Musing and Errata on the world of Adventure Racing from the Yak
presented by MPGear.com

A friend emailed me a link today...a link to a website about an adventure race...at least my first impression was that I was looking at a website for an adventure race. There were a few shots of a pickup truck mucking its way over some narly terrain, but I figured the point was to show off the course.

"The event will consist of navigating through miles of trails, forest roads, leech infested swamps, and haunted forests; sometimes in the dead of night, by compass, with longitude, latitude, and dead reckoning skills by vehicle , by bike, and on foot. Paddling through crocigator infested lakes."

So far so good...an adventure race...my kind of adventure race...excellent.

"And running up to a dozen special events including: bridge building, paint
ball obstacle course, food challenges, etc."

What the @#$%?

The thing is there's nothing wrong with driving your Jeep through the mud, whacking opposing racers with a paintgun, eating 6 hotdogs and then rappelling down a waterfall. It sounds like a blast. I'm for as much of this kind of fun as possible.

What gets me is we're seeing more and more "special tests" and alternate disciplines in "adventure races"...and I'm not just talking about the Raid North Georgia "contest"...in fairness they don't even call it an adventure race...I'm just picking on them to make a point :-)

Last month the World Team Challenge, billed as an adventure race, had teams building catapults out of 2x4s to lob oranges down a football field. Remember the Rubics Cube at the Hi-Tech series? We all know how Nathan from Seagate and others feel about such things as rollerblading and scooters. Not big fans.

So what's the point? So what if there is a proliferation of events that on the surface look like an adventure race, but also include gimmicks, games or "special tests" like baking a pie or talking about your feelings? Who cares what you call an event or what disciplines are included if it's fun and people want to do it?

Anyone who appreciates adventure racing for what it is (read was)...based on it's legacy...the Raid, Eco, Elf, etc...ought to at least give passing thought to what the world will be like when all races are 24 hours or less because that's more convenient for everyone. When courses are designed to allow for spectators. When disciplines that have as much to do with adventure as an accordion has to do with hunting are added to "spice" things up or to create photo ops...wait that's already happening. You get the idea.

I used to play paintball professionally. Yes there are professional paintball players. The thing is I saw what happened to paintball between the time I quit (1995) and when I started playing again (2002) and I gotta tell ya...it ain't pretty.

Most of you think of paintball as being played in the woods. It's not...not anymore. Tournaments are now played in arenas made out of nets strung between telephone poles so fans can watch. Instead of 10 man teams playing in the woods you now have 5-7 man teams playing in a box, hiding behind inflatable bunkers, using paintguns that sling 15+ balls a second.

The sport is faster and games are over quicker. The fans love it. The guys making paintballs really love it. It looks great on TV, you can play more games in a day, you can even sell refreshments. But is it a better game? Is it more fun? Is there as big a difference today between a good player and an average player or is one guy with a paint hose just as good as any other guy with a paint hose?

The truth is noone ever talked about these things...they just happened as paintball manufacturers and event promoters searched for ways to make more money. I see the same thing happening to adventure racing. The business angle is influencing the sport. That's bound to happen and it IS a good thing. The problem is that without the active involvement of the racers in guiding this evolution there is no telling what it will look like in 5 years. Hell, there isn't even a definition of the sport today that any two people will agree on.

Every year more and more events that look less and less like what I would call an adventure race are using that moniker. Before long anything that takes place outside that doesn't already have a name will be called an adventure race and we'll all wish the sport had never gotten so popular.

I'm very interested in this subject as I am continually advised to branch out and start carrying content on events that I would not describe as adventure races. By all means please email me and tell me whether I'm an idiot or if I'm on to something.