“I tend to be the one who worries. I’m uptight,” said McNeil, a graduate of Kenton Ridge High School. “I don’t fall asleep. I start thinking about the next objective. We just did a race in Michigan. When we stopped to sleep, I went right to the tent. I’ve got to put down whatever I’m doing and go straight there, so I don’t start doing things and then start thinking about items No. 2, 3, 4 and 5.”
Learning from last year
There’s little time left to worry. McNeil and her parents, Marty and Don McNeil, left Springfield early today, Aug. 9, for the Badlands and Black Hills of South Dakota. She will meet three teammates there to compete in the Primal Quest, a 600-mile, nonstop adventure race that begins Friday, Aug. 14, and continues through Aug. 23.
By this point, McNeil has trained, prepared and packed all she can. On Thursday afternoon, her mom packed the food she’ll eat during the race. Beef jerky, Twizzlers, peanut butter, mini ravioli, raisins, Ensure nutrition shakes — it all went into individual packs labeled with the number of calories in each pack.
The Primal Request requires its competitors to navigate the course by hiking, biking, kayaking, climbing, caving and swimming, but eating, drinking and sleeping well are just as important.
At last year’s Primal Quest in Montana, McNeil’s team dropped out just past the halfway point. It had already lost one member to a broken hand when McNeil’s two remaining teammates — Chris Decker, 45, and Dan DeBenhke, 50 — noticed signs of altitude sickness in McNeil.
“They thought I was getting sick. They’re both ER doctors,” McNeil said. “I thought I was just exhausted. In hindsight, I was getting less sleep than they were. I really just needed more sleep.”
Quitting the race was a disappointing experience, Decker said, but the right decision. He said they still had 1,000 feet to climb that night, and they had a steep snowfield to cross with the danger of falling through the snow to the frozen creek running below them. Everyone had to be on top of their game. He felt they weren’t.
One year later, the Milwaukee doctors Decker and DeBenhke and Primal Quest rookie Cathy Diamond, 40, also of Milwaukee, join McNeil for another try. Failing to finish in 2008 motivates them in 2009.
“If you work as a team, the race is doable,” Decker said. “There’s a huge mental component to it. There’s also a big physical component. I think if we had managed things differently, we would have been fine. We felt like we didn’t have overwhelming bad luck. There are things here we could fix.”
Running with the pros
Winning the race isn’t exactly the goal for McNeil’s team. Even though Team Nike, which has dominated the five previous Primal Quests, had to withdraw because of an injury to one of its racers, McNeil realizes finishing the race in a respectable time would be an achievement.
“I’m an average person,” McNeil said. “I’m a good athlete, but you’re out there racing against professional athletes. You’re traveling the same course they are. They’re going a little faster, but you’re right there with some top-notch athletes, going through the same grueling crap.”
McNeil knows something about professional athletes. Since 2006, she has been a massage therapist for the Cincinnati Reds. In 2007, she signed a contract to be the team’s sole massage therapist. She has a contract through 2010.
“They’re just like anybody else,” McNeil said. “I probably went in thinking there were going to be some prima donnas, but the guys down there are nothing like that. They’re very down to earth. They’re like any of my other clients. Granted, they usually have to go out and play that day and make a little more money than most of us.”
McNeil’s massage skills might not pay big dividends on the course. Decker said the team didn’t take advantage of McNeil’s talented hands in 2008.
But McNeil is good with directions, and that’s important. The team carries a GPS tracking unit and can always push a button if there’s an emergency, but can’t use it to plot its course. It has topographical maps for that.
“The Badlands is supposed to be more of a navigational challenge compared to Montana,” McNeil said. “There are more choices in the Badlands. What you may consider a straight line could actually take you longer. You may want to take the long way, which could be easier and faster.”
Bizarre kind of fun
McNeil’s adventures have inspired her family. Her nephew, Randon McNeil, said she’s positive in everything she does.
Her mom, Marty, admires her energy.
“She passes that energy on to other individuals, like the SPY swim team,” Marty said. “She’s gotten them interested in triathlons and adventure racing.”
“She’s dedicated and hard working,” Don McNeil said. “We’re supporting her, taking her out there. She’ll stay with us until the team all gets there. When you go climbing and kayaking and bushwhacking, you always come back bruised. We never worried until she got into adventure racing.”
The suffering is all part of the fun for Mickey.
“It’s the challenge, the adrenaline, hoping you’re getting to where you need to be,” she said. “It’s a bizarre kind of fun.”
Contact this reporter at
(937) 328-0351 or djablonski@coxohio.com.
About the Author
