Have good outdoor skills in map and compass, paddling,backpacking, mountain biking and mountaineering? Think you're fitenough for a marathon? Like competition and teamwork?
Adventure racing will either kill you or make you stronger.
It's a new and growing outdoor competition, probably a naturalevolution by the extreme sports generation.
'This is just an extension of the outdoor stuff I've liked to dosince I was in the Boy Scouts,' said Tom Wagar, co-founder of'Adventureheads,' a local adventure racing club that in one year hasattracted about 50 members who live in a 100-mile radius of Buffalo.
Wagar, 37, is lean and tough as a buggy whip -- and I amexhausted just listening to his description of the sport.
'It's sort of like triathlon, in that there are severaldisciplines,' Wagar said. 'All races feature trekking, mountainbiking over technically difficult terrain, a paddling component andrope work: You usually rappel down something.'
Events range from six- to eight-hour sprints to weekend-longevents that run 24 to 36 hours and week-long races like the five-day, 400-mile Eco-Challenge.
While the sport attracts those seeking to test their physical andmental breaking points, these are team events -- three- or four-person teams must stay in visual contact while slogging up a muddymountain trail with full pack, swimming a lake or paddling a raftthrough whitewater rapids.
Wagar seems surprised that his overtures to orienteering, hiking,cycling and paddling clubs has not caused a landslide of newmembers.
'This is a great sport for someone with a family and a job,' hesaid, 'because we usually train at night, outside of family time, oron Sunday from 5 to 8 a.m., so there's time to clean up for church.'
A three-man Adventurehead team finished ninth in the recentBalance Bar Challenge in New York City. Wagar, club co-founder DaveDiTullio (now on duty in the Middle East with his Navy reserve unit)and Paul Clark arrived at 2 p.m. on a Friday with mountains of gear.Each team's gear was stashed at checkpoints along the way by therace organizers as 83 teams -- about 250 racers -- were bused toHarriman State Park for orientation and a meal, followed by strategysessions as teams pored over the maps they were given, deciding onroutes.
Saturday morning they began a 20-mile trek (including swimming ahalf-mile across a lake), then changed clothes for the next stage --a 50-mile mountain bike ride down the Hudson to Nyack, arriving atmidnight, Saturday.
'We'd been racing for 17 hours by then,' Wagar said. His team hada 15-minute nap while awaiting a tide change and then kayaked 15miles down the Hudson to the George Washington Bridge, which wascrossed on foot.
'This race was a bit different because we had to put on rollerblades and skate into downtown Manhattan,' Wagar said.
Now, in full daylight, racers dashed to the flight deck of the WWII aircraft carrier museum Intrepid. There, ropes were rigged forrappelling. Thirty feet over the river they dropped and swam toshore to roller-skate to the finish.
Adventureheads had put in 26 hours of nearly nonstop exertion, 12hours behind the winners, the local NYC club.
'They know the trails and got a break with the tide,' Wagar said.'But 74 teams were behind us, including several that had to quit.'
That's another thing: If one team member crashes and burns, thatteam is eliminated. Hypothermia is the most common reason forfailure.
'I admit this sport appeals to people who like gear,' Wagar said.And entry fees can be steep because of the complex race logistics.Perhaps that's why the majority of Adventureheads have well-payingjobs. Some help also comes from local sponsors like Leki (trekkingpoles); and one need not own a kayak or canoe, as event sponsorsusually provide whatever watercraft are called for.
Born in New Zealand, the sport is growing inexorably as more andmore people are attracted to extreme sports, fitness trainingregimens and outdoor activities like mountaineering. Once trekkingand climbing were limited to all but the most fit, the most daringand the most wealthy. Today competent eco-tourism outfitters havehelped even grandmothers dog sled to and from the North Pole.
'Adventure racing puts things in a new perspective,' Wagar said.'Boy Scouts might do a 50-mile canoe trip in five days. Here, we doit in 15 hours. My wife and three little girls all backpack and dosome canoeing, so this is just an extension of that. All I had to dowas add a little gear or upgrade some things like my mountain bike.'
Wagar, a systems engineer with Nortel, sharpened other skills bydesigning the club's Web site: www.adventureheads.com. There youwill find more information on the history of the sport, the gear,skills, training and event schedules.
'There's some sort of event almost every weekend within drivingdistance of Buffalo,' Wagar said. 'Our club tries to get to three orfour of the weekend warrior events each year and several more one-day sprints. There's a good sprint in Allegany County this spring,for instance.'
If you think you are man or woman enough, check out theAdventurehead Web site and go for it.
e-mail: yvel@adelphia.net
