I've been seeing a lot of talk recently on the
TrailBlazers and
Central Florida Adventure Racers forums about the health of the sport of adventure racing. After a couple years of organizing (10 adventure races or more) and competing in adventure races up and down the East Coast, I feel like I've got a pretty good understanding of the situation.
Hampton Roads Adventure is a smashing success if you consider how many new people we've brought into the sport, and how we've galvanized the region around a sport that combines so many different disciplines. We have tremendous support from local businesses (BRMS, BikeBeat, Encompass-Adventure, etc) and a loyal following so that even our most ambitious events are selling-out (the
Eastern Shore of Virginia is pretty inconvenient to get to!). Thanks to a good website and some minimal, but smart, marketing we've established momentum and are adding on
new projects.
Conversely, Hampton Roads Adventure is a dismal failure if you consider monetary compensation for the organization; last I checked, we had about $300 "extra" in the bank and that's without paying any wages to any staff -- we're all 100% volunteers and for some of us it's nearly a second full-time job. We put all our revenue back into each race and it's probably part of why people claim they can "feel a difference" with our events. The income issue is fine, truly, as we do it because we love it, but it's unsustainable and we'll burn-out sooner or later. Fortunately for HRAdventure, there are more volunteers in line to pick up where we leave off, so I suspect HRAdventure will continue to grow and evolve for years to come.
I enjoy putting on races that I would like to compete in; if I'm going to invest my own time and energy, without compensation, I'm going to do it on events that I really like. This is why we only ran a single 3-hour event this year: I prefer to race in longer events, so I prefer to organize longer events. While more short races would certainly be popular, I don't want to invest all the time in getting permits, insurance, course vetting, sponsor contacts, etc for a measly 3 hours of racing -- that's not even a long training day by my standards! I know you're saying, "but Grant, more shorter races would attract more people for your longer races" and you're absolutely correct. But I don't want to invest my limited supply of energy on organizing shorter races when I could be planning something much more epic in
the barrier islands of Virginia's Atlantic coast! Besides, our longer races are exceeding our participant capacity so I don't see a need for more beginner races.
Is it selfish of me? Yes, but it's my time and my energy and one short event per year is sufficient in my opinion. We get emails
at least once a week asking when our next "short" or "beginner friendly" event of around 3-hours in duration will be. Currently, I have to tell them to wait until 2007 or, most recently, I can direct people to a
Diet that's going on in Richmond in September. There is a demand for the short race, but I'd rather be planning a longer race instead.
This does relate to the initial issue about the health of the sport of adventure racing. Based on my experience with Hampton Roads Adventure, I'm convinced somebody can build a successful race organization just about anywhere provided you have lots of energy and no regard for profit. Does this mean the sport is healthy? Not necessarily, but it does mean there are tons of people out there looking to get dirty in the woods, get frustrated with some maps, and get a great rush from the challenge of finishing the course.
There is demand. The
Muddy Buddy does a ton of marketing, charges an arm and a leg, and delivers about 1 hour of exercise to the participants . . . but they get hundreds of people out there showing they've tapped the same reservoir of weekend warriors looking to have fun in the woods. A short adventure race, marketed like crazy, could do the same thing . . . in fact, it already happened and was called the Balance Bar (previously Hi-Tec) Adventure Race. The
demand is still there, the weekend warriors came out of the woodwork for it, but there isn't a race filling the void.
HRAdventure has never aspired to fill the void created by the demise of the Balance Bar Race. I always steered HRAdventure away from the Balance Bar style (an off-road team triathlon) and, instead, sought to create an authentic adventure race following in the footsteps of Norm and Tracyn (the original owners of
Racing Ahead in Maine -- they've since left event management) and more classic adventure racing in general. Again, it's for selfish reasons: it's what I enjoy.
We've crunched the numbers (being at a
crossroads and all), and can see a way to eke out a living organizing adventure races as a business. It would have to involve several shorter races including a Balance Bar style event with tons of participants, and some other races too (running events like 10Ks are where you can really make some money -- the expenses and time investment are minimal compared with AR). The catch is that this would just be ekeing out a living. We're talking $10,000-$15,000 income if everything goes well. Sure, your lifestyle would be fun, but paying a mortgage and having a family become very challenging on such profits. Worse still, your "love" of adventure racing becomes the grind to make money and I'm certain the quality of events would erode.
For me, it's not an attractive proposition so I will let somebody else plan the next Balance Bar style adventure race with 250 teams, a course jam packed with people so that you never actually experience "the woods", and weeks of trail maintenance after the fact. How about
RichmondASR hosts the 2007 Richmond Adventure Race? I make it sound terrible, but that's my dark perspective on the Balance Bar type of race. In reality, this would introduce hundreds of new people to the sport of adventure racing and make for a great feeder-program for the more intense HRAdventure events; I'm sure it could be a lot of fun for somebody
else to organize. I can provide sponsor, insurance, and other contacts to whomever is interested . . . it's just not something that I'm interested in seeing through.
So, the moral of the story is that the "health" of adventure racing is difficult to diagnose. If "healthy" means lots of potential racers, I think it's healthy. If "healthy" means lots of events accessible to the potential racers, I think it's pretty healthy (the mid-Atlantic has several 3-6 hour events throughout the year to welcome the novice racer . . .
GoalsARA,
Ex2 Adventures, and a smattering of organizations in North Carolina) but could benefit from a Balance Bar type race. If "healthy" means race organizations making buckets of money, I think the sport is very sick because I know businesses like
Odyssey AR are just scraping by; gear manufacturers and retailers are the only ones with a steady trickle of income from adventure racers.
To close, I'm going to call out the
USARA (United States Adventure Racing Association) for their poor leadership. I am a member of USARA, so I feel entitled to point out that the "health" of the sport should be their #1 priority; instead, I get the sense their priority is maximizing the number of racers who pay their $8 fees every race. Where does the money go? HRAdventure doesn't sanction with USARA because the insurance is more expensive (for less coverage, depending on how you look at it)
and taxes the racer an extra $8 a shot (unless they spend $35 to become a USARA member). Plus, HRAdventure doesn't see any return on our investment with USARA sanctioning. Conversely,
ARResources.org (the only real alternative to USARA) is very transparent in their operations.
- -USARA should be providing seed money for events that entice new people to the sport (Balance Bar Series for example); I think this is just as meaningful as a US "national championship."
- -USARA should be active at events like the recent Outdoor Retailers Convention -- were they in Utah a few weeks ago talking with vendors and building relationships? I hope so, but I fear they weren't.
- -How about advertising online or in outdoor magazines? Virginia Tourism, for example, negotiated a great discount deal with Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine that VBAdventureFest took advantage of. How about negotiating for an "adventure racing" themed issue in the publication? Or better still, for a dedicated "adventure racing" page or two in each issue with editorial content and/or featured races . . . without Adventure Sports Magazine, USARA has to explore avenues like this and I know all of this media exposure is negotiable.
- -What about a newsletter (even just electronic!) from USARA once a quarter? It's a chance to connect with "members" and highlight a few races, maybe give some sponsor exposure. Email is a free medium!
I don't want to turn this into a USARA bash, and I've been constructive with my criticism. There are things only a local group can do for the sport, and then there are things only a national entity (such as USARA) can do. I don't see the USARA doing their fair share, and if you claim the sport on a national level is unhealthy (which might be a valid claim) I think you have to look at the USARA as a cause.
On the local level, however, adventure racing is healthier than I've seen it in years.