One Door Closes and Another Opens

It is a mix of good and not good news.

Dan has to drop out of the team. His wife Robin is having some health problems and Dan made the decision that he can't deal with that and help Robin and be commited to the team. Family is always first. Paulette, Lisa, and Gary agree. We are thinking of them and wish them the best.

The good news is that we have found a new teammate. Jason Kingsbury has just moved here from MN. and has brain damage, thinks Primal Quest will be fun. Jason is 28, a runner, mountain biker and mellow guy. He has some climbing and paddling skills. He is also a bike mechanic, that will help in the transitions.

We went for a 4 hour trek Saturday and a Ride on Sunday. I think he will fit right in with the team. He even knows most of the same words that Lisa uses.

Jason will be posting an essay so you can find out in his own words what the hell he was thinking.

Thanks for Reading
Now go get better Robin
Randy

We'll Always Have Paris

I took Floppy to the airport this am. It was just like Rick and Elsa. Standing on the pavement in the rain saying goodbye. Of course Rick and Elsa didn't have cell phones, email, and Skype. Oh and they were in a movie and Floppy didn't need a letter of transit. And no Nazis. But other than that it was the same.

Standby for a big announcement soon.

Now go play in the rain,
Randy

Saturday, Feb. 7 & Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009

by Paulette

Saturday Feb. 7, 2009

Morning started with a PQ run/hike and slide on critter trails near our house. There is still a lot of snow and ice. Randy, Gary H., Jason, Paulette and Tito were there. Tito(4 legged) threw up a couple times. Must be the excitment of his new younger sibbling that will join us when she gets bigger. We welcomed the friendly temperatures. We were out 3 hours and 20 minutes.

Paulette had enough time to stop at home, eat and pack camping gear. Paulette and Karrie met at 1430 to find a campsite and pitch tents in the area of Alkali Creek. We didn't need the campground ! Not when we can pitch tents on high ridges.

At 1600, Paulette, Gary H., Gary M., and Karrie (I'm trying to spell her name correctly but she tells me she had it wrong for a while until she got her birth certifiacte, so I won't feel too bad) were present at the Alkali Creek area, near Ft. Meade. Gary has trained and tested many officer candidates for navigation here. We began in daylight and finished in moonlight. It was grand ! We found all the markers and didn't get lost ! We used topo maps, landmarks such as the moon, the bright planet in the west and the bright star in the east.
Gary & Gary drove home. There was peppermint schnapps, a hike/run and a full moon until 2200 for Karrie and Paulette. Life doesn't get much better than this ! We climbed into our tents at 2200. I was a little worried when I saw frost on the inside and outside of my tent and on my bag when I climbed in. I cinched up my mummy bag, leaving a breathing hole and slept well. Karrie is a new camper and used borrowed gear. She managed to stay warm in the fetal position. At night the noises change to sounds of the wildlife such as cats, hooves, and coyotes.

Sunday Feb. 8, 2009

We awoke in our tents to a beautiful sunrise. We hiked/ran for 2 1/2 hours. Again, we enjoyed warm temperatures. We checked out the spot where I have found fossils in the past. So interesting to find these in the prairie at elevations of about 3500 feet. It was interesting to navigate the same areas from last night in the daylight. Working up a sweat is not as worrisome when one can get into a warm car to drive home.


Randy will be one of the last persons Gary Miller sees in SD when he takes him to the airport tomorrow morning. Lucky guy! Gary will be in Iraq soon. I'll be thinking of him, and again, talking to him throught the wonders of e-mail. He has been immensly helpful sharing his friendship, knowledge and experience with navigation, web training and support. I'll miss him and look forward to seeing him back in Rapid City in a year.

"Merci Beaucoup and Au Revoir Gary"

Paulette

O Say Can You See

It's been a quite week at TeamSouthDakota. I had a Birthday, Paulette and Lisa picked up their new bikes, and Floppy's getting ready to go to Iraq.

This whole mess is sort of Floppy's fault.

It started in 2002 (cue flashback music). In 2002 I won the over 40 24 Hour Mountain Bike World Championship. Cool. So in 2003 I decied to do a Lance and only do one race, Worlds. It didn't go good. When I got home I was pretty depressedand didn't want anything to do with a bike. So I started running a little. One day I went with Skippy who was getting a new Mac. Floppy was there and knew me from races. Me I don't remember anybody, but took His word for it. He suggested that I come and run Wednesdays with the Runers Club,I did, it was fun, Paulette started running a bit, then we started trail running, and we ran the Centennial every Spring, and the Paulette did an Adventure race or two, and time passed and Primal Quest came to town.

Now Floppy is going to Iraq for a year,and We will miss Him. He's been helping with Nav and map reading. It's not hard to till that He's been teaching for like 50 years. He has also set up our website and showed me how to work it. Worst of all He set Me on the path to the Dark Side,my name is Randy and I am a Mac user.

So it sucks that He won't be here to help with training and the race. But We will be thinking about him (and Skyping) and a year will pass fast and He will be home and I'll have to give back one of my Macs. But that will be OK.

Randy

Thanks for reading
Now go play in the sandbox

Hello MaryLou

Aaron Nelson of the Black Hills PIoneer wrote a nice article on the Team this week. We all spent some time talking to him.Aaron will be doing more stories as training moves on. He is a mountain biker and will be coming out with on some rides.

http://www.bhpioneer.com/articles/2009/01/31/breaking_news/doc4981de2a4ab3f896377982.txt

Speaking of rides Haven picked up his Kona http://www.konaworld.com/index_na.htm this week.Paulette is going to get Hers today.

Thanks for reading
now go play in a DC-3
Randy

O Canada

We just found out that are new Kona's are in.Tim at Acme hooked us up with Kona and 4 new 120 Supremes to train and race on.

Now we need some nice weather so we can try them.

The training schedule is coming together. We will do the Black Hills Adventure race May 2nd and then I will set up a course for the team to do over night. May 15/16 we are going to trek the Centennial Trail all 112 miles. 2 weeks later a 2 day kayak. and the in June a double Mickelson, Hill City to Edgemont and back and then to Deadwood and back.

Then lots of Nav in July.

Thanks for reading
now go play under a Harvest Moon

Randy

Another Cold Shot

Sunday, January 25, 2009

There is fresh snow, the sun is out and the temp is still in the single digits today. Gary H., Lisa G., Randy, Emma and Paulette were present. We started at our house so we don't need a trail (do we ever?). We make our way hiking and running in the snow. The trail is everything but flat, which keeps us warm. Emma bounds through the snow. The views are nice, especially when we overlook Pactola, which is snow covered and frozen. You can see this view on the video from today. Thanks to Randy, the camera man. We are out 3 hours.
Afterwards, we make plans for future training, gear, cost and obtaining sponsorship. Paulette has posted new plans on the calender.
We hope Dan, our team member who lives in Sioux Falls, will join us in 3 weeks.
Paulette finishes the day with Dexter, a spin on her bike (snow and ice free), weights, and pull ups.

Should we listen to Scat Scratch Fever

Paulette