Subaru Primal Quest Adventure Race Update
July 14, 2002 (5 pm; Mountain Standard Time)
Greetings (for the last time):
I was able to talk to Barb this afternoon after she had a long sleep. They are all still tired, but generally in good shape. She confirmed that the team did finish early this morning at about 1:45 am in 28th place. They were, however, surprised to find so many friends and well-wishers who waited up for them. They were also incredibly thankful to the support team who had to endure very long days and very little sleep, but a lot of worry.
I am attaching a series of images taken by Sarah Gage at the finish line this morning. She kindly sent these on for distribution.
Various shots of Team Santa Fe with the support crew at the
finish 1:45 am, July 14, 2002- Sarah Gage, the contributor of these photos, is
in the lower right photo.
I have just a few additions to the final trekking part of the course. The race organizers designed to course to be tough. Barb said that she measured a total of 17,000’ of elevation gain in just that last day. This was topped off with a 400’ rappel, in the dark in their case. There was a bit of a jam at the rappel with two of the teams that were short-coursed holding things up at the rappel. The team was held up for 1.5 hours waiting. Barb said rappelling would have been much more fun in the daylight, and she ended up going into a tree.
The kayaking segment was very slow and Barb estimated that they spent 75% of the time out of the boat, pushing in the low water. The final tally for overall elevation gain on Barb’s altimeter was 54,790’. This would be like going from sea level and climbing Pikes Peak almost 4 times.
At this point the race is still going for some teams. 30 teams have successfully completed the full course and there are 6 more teams attempting to finish the full course by Monday. 14 teams withdrew from the race, 9 teams attempted to finish the course unranked after losing a teammate, and 3 teams were short-coursed to be able to finish the race.
The next decision for Team Santa Fe is whether to wait around for the closing celebration on Tuesday.
If you would like to view any earlier e-mails (with a few pictures), they have been posted on the following website: http://www.lawired.com/csr/home.htm .
No more later
Darrell Henry – Team Santa Fe e-mailer