The 2015 Primal Quest Expedition Adventure Race concluded a few days ago, after nine days of challenges to the 11 four person teams. This was an unsupported race, meaning there was no crew support. Race organizers, medical staff, and general volunteers all worked together to provide levels of support that were awe-inspiring. People worked together to help the racers get through over 400 miles of a variety of disciplines: trekking, orienteering, white water kayaking and rafting, mountain biking (sometimes referred to as hike-a-bike), ascending and rappelling, sleep deprivation, extreme heat and more. Through all this I am fairly certain that everyone had fun.
At the eight TAs (transitions areas), where racers changed from one discipline to another, were a number of volunteers. Medical staff included doctors, podiatrists, nurses, paramedics, physical therapists, athletic trainers, and more. Our job was to care for whatever medical needs the racers had, including anything and everything. Even though the teams carried mandatory medical gear, most relied on the medical staff for their advanced foot care skills and materials. Khristy Gavigan, an RN and the medical volunteer coordinator, had done an amazing job of assembling extensive medical kits for each TA.
I worked two TAs – TA3 and TA6. At each TA, we set up and area where the teams checked in, arranged their gear so they could get to their gear and bike boxes, and decided on an area for medical and foot care. Generally we went through all the medical bags to see what supplies we had.
Because the four person teams were seen at each TA, there was a lot of foot care required. Many times we worked on all four team members in assembly line fashion. There was a mix of problems, but it seemed we saw more toe blisters and toenail care required than usual. Many toes had the skin torn off the top of blisters. While there was a lot of heel blisters, there didn’t seem to be many ball-of-the-foot blisters. Treatment was with kinesiology RockTape and in some instances, Leukotape.
Teams might receive some foot care at one TA, and the next, and the next, and so on. That’s the nature of an adventure race with multiple disciplines.
Some of the teams were short coursed – meaning they bypassed one or more discipline due to overall time cutoffs. This reduced the number of racers with maceration from one of the kayak sections, and reduced more foot issues from the following 50-mile trek. All in all, I think feet were pretty much what I expected. The majority of teams were prepared with supplies to repair their feet, which is always nice to see.
