| Overview |
What Is It?
It is quite simply a race where individuals and/or teams compete.
Races are typically from 4 hours to 5 days long, the longer races being broken down into stages.
Racing typically includes running, mountain biking, canoeing, orienteering and in some cases puzzle solving.
The Karrimor International Mountain Marathon in 1968 was perhaps the first adventure race. It required two-person teams traverse mountainous terrain while carrying everything required to support them through a double-length marathon run.
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Rules:
The rules vary from race to race but there are generally three common rules:
- No travel by motor vehicle.
- No outside assistance is permitted.
- Teams must carry mandatory equipment.
Each event will have it's own rules and each stage within an event may have further rules. Such rules will include out-of-bounds areas, emergency procedure, codes of conduct, timing and scoring.
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| Preparation: |
Physical Preparation:
Physical prepation takes time, you need to work out placing emphasis on the key areas you will be using in the race. Running and Cycling are two of the key areas I concentrate on, running 11km twice weekly and cycling 40km twice weekly at the gym. I have worked up to this over two years and I believe this gives me a basic level of cardio fitness for competing. Weight training is also important for building both the leg and lower back muscles that are used the most. Upper body training should not be neglected as races often include canoeing or rock climbing stages.
- Always warm up before exercise.
- Keep hydrated before, during and after exercise.
- Always warm down after exercise.
- Eat plenty of the right kind of food after exercise.
Diet is of course very important. I try to eat protein and carbohydrate about 30 minutes after exercise, typically pasta and chicken and some vegetables. Avoid greasy, fatty foods which are harder to digest.
Mental Preparation:
The mental side is much harder - you will be running for long periods at a time and it is important to stay focused. Stages with puzzles will require you to run perhaps 10km and then solve a puzzle at a checkpoint before running another 10km. Puzzles such as Tower of Hanoi, Tangram, Crosswords and Mensa problems are great for training your mind into the style of puzzle that is likely to be thrown up on some stages.
I find running as a team is much easier as two or more brains are better then one. Looking after your team mates is perhaps the most important thing as the team is only as fast as the slowest member.
Equipment:
- Running kit including trail shoes
- Mountain bike, including a basic tool kit and biking specific helmet
- Backpack with water bladder (e.g. a CamelBak)
- Equipment specified by race directors.
- First aid kit
- Compass
- CD marker pens
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| Race Format: |
Structure:
- Registration
- Briefing
- Preparation
- Race
- Debrief
The Race:
Many races follow a similar format where you are given a map of checkpoints (CPs) which you visit. Sometimes CPs are mandatory, sometimes they are optional, sometimes they are fake! When racing you visit the CPs in either a predetermined order or an order you decide on.
As the race develops you review your strategy - how are you and your team feeling? are you on schedule? What options do you have for additional CPs? Is the value of the CP worth the time it will take to reach it? All of these items weigh on your mind as you navigate terrain that can be rough and paths that may be overgrown.
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| Why? |
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Why on earth do I do this?
I enjoy the teamwork, I enjoy the strategy, I enjoy the challenge and I enjoy the high of finishing a race.
I don't often race on my own, the teamwork part of racing is important to me. With a team there is always encouragement, always validation and never ever blame.
As a strategist I am involved with helping to plan our route. Estimation of the time it will take to cover terrain of different types is critical to this. The difficulty of the ground, the fitness of the team and the value of checkpoints all have to be weighed up against the risk of an injury or puncture that might leave you well and truely out of the race.
The challenge is to keep going. Five hours of running, biking, thinking, planning and encouraging is not easy. From a physical perspective fitness is extremely important and from a mental perspective, focus is just as important.
The high as you cross the line is really something else. You have finished, you don't ned to run again! well, not today at least. When racing for charity there is the knowledge that you have helped make a difference for someones life.
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| Races To Date: |
2006 Micrsoft UK Challenge: (07/06/2006 - 10/06/2006)
4 days, 6 long mammoth stages with 115 teams from the UK and farther afield taking part. The event was held around Ayrshire and the Isle of Arran. Despite failing the construction task on stage 1 and incurring a 2 hour penalty which saw the team start in 89th place we fought hard and clawed our way back with some extremely tough competition to finish the event in 12th place, 6 places higher than the year before!
Micrsoft UK Challenge race report
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2006 Questars Training Weekend 2: (12/05/2006 - 14/05/2006)
Another 6 stage race over 3 days based around the Quantock hills in Somerset. This time all 6 of the FSB team took part and this was our first race experimenting with bungee cords for stronger runners to help tow weaker runners. 29 teams took part in this event including one of the stronger teams - Scottish Widows Mens team.
A great weekend where we only slipped up on a complex biking stage, coming in over the maximum time which saw us lose all of our bonus points for the stage. Still, a strong effort from all the team recovered us back to 3rd place overall.
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2006 Questars Adventure Race 1: (01/04/2006)
As an old hand now at this adventure racing lark I went with "The Anthill Mob" aka. Myself, ChrisB and Mark down to the New Forest to take part in the the first Quest race of 2006. In spite of this being our first outing as a team we performed well and finished top half of the class.
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2006 Questars Training Weekend 1: (10/03/2006 - 12/03/2006)
A 5 stage race over 3 days based around the Quantock hills in Somerset saw 5 of the FSB team including myself competing against 9 of the other teams that would be taking part in the 2006 Microsoft UK Challenge. Running, Mountain Bike, Puzzle and Construction stages all broken up with classroom and training sessions.
This was a great event for preparation and the team performed extremely well, finishing in 1st place.
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Questars Adventure Race 3: (13/08/2005)
A similar format to Questars race 1 except this time we were competing in the Vale of Pewsey and this was no training weekend, this was a 5 hour full-on race. Running, canoeing and bikeing were included in this race. A good solid performance saw us finish a touch early but achieving our objectives and scoring 425 points putting us in 18th position of the 41 teams in our class.
Questars Adventure Race 3 - race report
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2005 Micrsoft UK Challenge: (08/06/2005 - 11/06/2005)
A massive 4 day, 8 stage event with 119 teams from across the country competing around Aberystwyth. Night stages, puzzles, running, biking, canoeing, construction, sleep deprivation and games were all included in the monster event. My team took a cautious approach to the stages as the penalties for mesing up were extreme. As the sleep deprivation kicked in we started to suffer but by the end of the 4 days we finished in 18th place.
Micrsoft UK Challenge race report by Dave Kinder
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Questars Training Weekend: (06/05/2005 - 08/05/2005)
A 5 stage race over 3 days based around Aberystwyth. This included 2 night stages, puzzles at checkpoints and a mix of running, biking and canoeing. After overcooking up the first stage and coming in 5 minutes past stage close time my team of 5 made very strong progress eventually finishing in 5th position of the 32 teams taking part.
This was a hugely enjoyable weekend with the team really coming together and working well. Our navigation, strategies and fitness was coming along well.
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Questars Adventure Race 1: (24/04/2005)
A 4 hour race around Llangorse lake in Wales. This race consisted of running, biking and canoeing checkpoints of varying values which we could visit in any order we chose.
This was my first adventure and we used this as the first training event for the Microsoft Challenge that would be held later in the year. It was a very cold and wet day in Wales with a 40mph wind blowing across the lake. We were lucky to make any checkpoints on the lake as it took one of us maximum effort just to stay in one place! A solid cycle stage followed with us taking in a good number of checkpoints. Finally a rather queasy run of 2km across uneven, flooded fields saw us finish in 5th position out of the teams competing.
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