On Wednesday, Team Merrell Adventure Addicts set course for Burnie, Tasmania’s western-most city. This ‘gateway’ to the West Coast wilderness region will play host to the Adventure Racing World Championships (ARWC), with nearly a hundred four-man teams from 23 countries aiming for top spot. This 700km, non-stop race starts on the 2nd of November, and the winning teams will take at least 5-6 days to complete the course.
So Team Charnas (as in my charna bru) was back in business this weekend, this time made up of Seth, Martin, Kevin and yours truly (Stijn). The venue was Ribbokkloof Lodge, about 40km NE of Middelburg and, as most of you will know, it’s flat as a pancake.
The third Metrogaine Jo’burg took place on Tuesday (11 Oct) through the suburbs of Norwood, Houghton, Oaklands, Orchards and Orange Grove. These suburbs, like at the previous Metrogaine Jo’burg from Zoo Lake, are well suited to metrogaining because there are very few road closures, which opens up route choice options.
FEAT, the evening of talks by South African adventurers, takes place next week. Aside from the diverse line-up, which includes talks on the disciplines of climbing, big-wave surfing, expedition mountain biking and post-expedition psychology, there’s also an exciting announcement. The first recipient of the FEAT Award will be made public.
A super report by William Cairns on his recent experience at a solo, non-stop AR in the South-west of England. “After having decided a while ago that I wanted to do an overseas race, I did a whole lot of internet searching and discovered the South West Coast 2 Coast race in the South-west of England.”
With the Adventure Racing World Championships just a month away from kicking off in Tasmania, the final line up of teams has been decided… now the serious stuff begins. Last year’s XPD offered competitors the chance to tangle with stinging trees, get leaches stuck to their eyeballs and collide with crocodiles in the middle of the night…
Q: A mate and I are starting out adventure racing and loving it. We are however very uninformed and I would like to know if there is any websites or places I can go to to find a proper training programme.
“My mom is 59 and she hasn’t done any cardio sports for maybe 20 years, only Tai Chi. After watching the video of FEAT talks from the Cape Town event she says to me, “I need an adventure”. In March she started walking training and, today, she is in Spain having completed her 16th day of walking on the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route.
In April, South Africa’s adventure racing website – www.AR.co.za – turned 10. That’s 10 years of listing events, covering races, posting articles and race reports. In this decade, adventure racing locally has been through many evolutions and generations of racers.
I really, really struggle to keep on top of training. I’m mostly consistent but I do not often fit in as much as I’d like to. And how much would enough be? How long, indeed, is a piece of string? I especially battle to maintain a balance of training in adventure racing’s three fundamental disciplines: running, biking and paddling. The scales shift constantly with lots of this and too little (or none!) of that.
AdventureLisa Blog