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Adventure Racing Adventure Racing has been billed as the fastest growing sport in the UK. It's appeal is easy to understand. In a world that is increasingly regulated, Adventure Racing extends the challenge that people can face through sport. Crossing discipline boundaries from running, navigating, canoeing and abseiling to horse riding, camp craft and survival skills it draws in athletes from a multitude of sports and hooks them with the adrenaline of racing as a team against the elements and set in some of the wildest corners of the planet. As such the classification of Adventure Race covers a broad spectrum of races. Some consider long testing events such as the Karrimor Mountain Marathon (Now OMM) to be an adventure race as it lasts two days and involves camp craft, running and navigation. More traditionally, an Adventure Race covers more than one activity, say Mountain Biking and Running. Athletes can compete in shorter events on their own or in teams of up to four. The highest profile races are usually continuous multi-discipline events for mixed teams of four and last several days. At the other end of the spectrum, people can get into the sport in events lasting just a few hours. Having started to do well in Mountain Marathons and meet Adventure Racers, Jeff and I made a concerted effort to enter some Adventure Races in 2005. It turned out a lot of our knowledge and skills were transferable and we made a good start. We started with an Open 5 event in Swaledale. Five hours biking and running and won the event outright! This was followed by the Spring Polaris Challenge which is a two day mountain biking event carrying overnight camp gear - we managed 19th out of 243 male pairs. The first run/bike/Kayak two day event was the ACE race 2-day in Wales and we took home a trophy for the 3rd male pair. More details from the links on the left. I also organised a team for the Hebridean Chalenge which is a 5 day staged race - with no support and very complicated logistics. The inaugural 5 day Wilderness ARC was due to be the highlight of the year. It had some very good stages and we survived the worst of the weather on the first night, so it was quite a disappointment to drop out later the next day. Jeff and I completed the 2-day ACE Race series and were 2nd in the series. In October I finally got around to organising the first Cambridge event - 3hrs run and ride. We also completed the KIMM Elite class in 24th place. A tough two days. To round off the year Paul and I were 2nd pair (5th overall) in the 8 hour run/bike Dynamic event on the North Downs. For 2006 I started to compete abroad and in longer races with some help from Snowcard.co.uk. This lead to some good races and several 'Did Not Finish's. Paul and I competed in the ACE 2-day series, winning one of the three events and the series overall. |
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