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

Congratulations to "Bring out the Gimp" for being the team that brought the count to 50. Appropriate name for a team from GA. Hey, don't be a hater...I lived in Hotlanta for 3 years and I've now been in SC for 8 years...I'm allowed to make jokes :-)

From the beginning 50 has been the magic number that was needed to ensure sufficient funding to produce the event. If we get to 60 the prize purse doubles from $3k to $6k.

I know of at least 3 more teams that are working on commitments from racers or sponsors. If you're on the fence then just lean towards the sound of my typing...

See who's racing on the Leaderboard.

Labels: checkpiont zero adventure race

Daniel Wilson of the Harvard Graduate School of Education has published the findings of the research he did at Primal Quest this past summer. It's a bit of dry read, but the results are interesting.

Team role congruence was one of the strongest predictors of team effectiveness, equal in significance to team member familiarity. Surprisingly, team experience and shared goals had almost no effect on team effectiveness.

She's in the hospital now after spending 3 days in a remote stretch of wilderness outdside of Moab after falling nearly 60 feet. Her dog Taz directed search and rescue to her location. Read the full article for details. Video clip of news report on 9 News in Colorado.

Labels: danelle ballangee nike moab

I just approved about 20 events for 2007 including several from Genesis Adventures and Ozark Extreme AR. If you know of an event that's not listed please help me out and add it to the queue.

Sadly, Rattlesnake Racing will be joining Wicked AR in canceling all 2007 events. Owner and race director Leiza Morales will be focusing on recovering from back surgery:

Rattlesnake Racing will be taking a Sabatical for the 2007 racing season. In July of 2005 I herniated my L5-S1 disc in lower back 8mm and had to have emergency back surgery. It took me almost 15 months to fully recover and start racing again. I herniated the same disc 12 mm in November of 2006 and had emergency back surgery again on December 14, 2006. Both surgeries were microscopic discectomies and lamenectomies which are day surgery more or less, but still major surgery. I am more sore after this surgery and I am going to take recovery a little slower. If I injure myself again, the option will be artificial disc replacement. ARD is another major surgery with a 5 day hospital stay and at least a 6 month recovery time to the most normal of activities. As many of you know I am not fond of hostpitals, doctors (at least those poking and cutting on me) or needles. I have a true phobia of needles and want to avoid a third surgery if at all possible. I appreciate everyone's support and it is with great saddness that I have to cancel all of my races in 2007. I hope to race again sometime. Most of you in the AR crowd more like family to us and we will miss seeing everyone every month or so at races. We will keep you in our prayers and wish everyone well.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

Leiza Morales
Head Honcho, Rattlesnake Racing

Best of luck Leiza. We hope to see you in the woods again in 2008.

If not you better hurry. In just 3 days 25 teams have registered to compete in this summer's Michigan Expedition race. There is a cap of 40 teams and chances are there are more checks in the mail and the actual number of slots left is less than 15. Infiterra had planned to open online registration on Monday, but have told me that may not happen in light of the overwhelming response they've gotten so far.

Labels: michigan expedition race mix infiterra sports

If you're looking for a chance to test yourself against the best in the country or if you we're chasing them in Cali last month and are looking for a rematch, head to Florida this February and you'll get your shot.

Team Eastern Mountain Sports (EMS), winners of the 2006 USARA National Championships will head to Florida in February to race in the 2007 Smartwool Swamp Stomp 30-Hour Adventure Race.

Co-Race Director Jessica Koelsch said, â??We're so excited to have Team EMS come back to Florida to race again. Coming off their victory at the USARA National Championships, I'm sure they'll be pumped to go hard! Having also participated in the 2005 Nationals and 2006 Swamp Stomp, Team EMS now has a good idea of what to expect from Florida terrain (and WeCeFAR race management style). With the usual Southeast powerhouses that race the Swamp Stomp year after year, and some other top teams from across the country, it should be a good battle at the front of the pack.â??

According to EMS team captain, Jennifer Shultis, â??Think racing in Florida can't be tough? Think again. You don't need hills to challenge you physically, navigationally and as a team. We have consistently found this race to be among the most interesting, well-run, and (deceptively) challenging in the country. It will leave you well prepared to race anywhere and wanting to come back for more."

Early registration (and the discount that goes with it) ends on December 17, 2006. The Smartwool Swamp Stomp is a great dealâ??especially for out of state teams looking for an early jump on the season in milder weather. Canoes are provided and the race requires no support crews. For more information, or to register, go to www.wecefar.com/swampstomp2007.

In case any of you were are still clinging to the hope that Mark Burnett might revisit Eco Challenge one day...ye be wrong matey, arrrghh :-)

I was recently announced that CBS has purchased an as yet unnamed new show from Mr. Reality. It's Survivor on boats...with a pirate theme.

Somebody please stop the TV...I want to get off.



The best commentary on the subject that I've seen comes from an article at defamer.com:

Burnett is nothing if not a consummate showman with an acute sense of how to best lure eyeballs to TV screens. We wouldn't be a bit surprised if he divvied up his latest contestants into Team Hook-Hand and Team Peg-Leg, then justified the insensitive feat of handicapped exploitation by describing it as a social experiment intended to see which amputee groups fared best when removed from society and denied modern prosthetics.

There is a cap of 40 teams and interest looks to be very high. You can register online and then send payment by check starting today.

The race will make use of Checkpoint Tracker to provide online coverage and Checkpoint Zero will have a reporter on the course.

With the Raid canceled and plans for Primal Quest still up in the air, it's looking like there are going to be fewer choices for teams seeking multi-day punishment next year. Don't drag your feet if you want to race in Michigan this summer!

From the RAID website:

After playing a key role in organizing 12 Raid Gauloises and 3 Raid World Championships, Saga Events decides to redevelop The Raid into a new international event and has set itself a brand new challenge for 2007: the creation of the first Saab Salomon MOUNTAIN SPORTS GAMES, a new concept in team based outdoor racing rooted in the most outstanding alpine sports.

A contest over 5 consecutive days, involving 5 different sports and open to the current top 80 male, female or mixed teams.

Saab Salomon Mountain Sports Games PDF.

Maybe the Mountain Sports Games will be a fantastic event. Whatever...it's not an adventure race.

There's gotta be a lesson to be learned from this choice by Saga to transition to a format that is more "mainstream", particularly when viewed in the context of Mark Burnett shelving Eco for Survivor, the death of the Balance Bar series and the uncertain future of Primal Quest.

For my part I think there are a few lessons from the above:

1. Eco Challenge was a mass market hit because of the human drama it showcased, not because it was an adventure race. The less than stellar reaction to the recent airing of the 2006 Primal Quest supports this idea, given that it treated the sport more like an actual race than just a backdrop to lots of crying and vignettes about adversity overcome.
   
   
2. Corporate sponsors with deep pockets don't write checks out of the kindness of their heart or because they love adventure racing. They may be generous and die hard AR fans, but the bottom line is that money talks and bullshit walks. Without a measurable ROI any marketing/branding/pr campaign is a non-starter. Were Saab and Salomon reaping a fat bounty (using whatever metrics they're looking at) would we be seeing this change from the RAID to the Mountain Sports Games?
   
   
3. Without a "drama lens" a la Eco Challenge, it is unlikely that adventure racing will ever reach a comparable level of interest amongst the unwashed masses. Look around you. All you see is tabloid drama and reality TV. You're not going to break through all those blank stares without something more than a long, hard race. Maybe that's ok :-)
   

The Bay Area Adventure Racing Babes and Dudes have now got DEAD SEXY socks branded with their "baarbd" logo...it's got barbed wire in it...get it?

The socks are designed to match nicely with the clubs branded t-shirts and wife beaters...hey hate the message not the messenger...I live in the south...that's what they call them around here :-)

You can order your "baarbd" branded threads at their online store.

It seems there's a batch of bad UTM plotters out there amongst the unwashed masses (yes, you) that are gonna make it damn hard to navigate accurately. If you've been racing for a while you've seen them. They're branded with many different logos, but all come from an early batch of plotters sold by The TeamXperience. They are aware of the issue and have taken steps to mitigate the problem.












From TeamXperience website:

Thank you to Mark Manning and Adventure Racing Navigation Supplies who recently discovered a manufacturing defect in an early production run of The Adventure Racers UTM Plotter. Plotting circles, drilled slightly off center (see illustration below), may result in an error while plotting coordinates. If you suspect an error, please refer to the UTM Plotter Test or contact The TeamXperience, LLC.

From the Bonk Hard Racing announcement:

Bonk Hard Racing is excited to announce that we have been selected to host the 2007 USARA Adventure Racing National Championships! The race will draw some of the fastest and most competitive teams in the US to Missouri next November. Coed teams of three will race head-to-head among the beautiful rolling hills of the Mark Twain National Forest near Potosi, MO.

Can't find the perfect gift this holiday season? How about the gift of adventure! Gravity Play Sports and the Adventure Xstream Series now has Holiday Gift Certificates available. Perfect stocking stuffers for your husband or wife.

Gift Certificates can be used for any of the Gravity Play Sports produced events; Adventure Xstream Series, Camp Xstream and the Durango MTB 100. For more information or to order online visit us at www.GravityPlay.com.