Team leader/ultra-endurance athlete Blain Reeves is a fierce competitor and outstanding athlete. He regularly competes in multi-sport events. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, he is best known in the military ranks for placing fifth in 1992 and first in 1993 in the very prestigious and grueling "Best Ranger" competition, a three day multi-event endurance competition ranked as one of the toughest in the world. Blain has also led teams that competed in the 1995 (Utah), 1996 (British Columbia), 1997 (Australia) Eco-Challenges, 1999 Southern Traverse (New Zealand) and the 1998 and 1999 "Beast of the East" Adventure Races. He currently holds one of the fastest times in the world for these types of races as a solo competitor. Blain serves as an instructor throughout the United States in many of the country's adventure racing academies.

Blain has completed many of the most physically and mentally demanding schools the military has to offer: US Army Ranger School, Airborne School, Air Assault School, Special Forces Combat Diver Course (US Navy Buds/SEAL School equivalent), Combat Lifesaver Course, Northern Warfare School, and the Army's Advanced Land Navigation Course. Blain spent a year in combat in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom with the 101st Airborne Division.

Blain’s “addiction” to adventure racing started in 1992, when he began training to compete in the U.S. Army’s Best Ranger Competition. After competing in 1992 and winning the competition in 1993, he says, “I received my initial dose of extreme sports competition, and I was hooked.”

The addiction deepened in 1995 after Mark Burnett (who later created “Survivor” and “The Apprentice”) told him about an epic race he was directing, “Eco-Challenge, Utah 1995.” It was the first race of its kind to reach U.S. soil. Blain was in—and hooked.

“The race was life changing,” Blain says. “I was addicted to pushing my body, mind and spirit further than they’ve ever been pushed before. Most of my military counterparts figured I would have had enough after completing many of the military’s most physically and mentally demanding schools. But there was something about this adventure racing…it never got easier…either the courses got harder or I got weaker…but every single race was a new challenge in itself. Maybe that’s what’s kept bringing me back.”

Blain completed PrimalQuest Utah 2006 and praises this year’s event as “the crown jewel of adventure racing.”

He is considered an asset in all disciplines, but is best recognized for his calm leadership under harsh deteriorating conditions, navigation expertise and survival skills. 

Blain calls teammates Patricia Smith, Don Nettlow, and Ulf Petri “without a doubt some of the sport’s best—certainly as strong a team as I’ve ever raced on. Primal Quest ’08 will be their stage to showcase their talent to the world as they go up against the world’s best adventure racers.”

As Team TravelCountry.com trains for PrimalQuest, team leader Blain Reeves offers this advice: “The weak and fainthearted need not apply. The last easy day was yesterday!”