You may have heard of the
Raid Series,
a very high profile set of races with a qualifying race on different
continents and a championship expedition-length race at the end of the
season. The Raid Series is promoted as a successor to
eco-challenge or on par with
PrimalQuest and other well-known
big races. Here's the scandal, in my eyes:
A GPS device is mandatory gear for the Raid races.
Can you hear me in the back? Every team must have a GPS to race a Raid event.
I've never heard of an "adventure race" requiring a GPS device and I
think it's sad that the Raid is never called out for it online or in
Adventure Sports Magazine or elsewhere. The race photos always
show racers agonizing over maps and
never fiddling with their
GPS unit -- to me, because of the GPS requirement, the Raid is an
off-road track meet masquerading as an adventure race. I have no
doubt it is physically challenging, but a huge mental angle is removed
by requiring GPS. No more collecting terrain features or
orienteering by catching features. Instead, just fire up the GPS
and voila: just take 450 paces to our right and the CP is there.