Adventure Racing—Live it!

By Mike Caldwell

IT’S NOW DAY FIVE AND you and your teammates find yourselves trekking through thick, damp foliage infested with insects, spiders, and snakes. Your captain is delighted because it only took an hour to cover those last 500 metres. You tabulate that you’ve probably had a total of six hours of sleep since this event started and your feet certainly haven’t had the fortune of being

dry for anything close to that length of time. You have been surviving on energy bars, bagels, bags of nuts and dried fruit, but the majority of your meals have been squeezed out of a tube. Your main source of drinking water has come from brackish ponds and giardia-infested streams. Last night you helped remove a leech from your teammate on a part of the body generally considered unmentionable, even among this close group of friends. Now, as you head into the dark caves, knee deep in bat guano, you wonder if your arms will have the strength to pull you up those 200 metres of fixed rope…

This is the Eco-Challenge. This is Adventure Racing. What type of lunatic would compete in such a sport? Well, surprisingly, probably somebody just like you!

Adventure racing has been defined as a non-stop, multi-day, multi-sport, mixed team event, and in many ways can be likened to an expedition with a stopwatch, as each race is a point-to-point journey. During the race competitors will need to maximize their map and compass skills as they are responsible for determining the best way to hike, canoe, and mountain bike through what is often extremely remote wilderness. In order to finish, the team must stay on course and within the time restrictions, remain free from injury, and cross the finish line together.

It might still sound crazy, but adventure racing is the fastest growing sport in North America today, with an annual growth rate of 275%! Now, more than ever, people want to feel that

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Adventure racing is a non-stop, multi-discipline race covering distances of 50 - 500 km. Coed and same-gender teams of two, three or four complete the race as a team using race instructions and a mapped course. Teams OUTLAST their limits, challenging themselves with a selection of disciplines including mountain biking, hiking, orienteering, canoeing, kayaking, fixed rope climbing, rappelling, tyrolean traversing, white water rafting and whatever non-motorized mode of transportation is available along the race course. These demanding sports, the harsh elements of nature, and competition among competitors are the core of adventure racing.

Fitness, endurance, strength, intelligence, and mental toughness are necessities for all teams. The essence of teamwork ultimately decides a team's fate, the outcome of the race, and the adventure racing experience.

Find a team, gear up, get out and register! Find out how far you can go and whether you can OUTLAST your limits.

they’re alive; they want to live an adventure. Admittedly, expending thousands of dollars to spend a week trekking through the Borneo rainforest is not for the average Ottawa high tech worker. But this same sense of adventure can now be experienced right here in Eastern Ontario at many weekend events throughout the summer.

Organizations such as OUTLAST (www.outlast.ca) and Sea2Summit (www.sea2summit.com) have recognized the interest and the potential in adventure racing and have taken great strides toward making these races accessible to the majority of the public. It is now possible to find races for three and four-person teams that range in length from six to 36 hours. The first obstacle is simply getting started.

Probably the first thing an individual interested in adventure racing should do is share this dark secret with as many friends and coworkers as possible. Adventure racing is infectious; the more you talk about it, the more it spreads. Joining a club, or hooking up with somebody who has experienced a race is also a good idea. As Ottawa is the high tech capital of Canada, it makes sense that this city’s largest adventure racing club is online-based. To join Adventure Racing In Ottawa (ARIO) you simply need to visit their Web site, www.communityzero.com/ario. This web-based forum serves as an adventure racing community bulletin board where members can discuss the latest gear, organize training events, or look for potential teammates.

One of the first things you’re likely to discover about adventure racing is that the more interested you are in the sport, the more you need to learn. Because adventure racing incorporates a multitude of sports, it requires a considerable skill-set. Perhaps you are an avid mountain biker and rock climber but you couldn’t find north if there was a slab of ice and a red and white pole ten feet from your nose. Or perhaps you have been a camper your whole life and you are as comfortable in the wilderness as you are in your own living room, but the thought of dropping your butt over a 50 metre cliff scares the life out of you. Where do you start? How do you learn these new skills?

Interacting with an adventure racing club is one way to solve these problems. Go to some of the various training

sessions or organize your own; talk to the people who have raced before and learn from their mistakes. Adventure racing is more than just a sport; it is a community and a lifestyle. Once you are in, you want to be in deeper. Adventure racers live to talk about their experiences and share their adventures. Ask an adventure racer what shoes he/she prefers to race in and be prepared for an hour-long lecture on the pros and cons of all the various footwear available. You can learn a lot simply by associating with adventure racers. However, adventure racing clubs are not the only source of information.

Another method of breaking into the sport is to do an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. If you previously raced triathlons and feel you have a good level of fitness and skill on the bike, but you are concerned about navigation and the rope component, find a club or take a course that specifically addresses your weaker disciplines. There is an orienteering club in Ottawa that holds regular orienteering races rated beginner, intermediate and advanced (www.magma.ca/~ottawaoc). Participating in those races is a great way to hone your navigation skills and expand your comfort zone. There are indoor rock gyms and rock climbing organizations that can help you master rope skills and overcome your fear of heights. For every sport found within adventure racing, there is a club, a course, or an organization that can help you improve your proficiency in that area. But beware; adventure racing is much more than a simple succession of events. Entirely new dilemmas are created when all of these sports are linked and twisted together, making strategy paramount to any race.

For the person new to adventure racing, signing up for an adventure race clinic is a good option. In the Ottawa area, Synergy Adventure Training (www.synergyat.ca) offers two and three-day clinics that cover the a-z of adventure racing. Not only do these clinics cover all the skills associated with the sport and provide any necessary certifications, they also they teach how to approach these skills with an adventure racing “team” perspective. Within every team there will be teammates with different degrees of strength and proficiency in each discipline. Perhaps you are a pro-elite mountain bike racer and your teammate is a three-hour marathon runner. How can your strength on the bike help your teammate during the race? Synergy AT can teach you how to establish a tow system and how to effectively mountain bike as a team. You can learn different tricks of navigation, when to blaze your own trail and when to follow the road, how to make your way through the darkness of night, and how best to conserve your energy. Synergy teaches participants not only how to race but how to race smart.

There are other bonuses to taking an adventure race clinic. These clinics give you an opportunity to experience all the disciplines of an adventure race in a condensed time frame without the stress and physical exertion of competition. You will learn about yourself and discover where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You will learn how to train, what to practice, and what equipment to buy. Clinics are also fun, and offer the opportunity to meet other people with similar interests. Synergy’s clinics have been used by teams new to the sport, teams looking to improve their race standing, and individuals and couples looking to meet others to form a team.

In adventure racing, it is probably harder getting to the starting line than it is getting to the finish line. However, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. By reading this article you have already taken that important first step. Now let that excitement within you grow and infect others. Go online and join ARIO. See what races are out there; get some friends together and set your goals, perhaps one race this year and two or three in the next. Thousands of people are already competing in this sport and they are no different than you. Master the skills and build your team, and I’ll see you in Borneo! Good luck.

About the author: Mike Caldwell is the founder of Synergy Adventure Training. An experienced wilderness guide and ultra-endurance athlete, Mike brought his two passions together in an attempt to introduce others into the sport of adventure racing. A certified ropes course instructor and an advanced care paramedic, Mike specializes in rappelling, tyrolean traverse instruction and adventure race first aid. It is his responsibility to ensure that safety is the highest priority at every Corpsynergy clinic.

ADV ENT URE RAC ING START HERE!

Synergy Adventure Training utilizes the disciplines of orienteering, high ropes rappelling, mountain biking and canoeing to provide corporate teambuilding, adventure weekends and adventure race clinics.

For an adventurefilled weekend and an opportunity to expand your comfort zone and try something different, visit our website at www .synergyat.ca