Although adventure racing is a multidiscipine sport, swimming is rarely included; well, not a swim of any significant distance. Sure, you see adventure racers in YouTube videos swimming – but they’re probably swimming less than 200m – with their backpacks – to cross a small dam or river.
In the final 50 meters of a sprint race, is it ok to overtake a team on a novelty obstacle course? This is a question that came out at a recent sprint race when two equally strong and competitive teams reached the inflatable obstacle course, the one slightly ahead of the other.
Occasionally teams encounter misplaced or missing controls at races; they get to where the control should be, but find that it isn’t there. What to do? Stay and hunt for it or continue on the course and speak to the race organiser later? I’m in favour of the latter. Go. Continue with the race.
Your entry is in for your first event and now you’re nipping, not sure what to expect when you arrive at the race venue. Fear no more! These are the basics…
What you eat during races all depends on a) the duration of the race and b) your personal preferences. The golden rule of race food is to pack food you like, can get down and keep down; and avoid too many sweeties and sweetened foods.
Orienteering is the most convenient and best way to train navigational skills. And it is far better to spend R40 to learn from mistakes at an orienteering event than to spend R1000 at an adventure race and compromise your team’s success through poor navigation.
You’ve got a few options in the headlight range with Black Diamond, Petzl and Princeton Tec being the main brands available in SA. Nicholas Mulder highlights a few considerations you need to make for AR… that it is as waterproof as possible; it needs to get you through a heavy downpour.
My shoe philosopy echoes that of Mark Collins, who said, “Every human being is different and when it comes to shoes. One type or make will definitely not fit or suit everybody. For this reason I would be very hesitant recommending any one shoe.
Some events have race photographers. Either the photographic company or the race organiser will post them online. The organiser may make a CD of photos available for purchase. www.AR.co.za does not host photo galleries for events. Please contact the race organiser.
Adventure racing includes events that are 2-hours in duration to others that are 5-days long. The shorter the event, the less you need. A mountain bike, helmet and trail shoes are standard. Why don’t you check out the event information or phone the specific organiser of the event you’re interested in doing?
