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What Is Adventure Racing? Where Do These Racers Come From?
Did you know that according to the Full Moon Adventure race company, 24% of their competitors come from a running background? Trail running, marathons and ultramarathons are some obvious foundation choices based on their endurance and strength demands as well as orienteering since it not only involves running but exercises the mind through precision map reading. It’s a natural transition for many runners to cross train to improve their running abilities and promote overall conditioning. The cross training concept has lead runners to consider adventure racing. Adventure racing is generally a team sport, though solo races do exist, and the team events offer a sense of camaraderie that can be missing in conventional, solo running races. Originating 20 years ago in New Zealand, adventure racing has only emerged in North America recently, with the introduction of Eco-Challenge in 1995. There are several types of adventure races available, catering to all abilities from beginners to the extreme racer.
Mountain marathons are typically two day staged mountain navigation races, typically run in pairs, carrying all the gear to be self sufficient for the duration of the race.
Rogaines are long (12-24hr) trekking races where the objective is to navigate to as many of the checkpoints as possible, normally using a 1:50,000 scale map.
Adventure racing is traditionally defined as having the following elements:
Navigating
The Adventure Race Course
Everyone
sooner or later learns that physical stamina alone would not make one an
adventure racer. Adventure
racing presents constant mental challenges as racers must choose and
navigate their own route between designated checkpoints*.
There is a lot of thought that goes into selecting a path that
minimizes physical effort, increases personal safety and prevents time
consuming diversions. On a
level playing field of strong competition, good navigation can often be
the difference between winning a race and being disqualified for failing
to make time cut-off points. If you want to be a good racer, it is important to integrate navigation training exercises into trail running, mountain biking, cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Navigation skills have to become innate because when sleep and food deprivation kicks in, the brain must think for itself. Reading contours and compasses becomes critical for staying on the right path especially when visibility is limited. It takes time to become proficient and so navigation training for an adventure race should be started as soon as possible. The participants' backgrounds ranged from runners like me who were keen to get into adventure racing to seasoned competitors who wanted to hone their navigation skills.
Learning
To Navigate
Foothills Wanders Orienteering Club (Calgary, Alberta) - www.orienteeringcalgary.ca Overlanders Orienteering Club (Edmonton, Alberta) - www.orienteer.ab.ca
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Several
adventure races deviate from this standard definition.