Merrill, Nike out to defend Primal Quest title

It takes a unique brand of human being to see what Monique Merrill sees in the phrase “100,000 feet of climbing over 500 miles.”

For starters, most of the human race has no idea what that means — these days, eating 50 hot dogs in an hour makes more sense to the average citizen when calculating a superlative level of suffering.

And even to those who might know a little about outdoor athletics, the idea of gaining so many vertical feet over such an expansive distance likely seems silly, abstract even, a goal with no realistic hope of attaining it.

In a little yellow Breckenridge building on the corner of French and Lincoln, however, Merrill pondered the phrase and what it tells her about this year’s Primal Quest Montana race course, where she and her Nike teammates will be the defending champions.

To her, that much climbing means mountains, lots of them, which means beauty, lots of it, which means, well … better to let her tell it.

“A hundred thousand vertical feet,” she said, her eyes widening as hints of intrigue leaked through an otherwise straightforward tone. “It’s kind of the only reason I’m doing the race, to be honest — because it’s mountainous. I just love summits. And I think it’s easier to suffer if the surroundings are beautiful.”

When the fifth edition of America’s most famous adventure race commences Monday morning at 8 a.m. from Big Sky Resort, the 82 coed teams of four won’t be setting out on a torture march through the sweltering Utah desert, as they did two years ago, the last time Primal Quest was held.

They will be embarking on a voyage through some of the most rugged — and, thanks to a record winter, unseasonably snow-covered — backcountry terrain in the Mountain West.

Don Mann, an ex-Navy SEAL of 21 years who is directing the race, said earlier this week there is still so much snow up high in Big Sky, there will be avalanche-control crews on course prior to the start of the race, and snowshoes have been added to the list of mandatory gear.

He said the rivers are running so fast and furious that teams will face 3-foot whitewater waves for 10 hours straight in hard-shell kayaks during one particular leg of the event.

On a related note, whereas most expedition-length competitions such as the 10-day Primal Quest do not allow GPS units, many of the trails and routes for this race are still buried under up to 10 feet of snow, which prompted Mann to add GPS units to the gear list.

It was an unpopular decision among elite teams with top-tier navigators who would otherwise deliver their squads an advantage, but Mann said he made the change in light of the safety concerns that go with teams wandering off course in remote, grizzly-populated country.

“On its surface,” said Robyn Benincasa, who will captain Merrell/Zanfel Adventure, “this is going to be a really ugly race. From what I understand we’re going to be going up and down for quite a while.”

The contenders

Given Nike’s makeup of experienced mountain dwellers, there could not be better news.

Merrill will be joined by longtime Nike captain Mike Kloser, 48, of Vail, one of the most successful adventure racers in history; Idaho veteran Michael Tobin, 44, a lanky but rawhide-tough triathlon world champion who, in the 2006 Primal Quest, ripped a toenail off his foot because he was sick of it catching his shoe; and Kiwi navigational wunderkind Chris Forne, who earned a Ph.D. in engineering last year.

The same foursome won last summer’s world championship in Scotland, on another climbing-heavy course, and Tobin and Kloser have been on the winning team in all four Primal Quests.

“As long as we stay healthy and stay on course,” Kloser said this week, “I think it’s a race that’s ours to lose.”

Benincasa’s squad could have something to say about that, along with, among a few others (the field is slightly diluted by a race this week in Ireland), including TeamPeakAdventure.com, a strapping Canadian foursome led by a husband-wife duo from the Yukon Territory. They took fourth in 2006.

Benincasa, a firefighter from San Diego and one of the original American female racers, used to compete alongside Kloser and Tobin before the team secured its Nike sponsorship six years ago.

This year she’ll be joined by 20-year expedition racing veteran John Jacoby, an Australian paddling champion who belies his burly build with sub-3-hour marathons; Travis Macy, a spunky 25-year-old Denver teacher who missed the 2006 race with a broken collarbone; and 28-year-old Aaron Prince of New Zealand, arguably the most talented navigator in the race.

A different race

The elite teams will be competing for a $25,000 grand prize, perhaps the most obvious sign that the race is being presented on different terms than its four previous editions.

In years past, the winning team took home four times that amount — $100,000 — and each of the top 10 teams earned cash prizes. This year only the top five will win money.

The reason is salient. Two years ago, as a desert racer lay in serious danger of perishing from heat stroke, race owner Denise Watkins — who, along with her husband, lost between $2 million and $3 million per year putting on the race, Mann estimated — confessed to Mann that it was too much for her to continue funding such a dangerous, consuming mission.

With the options being to either watch the race die or take it upon himself to save it, Mann consulted his wife, Dawn, and decided on the latter.

They cut the purse and upped the entry fee. When that wasn’t enough, they took out a line of credit on their own house.

The full-time workers staffing this race, Mann said, are making about $100 per week.

“Based on our business model,” he said, “if we’d gotten 90 teams, we would’ve broken even.”



“It’s not sustainable this way,” he added.

The hope, though, is that another investor will take the reins from the Watkinses and deliver the race — and the sport — a richer, brighter future. Much of that, as it always has, hinges on television exposure.

Whereas past editions ended up on CBS or, as was the case in 2006, ABC and ESPN, this year’s race is going to be broadcast on Rush HD, an action-sports network that will show the event in four half-hour episodes, up to 50 times in the next year, Mann said.

It is a far cry from his near-miss deal with NBC, which fell apart when the writers’ strike ended, but his excitement is hardly tempered at this point.

On Monday, Mann will watch as 336 hungry human explorers begin what promises to be a defining week in their lives. For most, finishing is but a prayer — albeit one that cost $12,500.

For professionals like Merrill and Nike, however, this is business. One living hell of an occupation, at that.

“It’s like going to work for a week,” Merrill said. “Some days you feel good, some days you feel bad, some days you sleep well, some days you don’t, some days your boss yells at you, some days you get along … I’m just hoping to have a good week of work.”

<i> Devon O'Neil is a freelancer living in Breckenridge. </i>

Click here to read about Merrill's training regimen

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