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

So a press release was issued on the 19th from the Teva Mountain Games about the first annual Everest Awards. The awards are designed to recognize outstanding individual achievement in 5 different outdoors sports including adventure racing.

"We envision the Everest Awards as the Academy Awards of the outdoor sports industry, only a whole lot more fun," said event organizer Joel Heath of Untraditional Marketing.

If you read the entire press release you'll notice that in the Adventure Racing category the entire starting lineup of the 2004 Nike/ACG Balance Bar team have been nominated along with only two other racers. You'll also notice that ASM is a sponsor of the event, that the finalists where chosen by a "panel of editors from key outdoor sports publications", and that one of the presenters is an ASM editor. It is also worth mentioning that Ian is a regular contributor to ASM having written numerous articles and editorials.

You do the math.

Once again accomplished AR photographer Luis Moreira has generously contributed some great shots from the AR World Series qualifier just now wrapping up in New England. Check 'em out at:

http://checkpointzero.smugmug.com/gallery/550952

and then go see more of Luis' work at:

http://www.sportsshooter.com/lmphoto

EnduranceRadio.com recently interviewed Nic Stover, an avid racer an co-Editor of the new AR book The Thrill of Victory, The Agony of My Feet : Tales from the World of Adventure Racing. You'll find links to this and other recent interviews from the AR community on our homepage.

If you haven't already done so be sure to complete our Readers Survey for a chance to win one of two $250 Sprint Packages from MPGear.com. We're on day three...survey will run for two weeks with winners announced shortly thereafter.

I'd like to welcome our latest sponsor Feed the Machine. Run by Christian Burke, this online store specializes in all those endurance sports nutrition products that keep the motor running during long races. Please support us by supporting them.

The Summit Daily News out of Colorado is running a short ditty on Danelle Ballengee and her recent departure from Nike/ACG Balance Bar (who I suspect will suffer because of it). Very interesting read, especially Danelle's comments that she felt like she was expected to "keep up and shut up".

No doubt there are a bevy of bad ass female racers out there who can run circles around most of the male racers reading this now, but it is also true that a lot of teams include a female because it's required to be ranked in the coed elite category at most races.

It will be interesting to see where Danelle lands and whether her comments will stoke a debate on the subject. Personally I'd like to see her posse up with Robin Benincasa, Rebecca Rusch and maybe drag Kathy Lynch kicking screaming out of retirement to go show any male racers out there with that "keep up and shut up" attitude what it's like to get 'chicked' :-)

For the next two weeks we'll be conducting a survey of our readers (that means you) to get a better idea of who they (you again) are.

To make it worth your while we're giving away two $250 Sprint Packages provided by our good friends at MPGear.com. All you have to do to be entered for a chance to win is complete the survey using a valid email account. When the survey is done we'll pick two winners at random.

To launch the survey click the giant survey ad on the homepage.

Added a new page to round up rankings from various series/circuits. Right now I've got the USARA and Raid World Cup standings posted. I'll be adding more over time. If you're a race director running a points series and would like to showcase it here email me and we'll set it up.

Mike Bitton has generously contributed some beautiful shots from the Extreme Adventure Hidalgo held in Mexico in February.

I've started uploading my pics from the Mountain Sports Festival Adventure Race held this past weekend in Asheville, NC. So far I've gotten about 30 online and will keep at it throughout the rest of the week.

We've posted a slew of great reports on the first leg of the Raid World Cup that went down this past weekend Australia...courtesy of the good folks at Saga d'Aventures in France.

We'll have similar coverage of the next leg in Sweden and the 4th leg in Andorra. I'll be reporting on the 3rd leg from Bend, OR in June and Lisa will be on the scene during the Championship race in the south of Europe in September.

Spent Sunday in Asheville, NC shooting the Mountain Sports Festival Adventure Race. Going to take a few days to edit and upload, but I should have the first batch online tonight.