak up, as I didn’t want to slow the team down. I should have as this eventually will take me out of the race.
I finally was able stop at the horse watering station. Just hours into the race my feet were toast. We had passed about 40 teams on this trek, but my feet have already paid a heavy price.
Around 2:45 PM
We finish the horse section and I finally get to go to the med tent. I feel bad as the team is ready to go and I am still being taped. They told me my feet are infected.
There was to be a special surprise of ice water and Gatorade at this station. There was none when we arrived. A man felt sorry for us and we asked if we could take an ice block. Oh the simple pleasures! I held the bag up and we drank the melted ice from the bag like it was milk from a cow. That ice water was heaven. We were celebrating and carrying on like children and neglected to see the camera filming our antics. I met this camera guy later and assured me that would make the final cut!
We then accidentally dropped it and it split into four pieces. We each took a piece as we headed out into the desert for a 23-mile dessert trek. This kept our spirit up for hours. It is so amazing what a thing like a piece of ice can do for your spirits.
We trek most of night. When we began going in circles after CP7 and covering the same trail 3 times, two of us ask to sleep just a few minutes to get our bearings. The team said we were on track now, but over an hour later we went back to the original checkpoint we’d just left to find out exactly where we were at.
Finally we got our bearings and trekked into the night again. We then went to a really neat canyon that looked like no way out. Tim did a great job of leading us and about 6 other teams out. I was starting to get really drained, so we stopped and slept about 45 minutes. We slept in a ravine and a team came by and saw us puppy piled in our mylars and thus the article where we were called the “burrito” group.
As we trekked on later into the night 3 of us were walking sideways off the road. We were making S’s down the trail. After Jenny tried leading us, it was futile. I had to go back up and wake up Ebth two times who fell asleep while standing up. We slept about 15 minutes and then did better.
Day 2 – Monday, 6/26
5:00 AM
We come into TA1 which is our bike TA, as the sun rose. We had to put our bikes together at each bike section. That is one reason for such long TA times. After I was ready I had a podiatrist look at my feet. My feet were pretty trashed already at this point. He taped them up great. I only wish the tape job lasted. Med staff had not anticipated the number of messed up feet. Therefore most stations had run out of supplies, waterproof tape being one of them.
We set out on a fun bike leg. My biking work had paid off (as I usually am not a strong biker) and I was able to ride well this leg. This was a great rest on my feet. We had an agenda today. We needed to be to the river boarding section by 6 PM, or we’d have to wait for 12 hours. This biking section was a wide single track with 10 miles of road at the end.
We rode into a town about 2 PM. We stopped at a small joint as most teams did. I don’t drink cokes, but had a root beer. I guess my body was craving the calories. I was having trouble eating in the heat. We also had a team give us French fries. I don’t eat fried foods either, but this meal of root beer and French fries was heaven! After this we set out on the road. I started slowing some here and although we were passing teams the team wanted to go faster. I towed a bit on this last 10-mile section and we came into the river section in the nick of time. We caught the last shuttle of the day up to the river.
5:30 PM
This would be the scariest thing I do this race. There is only one shuttle left and it is a van without 4 wheel drive. He said we can go, but he can’t guarantee we’ll make it. We pile in with another team and head out. The driver was an off-road driver and policeman. He drove so wild. When we sat down, he said you better put your seat belts on. I didn’t have one! I had been excited this ride was 30 minutes. I was going to sleep-not a chance. We hit the ceiling several times. He was sliding all over, and for the first time in my life I really thought I might die. Since my fear is of dying in water, this was not a pleasant ride as the sandy trail followed along the river!
6:15 PM
We get into the water and start the river boarding section. This was a lot of fun. We went down with another team. It turned out this was one of the guys who had asked me to race on his team. That was a lot of fun chatting with them. This section took us 2 ½ hours. There were only about 4 places with class 2 water the rest we just kicked and enjoyed. The last little section was a wild ride and was quite hard to get to the shore through the current.
9:00 PM
We TA’d long and slow. We decided to sleep a little before the paddle. We found a quiet spot and were going to sleep two hours. Tim couldn’t sleep so he woke us up after one hour.
We paddled about 3 miles to a one-mile portage. We decided to all four move one boat and then come back and get the other. This was a good choice as the boats were so heavy with all our gear in them, including our climbing gear.
This paddle was so boring that I kept falling asleep. Tim was tired and not talking, so it made it hard to paddle in the middle of the night. Tim and I wanted to stop and sleep a few minutes and the others didn’t. So we continued on until dawn. At one point the girls looked behind us and we were a hundred yards back. They yelled Tim. I woke up realized they were calling Tim and not Kim and went back to sleep. Then Tim woke up. We had both fallen asleep and were just floating down the river. We stopped after this and were going to sleep awhile. We only sleep 15 minutes as Tim was freezing and shivered the whole time. We tried to warm him up, but he doesn’t until we hit the water again.
Day 3 – Tuesday, 6/27
About 6 AM
We finally finish the 35-mile paddle and go into TA2. This is where I meet my angel for this race, the medic Todd, who is an ER nurse from Washington state. After getting ready to paddle I go to the med tent, where a stocky man with very piercing blue eyes, in a kilt, is my medic. Several people were taking pictures of my feet and examining them. I was just chatting about how you just block the pain and go on, as they “grossed out”.
After doctoring my feet Todd turned me around making me stare in those eyes, that could see right through me. He said, “I respect your ability to block out the pain. You have the worst feet I have seen in the race. I have never asked a racer to stop for feet, but I think you need to stop.” I held back my emotions, as I knew I could not stop….not now…. I had to finish….I came to finish! I told him I would not be stopping. He never batted an eye. “Ok then” he said and promised me, he would do what he could to get me though this race. He gave me a huge hug and let me know he’d be waiting for me after this section. He was always there waiting for me. He was part of the reason I made it as far as I did. He told me later that as I hike out into the canyon, he was really worried and in ah I was continuing. He told me I was the toughest woman he’d ever met and was telling everyone about me. It is strange how this can bond you, but Todd became a strength for me.
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