leifw

Epic. I almost died three times but I’d do it again.

-- An anonymous racer in Primal Quest Montana commenting on the Gallatin River after having been rescued from its raging, overflowing waters. The river was so high that race organizers decided to cancel the Gallatin section midday and to truck the racers who hadn't completed the section to its end. Based on that experience, the organizers also canceled the 70 mile kayaking of the Yellowstone River, which is also flooding.

The race's nearly 600 mile long course is currently being run, biked, swam, climbed, etc. over a big chunk of southwestern Montana. The leading teams are performing shockingly well, fundamentally outclassing the bottom two thirds of the pack, which I find truly amazing because I suspect anyone who would pay $12,500 to race under their own power for 600 miles is a superlative athlete. That the leading teams seem to completing the course twice as fast as the other teams is astonishing.

I really don't have much respect for the physical abilities of the players in many of the widely-viewed sports. I really don't see much athleticism demonstrated in swinging a stick at a sphere and standing around in a grassy field for quarters of an hour at a time. These folks, I respect. I've hiked short sections (at most 14 miles at a time) of the course they're following and I was really tired afterward. I've kayaked the Yellowstone, which is tamer than the Gallatin, and I was scared. They're good and they're crazy.