Adventure racing can include orienteering and navigation, cross-country running, mountain biking, river boarding, horse back riding, paddling, mountaineering, rappelling, and jumar (ascending ropes)-my favorite!
An expedition event can span ten days or more while sprints can be completed in a matter of hours.
There are “dark periods” during races– the choice when (and if) to rest or sleep is left to the competitors. This can be a big conflict between athletes and is one of the biggest strategy players. Team Nike (the number one team in the world) likes to bank sleep early. Team Merell (a team that rivals Nike often) at Primal Quest Utah led much of the way on no sleep.
Adventure racing normally has teams of 4, but nationals are teams of 3. To be in the ranking your team needs to be co-ed.
Typically the teams are 3 men and 1 woman, but at Primal Quest 2006, I raced with 3 women. We were the only 3 person women’s team of the 90 teams.
My teammates were stronger than many of the men with whom I’ve raced. This is not to take anything away from the men, these women were just that strong! Jenny went on to race with Nike. Elizabeth could have easily been the one whom they called, as she is just as strong.
Primal Quest is the “Olympics” of adventure racing, now that eco-challenge is gone. It is a race that is over 415 miles long and lasting up to 10 days.
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Nice article! Congratulations on competing in PQ. I have some friends and fellow racers that competed as well. They are Adventure Racing Concepts, from Flagstaff