Admittedly, not everyone is the “Hey, who put all these long straps on my favorite white jacket?” crazy you might be used to from me, but my little brother Justin has grown into his own. Don’t believe me? Check out the website for Primal Quest, a.k.a., “The World’s Most Challenging Human Endurance Competition.” (Yes, even more challenging than avoiding a hug from your creepy-looking, funky-smelling aunt who just wants to get a little closer to you.)
Justin and three other members of WEDALI (We Eat Dust… And Like It!) are running around in South Dakota for this adventure race: 10 days, 600 miles of trekking, orienteering, biking, climbing, caving, kayaking, swimming… oh, and occasionally an hour-long nap. It wouldn’t surprise me if I slept more last night than he will during the entire race.
To get a little perspective on how far 600 miles is, I drove down to a wedding this summer in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. From Lakeville to Lee’s Summit and back was 880 miles. During the span of the race, they’ll cover the distance to get down there and back into Iowa again. And I thought it was a long drive…
At this point, WEDALI has been on the course for 3 days and 17 hours, they’ve covered about 250 miles and they’re currently in 8th place. 8th place. Like I said, submitting his mind and body to that kind of abuse is his own special kind of crazy—I can pretty much guarantee they wouldn’t be doing that well if he was wearing my favorite white jacket.
That being said, I’m extremely proud of the little guy. That’s why when his wife suggested that a bunch of people send her some messages that she could stick to the inside of their gear tubs to help keep them upbeat, I threw in my two cents. It took me a little while, but here’s what I thought up (mind you, it’s partially inspired by the fact that signing up for the race costs a four-person team $11,500.):
“You paid to do Primal Quest—you own this race! Keep it up, guys!”
Has it helped? Have they “kept it up”? Well, you’d have to ask Justin, Erl, Jason and Andrea for yourself to know for sure, but you might get some idea if you drive down to the southern border of Iowa.
