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

As an aspiring event promoter (the first annual Checkpoint Zero Adventure Race is planned for March 2007) I have already learned the hard way how critical the calendar is.

You simply can't drop an event on top of another in the same region without an impact on attendance. Attendance equals dollars, dollars equal profits and profits equal better events.

I am personally of the opinion that far too many race directors do it for the love of the sport in lieu of profits. This is noble, but not good for the sport. I digress...more on this down the road.

The issue of scheduling and it's impact on attendance, more than any other, influenced my decision to take the plunge into event management now (ok, in 2007) because Raceday, purveyor of the North Georgia Adventure Race, recently announced that 2006 would be the last edition of the insanely popular, "de facto" season opener here in the southeast. That left a window for a 30-ish hour event in early spring. We're I to have waited, another promoter (I'm pretty sure I know which one), would have announced a similar event near the same date and I'd have been faced with the choice to compete for racers or look elsewhere on the calendar.

A more interesting example of the dynamics of scheduling an adventure race is found at the top end of the sport...expedition racing.

Given the lengthy preparations required, substantial cost, long distances to be travelled and limited number of teams in the world that are even up for an expedition race, it's an absolute necessity that you "space" your event apart from the others.

In 2003 and 2004 Primal Quest was held in September...so was the Raid World Championship. This year the Raid is still scheduled for September, but Primal Quest just wrapped up the first week in July.

The Adventure Racing World Championship has traditionally been held in the fall between August and November and this year is no exception. It's in August...threading the needle between Primal Quest and the Raid.

For a team hoping to go from PQ to the ARWC they've got just 6 weeks to recover, prep, train and get their ass and gear to Sweden. It's worth noting that as of today the official site shows only two US teams attending. No doubt Primal Quest is the reason.

If you don't think this is as big an issue as I'm making it out to be consider that just days ago the ARWC announced that the 2007 event is moving to the end of May. Assuming PQ shows up around the same time next year this will give ARWC the 5-6 week jump that PQ enjoyed this year. Now why do you suppose they did that?

UPDATE: I supposed it was by design, but it turns out it was just a fortunate circumstance (assuming you view a spot on the calendar ahead of PQ as fortunate). According to Geoff Hunt, the brains and brawn that drive the ARWC, the scheduling of the floating championship race is straightforward. It's a function of when the host event is scheduled. Most often this has been sometime between August and November. This year the race in Sweden was moved to August to avoid the World Cup.

If a 6 week spread is a problem then a 2 week spread is just plain unworkable. Such is the dilemma facing any team thinking of going from the ARWC in Sweden in late August on to the Raid World Championship in Quebec, Canada in early September.

I'm shining the Yak light on these three races in particluar because they are the big dogs in the sport in that they claim to bestow "world champion" status and/or offer a FAT prize purse (PQ I'm talking about you there). In years past where each fell on the calendar was of concern only to the promoters of the others. Clearly this is still of great concern to all parties and the jockeying for position goes on.

What has changed is that over the past few years a handful of ambitious race directors here in the US have moved to claim their stake the middle ground between the abundant sprint to 24 hour races and the rare, uber-crazy, 7-10 day nut busters that are just simply beyond the reach of most racers for the reasons stated above.

Bonk Hard Racing and Infiterra Sports both put on spectacular mini-expedition races (my words not theirs) this past May that were well produced, well run, affordable and by all accounts very successful.

The Mighty MO, produced by Bonk Hard Racing, attracted such top flight teams as Nike, Silly Rabbits and Dart-nuun in it's innaugural running. A noteworthy feat for any race, yet in total they had only 16 teams...not enough to justify the time, effort or cost of any savvy business owner. If we're lucky Jason will be unable to resist the sheer force of will directed at him from those of us that want to see him stick it out and bring the MO back for another go round in 2007. We promise you'll get more teams :-)

The Michigan Coast to Coast, produced and managed by Infiterra Sports, didn't reel in quite the same pedigree as the Mighty MO, but more than made up for it with a field of over 30 teams that included some of the best talent from the amateur/semi-pro ranks in the sport today. Still, they fell short of their advertised cap of 50 teams.

What was the primary reason for the less than hoped for attendance at these two diamonds in the rough? That's easy...it's all Primal Quest's fault.

The chance to tackle an event as epic as Primal Quest right here in the US was just too good to pass up for more than a few racers. PQ's gravitational pull created a singularity on the adventure racing calendar that no doubt trapped many a team that might have otherwise travelled to Missouri or Michigan...or both.

It doesn't end there. Primal Quest is now on the books, but it's impact on the remainder of the 2006 racing calendar lingers.

Gravity Play Sports has been offering the AdventureXstream Expedition race every October since 2001 in of all places...Moab, UT...the very locale that most recently played host to Primal Quest. They even set the precedent for using the Red Cliffs Adventure Lodge for HQ and basecamp.

In this case there is nearly 4 months separating the two events which may actually work to Gravity Play's advantage in that they can offer racers that didn't make it to Primal Quest or who didn't finish the race a second shot at the slick rock and canyons of southeastern Utah...in MUCH cooler temperatures.

So where does all this leave us? It leaves us with a balkanized mashup of event promoters all competing to offer better and better events timed to ensure the greatest attendence. Our little sport is suffering the inevitable growing pains that are the hallmark of a healthy and thriving capitalist eco-system (pun intended).

Rejoices adventure racers. These are EXACTLY the kinds of problems we want to see. In the end there are just so many days in a year. At some point these promoters will be unable to completely avoid stepping on one another's toes and I for one say GOOD. It will force them to do more than offer a race when no one else is. It will force them to seek out new venues, offer more prize money, provide better accomodations, adopt innovative technology and maybe...make attracting sponsor dollars a priority so that they can lower their entry fees :-)