The G-Rant : Grant's Rants on Adventure Racing

The reason I read your blog is to better understand AR. Today's post said alot about you as an AR and maybe AR's in general.

"I don't like races that are just track meets,"

I find this attitude among some crit cyclists who absolutely detest TTs.

For someone like myself I live to push myself to the limit. To find out how much faster (or further) I can go compared to last year. When I cross the line and either beat or lose to my closest competitor I know where I stand. In crit racing, and maybe if I understand a bit more given what you wrote, that is not where the AR "get's it." They get it in knowing they out thought the other racers, biked a more direct route, paddled a straighter course, or ran a shorter distance all by reading the map and making better decisions.

I'm glad you wrote what you did because I really need to think about it. How would I feel if my team, which I know is slower, somehow figured out a quicker route and beat that team? I've never had to think about it that way and when I did, someone was cheating so it didn't matter.

Very interesting. And please I mean no disrespect what so ever to you or your sport. Like I said, just trying to understand.

Some interesting comments from Mark. Let me offer some additional insights. I also definitely do enjoy the "competitor vs. course" aspect that Grant mentioned in his reply (that's a big part of the reason I don't do tri's...along with my lack of swimming skills and lack of a road bike!). However, I think it is really the aspect of BOTH "competitor vs. course" AND "competitor vs. competitor" that makes AR truly different an enjoyable. I don't see AR as racing against a course, but rather racing against others while navigating thru a course.

Mark, I know this goes against the grain of a triathlon (not sure if you do tris or not), but try to think of the orienteering and map reading piece of adventure racing as just another skill (among many!) that you need to employ employ to get to the finish line faster. You said "How would I feel if my team, which I know is slower, somehow figured out a quicker route and beat that team?" To put a triathlon spin on this, how would you feel if someone who you know if a bit slower than you passed you in transition because they are better at transitioning that you? When I train for AR, I practice everything...faster transitions, navigvation, biking, paddling, swimming (yes, we DO swim sometimes...just ask any Tidewater Traverse finisher!). We have plenty of opportunites to go head to head with other teams in a paddle ection or a bike section, and if someone passes me there, I assume it is because they have trained harder and are better bikers or paddlers. Same is true for the navigation piece...if someone finds a better (not necessarily shorter!) route than me, I assume it is because they have trained harder at the orienteering piece and they are better navigators. I think that the navigation peice of any AR adds a very cool "mental" aspect that you just don;t find in other sports.

You also mentio0ned that you "live to push myself to the limit". If yes, I think you'd really enjoy AR beucase that is what it is all about...but not just pushing yourself harder to do the same ride faster the next time, but pushing yourself harder to try new things and STILL get to the finish line as fast as you can while doing it. For example, if you were new to AR last year and decided to do The Storm race, you would have found yourself in a cold wet kayak, at night, in open water, in decent sized waves and wind, trying to navigate to an unseen island in the distsance...all while paddling as HARD as you possibly could to try to stay ahead of one or more teams that were right on your heels. I can't think of a better way to push yourself to the limit!

Given that this site is about AR I didn't want to announce my grand (*cough yeah right *cough) history in another sport. But since the question was posed, I'll answer quickly then move on to the good points Jim mentioned. I'm a 6'2" 220lb Clydesdale doing Tri's and Du's for about 15 years. Have completed in every distance from Sprint (.25mi-10mi-3.1mi) to 1/2 IM (1.25mi-56mi-13.1mi). Middle packer with moments of goodness when everyone else flats. ;-)

Regarding the course comment. I think you get the same thing in Tris. Some courses are hilly and favor the lightweights, while others have open water swims that favor the stronger swimmers. Etc etc.  

Regarding the transition issue, I agree but getting back to my sorta point, everyone knows going in that everyone will need to perform a transition (two actually) so it's something you can practice.  

I guess when I see stuff like GK said, "trails aren't always mapped, batteries fail on your headlamp, " and given my background, I equate that to a mechanical..like a flat. When that happens in Tri's, no one I know takes any great pleasure in beating the other person because it wasn't a fair fight. Sorta like what happens in the Tour. If the yellow jersey flats you wait and don't attack. Lance did it for Jan and Jan did the same to Lance. Both wanted to make sure that if they won there would be no excuses.

Conversely if everyone goes into an AR knowing that what ever happens, happens then I could push aside my concerns noted above.

Given all the feedback you have been providing would a HiTech type AR be a good starting point for someone like myself (and fellow trigeeks?)

Not to state the obvious but great thread.

Hey Mark. I agree that you can still get somewhat of a "competitor vs course" aspect in tris...but the difference is that everyone is required (or forced? ;-) to do the exact same course...while adventure racers are usually free to choose their own route from checkpoint to checkpoint. This means that you need to be very good at reading maps, interpreting terrain, making smart decisions about extra distance vs extra elevation etc. That is the part that I think makes adventure racing a unique challenge. If you do start to do ARs, you'll learn to treat failing batteries, unmarked trails, flats (and more!) not as "mechanicals" but simply as facts of life in adventure racing. With a tri, the only things that will generally slow you down are a bike breakdown, a crash/fall or a body/health breakdown. With an AR the list of possible risks to manage includes all of those but is MUCH MUCH larger...which in my mind only adds to the unique challenge. For example, you could have a flat, or forget/drop a piece of required race gear, or lose your compass or your map, or get your maps wet, or have your boat capsize, or have a teammate that is sick or injured, or have a peice of gear fail (headlamp, paddle, compass, PFD, bike, backpack, water bladder, harness, batteries, jacket, etc.), or have teammates that are not getting along, or be completely lost...and the list goes on and on. I've experienced ALL of these things (and more!) in adventure races and I think the unique challenge is how you and your team will respond to (and hopefully overcome) the challenges you face. If you get flat in a short tri, your race may be done...but that would only be one small part of a long AR. For example, in the Tidewater Traverse a couple weeks ago my team experienced all of the following over the 12 hour course: We had one teammate (me) sick and on the verge of puking most of the day; We had one flat tire; We had one of our teammates left crank start coming off of his bike; We had a couple bike crashes; I lost my compass during an orienteering section; And we had one section where we wasted 45 minutes looking for a checkpoint that we had actually already found (don't ask how we did that!)...yet we managed to work together as a team to overcome all of that and still finish 4th out of nearly 50 teams. The team dynamic is another aspect that I truly love about AR. You are only as fast as your slowest teammate, so the team always needs to work together to work together and travel quickly as a single unit.

As for the Hi Tec races, they unfortunately no longer exist. That series was a GREAT vehicle to get people to try AR (that's where I got my start about 7 years ago). However, there are a number of other smaler races cropping up to take it's place. I've seen or heard of people tackling a 24 hour race as their first AR...and some people even pick something like the Primal Quest (7+ days) as their first race. However, I'd recommended a shorter "sprint" race (4-6 hours) just to see if you like the sport before you start buying the gear you'd need to do a longer race. Hope that helps!

Jim

Given that the longest period of time of straight through racing I have ever done is my 1/2IM (high 5hrs I think) race I'm guessing that a 24hr would not be a good place to start for me. ;-)

My friends and I have tossed around the idea of doing a 24 mtb race to see how each of us would react to the screwed up sleep patterns. But we've never taken the next step.

Thanks for the great advice.

Mark, definitely give AR a try with a 4-6 hr sprint race that includes navigating.  You may enjoy the change in focus, problem solving, and the variety of skills, as Jim mentioned.  May seem like a lot of time compared to traditional tri's, but the time just flies by b/c you're having so much fun (except in Jim's story, above) and trying to solve a puzzle.  Adv racing is fantastic.  

And definitely no need to separate Tri racer discussions from AR racer discussions.  A lot of folks dabble in both.   I enjoy racing onroad tri's, offroad tri's, and adventure racing.  To thoroughly confuse my body, this summer I'll do an ironman in Aug and head to HRadventure's 18/24hr race in sept.  very different, but both fun.

Grant -- yes, england is the next stop for me.  & yes, Emily qualified for xterra worlds!  life is good.

-Brian
Richmond ASR