Adventure racing unplugged

Suffering hallucinations where you believe that every twig on the ground is a snake, or seeing family and friends appear out of rocks. Eating food you have dropped on the floor because you are so hungry and need the nourishment. Pushing your body, mind, and soul for days with very little or no sleep at all. Mention any of this to an adventure racer and they will understand immediately.

Adventure racing is a multi-discipline endurance sport where competitors compete unassisted in mixed, four-person teams, while navigating with map, compass, and landmarks from control point to control point in a number of disciplines, which can include: mountain biking, trekking, kayaking, swimming, rope work, and orienteering. Teams travel non-stop through a course than can be anywhere from 30 km to 1,000 km+, deciding if and when to rest. The first team to complete all the race legs and visit all the check points is declared the winner.

Key ingredients

It is a sport where the mental strength of competitors counts more than the physical strength, and where the endurance of competitors counts more than the speed. A good level of fitness and competency is needed in all the various disciplines, but the key ingredient to any adventure racer is the mental strength to push through the limits and be able to continue to go through whatever nature throws at you for days on end; heat, cold, rain, sun, darkness, mist, wind, uphill, and downhill. It is all about remaining mentally strong when you are at your limit, so that you can keep navigating to collect the various check points via the most optimal route. It is the ability to keep calm in situations when you get lost, or realise that you are far off course, or have missed a check point and need to backtrack or reroute for hours.

Team dynamics

The most challenging task that faces any team during an adventure race is team dynamics; it is the core ingredient to any successful adventure racing team. You need to put your absolute trust and faith in your teammates, thus working together to make the team faster. Then there's helping struggling teammates and being helped when you are struggling. Maintaining the focus and keeping the team together when times are tough and things are going wrong. Understanding the individual personalities and how they react and deal with situations and sleep deprivation. Ensuring that the team does not descend into conflict and blow itself apart.

Individual challenges

Although you work in a team, adventure racing is also all about the individual and how each person deals with the challenges. Pushing through the tough times, of which there will be many during a race, when your body is screaming from the pain or you are suffering from the dreaded 'sleep monster'. Taking your body and mind to the limit of its capabilities and still maintaining some comprehension of where you are and where you need to navigate. Keeping awake and lucid enough to ensure the safety of yourself and your teammates. Allowing the mind to take over, knowing that the body will recover and feel better in a matter of a few minutes, or a few hours.